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
90
%
Shrub Cover
15
%
Field Cover
5
%
Nonvascular Cover
1
%
Misc Fields:
Observation Narrative
The plot is located at the top of a northeast facing slope which was evidently occupied by a hemlock (Tsuga canadensis) dominated forest prior to logging in the 1920s. Large rotting hemlock stumps are still visible today on the slope, which is now primarily covered by an even aged stand of black birch (Betula lenta), young hemlocks and a few large beech (Fagus grandifolia). In the summit area around the plot is a somewhat more mixed stand of birch, hemlock, beech, red maple (Acer rubrum), black cherry (Prunus serotina) and a few tall red spruce (Picea rubens). Virtually the entire stand is in decline from various causes: beech bark disease (beech scale Nectria complex), hemlock wooly adelgid, birch die back an spruce decline.
Trees measured in plot (dbh in cm): Tsuga canadensis (51), Fagus grandifolia (37), Acer rubrum (34), Prunus serotina (34), Picea rubens (26).