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
50
%
Field Cover
5
%
Nonvascular Cover
1
%
Misc Fields:
Observation Narrative
This plot is representative of forest communities in which hemlock is a major component. In the Allegheny Mountain/Laurel Fork area, such stands typically occur in discrete areas on NW facing slopes. These areas were heavily cut and burned in the 1920s and current forest growth usually consists of even age stands of black birch (Betula lenta) and/or yellow birch (Betula allegheniensis) with dense hemlock understories. The stand documented in this plot a very steep, north facing rocky bluff along Locust Spring Run, just west of it confluence with Laurel Fork. It is a mixed stand in which black birch, hemlock, and yellow birch share dominance and thickets of great laurel (Rhododendron maximum) form a dense shrub layer. The current canopy hemlock (about 40 cm. or 16" diameter) are more than 100 years old. Large rotten hemlock boles are also present here, indicating some kind of catastrophic past disturbance, possibly windthrow. Additional disturbance and the establishment of the present black birch generation, was probably caused by logging and fires in the 1920s. Hemlock wooly adelgid was noted on hemlock trees at this site, although damage to foliage was negligible.
