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
Plot Quality Fields:
Plot Validation Level
(2) classification plot: sufficient for inclusion in a classification revision
Overall Plot Vegetation Fields:
Tree Cover
70
%
Shrub Cover
15
%
Field Cover
50
%
Nonvascular Cover
15
%
Misc Fields:
Observation Narrative
The plot is located along Laurel Fork, on a bouldery, ESE facing slope which supports a rich, variable and mixed forest of northern hardwoods with some hemlock (Tsuga canadensis). Larger hardwoods in the stand which include sugar maple (Acer saccharum), basswood (Tilia americana), black cherry (Prunus serotina), white ash (Fraxinus americana), yellow birch (Betula allegheniensis) and red oak (Quercus rubra) are estimated from cores to be about 70 years old. Beech, formally a major canopy associate in the stand, has been devastated by beech bark disease (beech scale Nectria complex); extensive mortality of virtually all larger beech has created very open canopies on some parts of the slope. Logging via narrow gauge railroads took place here in the 1920s, and the forest is relatively immature. The loss of beech has altered successional dynamics, which now appear to be moving toward a sugar maple-hemlock climax.