Mountain Longleaf Pine NWR, AL   ecri-@juno.com
  Aug 19, 2005 19:21 PDT 
Ents,

Two weekends ago my dad and I visited the Mountain Longleaf Pine National
Wildlife Refuge in east-central Alabama. The refuge has been formed in
the last five years out of lands from the now decommissioned Fort
McClellan military base. The refuge's 9,000 lie entirely on Choccolocco
Mountain, the third highest mountain in Alabama. Of those acres, only
the approximately 3,000 located east of the main ridge line are currently
open to the public; the rest of the area still needs to be checked for
ordinances. That slope of the mountain rises out of gently rolling
topography at a little over 700' and reaches slightly over 2000'
elevation. The mountain is considered part of the Blue Ridge
Physiographic province, as are the Smokies, but bears only a general
resemblance to the mountains of northeastern GA, western NC, and eastern
TN. The mountain has a more linear form, and reaches less than half the
height of the mountains in those areas. Additionally, drier hotter
conditions prevail in the Alabama extension of the Blue Ridge.

The mountain's vegetation reflects those climatic differences. Chestnut
oak grows from the ravines at the base of the mountain up to the
mountains main ridgecrest, and forms nearly pure stands. Virginia pine
and scarlet oak mix in on the ridges, and blackjack oak, pale hickory,
and longleaf pine fill out the canopy on the upper slopes. A few pockets
of apparently richer soils support forests with black oak and an unusual
abundance of pignut hickory with patches of georgia or painted buckeye
(Aesculus sylvatica) in the understory. Most of the stands with more
chestnut oak in the canopy had open understories with scattered
sparkleberry, but the north side of one ridge hosted a dense thicket of
mountain laurel. Diversity did increase along the streams with beech,
basswood, and tuliptree in a narrow corridor, but longleaf pine also
descended to some of the lower slopes.

The mountain presents unusual habitat for longleaf pine. The highly fire
adapted species often conjures up images of the Atlantic and Gulf coastal
plains where the species forms an open, monotypic canopy, and an
understory kept clear of larger deciduous species by frequent low
intensity fires. However, the species' range extends out of the coastal
plain into the Ridge and Valley and Blue Ridge sections of the
Appalachians in eastern Alabama and a small area of adjacent northwest
Georgia. Protecting the only remaining, formally recognized stand of
old-growth mountain longleaf pine served as one major impetuses for the
formation of the refuge. Military training exercises apparently provided
the periodic fires necessary for maintaining the species composition of
the 80 acre stand.

Species                Cbh        Height
Hickory, Pale      3'11"      65.8'
Hickory, Pale      4'6.5"     73.1'
Oak, Blackjack    NA        46.8'
Pine, Longleaf     2'5"        70.5'
Pine, Longleaf     NA        74.8'+
Pine, Longleaf     5'6"        81.4'
Pine, Longleaf     8'5"        88'
Sumac, Winged    11"        31.1'
Tupelo, Black      8'7"       71'+
Willow, Coastal Plain 8"   18.9'

The longleaf pines listed above grow in mechanically disturbed areas with
the exception of the largest individual, which grows amongst mountain
laurel and clearly old chestnut oaks on a lower slope position. Most of
the mature longleaf pines were perhaps 60 to 70' tall and emergent in dry
forests on the upper slopes. Their crowns had a squished appearance,
almost as if they resulted from some giant sitting of domed crowns, put
they were not nearly as flattened as the crowns of old shortleaf pines or
some other conifer species. The 81.4' tree was an exception to that
structural trend.

In spite of the ubiquitous dry conditions and having only one species of
maple, we encountered 47 species of trees on the mountain, including
seven species of oaks. On the way out we stopped by a small patch of
mature bottomland hardwoods in the floodplain of Choccolocco Creek, and
encountered four additional species of oaks. The largest of those was a
17'7" cbh cherrybark oak.

Jess & Doug Riddle
Re: Mountain Longleaf Pine NWR   Fores-@aol.com
  Aug 20, 2005 07:49 PDT 
Jess:

I had a chance to visit the area a few years ago in early April. It was a
cool spring day and the rolling nature of the terrain and the hills reminded
me tremendously of central Massachusetts. Every time I felt a cool breeze on
my face, I tried to imagine the place in August and quickly decided that
April was one of the best times for a cool climate resident to check out the
place.

One thing about the mountain longleaf...there will not likely be many height
records for associated species on those dry hills!

Russ Richardson
Re: Mountain Longleaf Pine NWR   ecri-@juno.com
  Aug 20, 2005 11:47 PDT 
Russ,

Fortunately, the day we were there was generally overcast and the
temperature only reached the low 80's, but the dew point must have been
quite high. I wasn't really expecting towering longleaf, but
precipitation in that area is comparable of much of longleaf's range.
Additionally, the mountain longleaf have sheltering by topography and
experience fewer and less severe hurricanes. That being said, the soils
at the site are certainly much drier and nutrient poor than in sections
of the gulf coastal plain. I just wanted to see how large longleaf could
grow in an atypical habitat, and hoped that some associated poor site
species, like blackjack oak, might find the area to their liking.

Jess
Re: Mountain Longleaf Pine NWR   ad-@ldeo.columbia.edu
  Aug 20, 2005 12:26 PDT 


Hi All,

An excellent masters thesis was completed on this montain longleaf pine forest
by Morgan Varner. For those interested, please check out these two papers [esp.
the Castanea paper - has some important implications for longleaf pine ecosystem
dynamics and forest management]:

Varner, J. M ., J. S. Kush, and R. S. Meldahl. 2003. Structure of old-growth
longleaf pine ( Pinus palustris Mill.) forests in the mountains of Alabama.
Castanea 68: 211-221.

Varner, J. M., J. S. Kush, and R. S. Meldahl . 2003. Vegetation of frequently
burned old-growth longleaf pine ( Pinus palustris Mill.) savannas on
Choccolocco Mountain, Alabama, USA . Natural Areas Journal 23: 43-52; cover
photograph.

Morgan's thesis:
http://aubiecat.auburn.edu/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?CNT=50&Search%5FArg=varner&Search%
5FCode=NAME%2B&PID=22998&BROWSE=17&HC=1&SID=1


or his web page : http://www.humboldt.edu/~for/faculty/varner.html

Hope this helps,
Neil
Re: Mountain Longleaf Pine NWR   Fores-@aol.com
  Aug 20, 2005 15:25 PDT 
Jess:

I think that every type of forest we have is best experienced in person. It
isn't just the height or girth of the trees although it is never far from my
mind. The other attributes I try to notice range from song birds, wildlife
and understory vegetation to the soil fertility and local land use history.
I'm kinda a fan of woods as a "whole package" and I enjoy the detail of your
trip descriptions immensely.

Russ