releve Virginia Division of Natural Heritage, see http://www.dcr.virginia.gov/natural_heritage/documents/nh_plotform_instructions.pdf
Overall Taxon Cover Values are Automatically Calculated?
no
Stem Observation Area
400
m²
Plot Quality Fields:
Plot Validation Level
(2) classification plot: sufficient for inclusion in a classification revision
Overall Plot Vegetation Fields:
Tree Height
25
m
Shrub Height
3
m
Field Height
8
m
Tree Cover
95
%
Shrub Cover
40
%
Field Cover
60
%
Nonvascular Cover
15
%
Misc Fields:
Observation Narrative
The habitat is a broad ridge spur on the west side of the main spine of Garden Mountain, at the NE terminus of Clinch Mountain. The general area is known as Beartown and is a US Forest Service Wilderness Area. The site is occupied by a fairly mature (100-year old) stand of even-age red spruce (45-55 cm DBH) with lesser numbers of older, larger-diameter, gnarled yellow birch and beech. Both red spruce and beech are recruiting heavily, but recruitment of yellow birch is absent. The understory is essentially deciduous, and the herb layer dominated by the ferns Thelypteris noveboracensis, Dryopteris campyloptera, and Dryopteris intermedia. Downslope to the north, spruce drops out and the forest becomes an even-age northern hardwood stand co-dominated by small-diameter beech and yellow birch. To the east, elevation increases slightly on the main ridge of Garden Mountain and the vegetation is there dominated by spruce and yellow birch with a dense understory of Rhododendron maximum and R. catawbiense.
