Roughly 60m east-northeast of the plot is the remnants of an old fire tower. Only the concrete platform remains. The ridgetop and sideslopes are a mosaic of timber harvests. The forests run the gambit succesionally. From clearcuts to small to medium sized patches like this one and RAND.9. Also see RAND.10;Gently sloping ridgetop with an open fairly even-aged forest dominated by red oak - black cherry - sugar maple. Many of the shrubs have already lost their leaves for the season, although the hay-scented fern is still going strongly, in the herb layer. Several barkless stumps are found scattered throughout the plot. The land here is owned by WestVaco so the forest has most likely been repeatedly logged over the last 50yrs. The old tower road runs along southeast edge of the plot. Fire scarring found on old stumps.
Representativeness
Medium sized patch of an even aged, probably third growth, forest. This is very similar to some of the forest sampled on Briery Mountain, Preston County. Jim and I also sampled something similar this year near the Rich Mountain Battlefield. It is similar
