False Gap Prong, GSMNP, TN   Jess Riddle   Feb 18, 2007 17:52 PST  Ents, A few weeks ago I traveled to visit several spots in the vicinity of False Gap Prong, one of the larger streams in the Greenbrier section of the Smokies. My first stop was a flat on the Middle Prong of the Little Pigeon River a few hundred yards over a ridge from False Gap Prong. An old stone foundation in the flat attested to the area's former use as a farm field, and the spindly second-growth forest of mostly tuliptree with some sweetgum and red maple confirmed the past cultivation. However, the steep, northeast facing slope adjacent to the flat's west end escaped soil depletion since settlers cleared the slope only for timber. Hence, the slope's forest, while still largely tuliptree dominated, has grown back more robustly with larger tuliptrees and an abundance of spicebush and silverbell saplings in the understory. Tuliptrees along the base of the slope routinely reach around 150' tall, and a 7'11" x 167.8' individual appears to be the tallest tree on the slope. A small stream flowing between the flat and the northeast slope and draining the larger ridge behind made a convenient path to follow to Woolly Tops Prong, a tributary of False Gap Prong. Settlers had cleared multiple small farms on the flatter stretches of the small stream as well as on the broad flats along Woolly Tops Prong's lower reaches. The old fields on the latter remain surprisingly productive with the tallest tuliptrees growing next to old stone walls having already reached 150'. The farmers only cleared the stream up to about 2800' elevation, where the valley becomes much narrower. Many old silverbells and sugar maples cover the north facing slopes, and hemlocks and rhododendron line the stream side. Tuliptrees also grow amongst the other rich-site hardwoods, but most appear young and have not reached the sizes the area appears capable of supporting; hence, the farmers probably highgraded Woolly Tops Prong for the larger tuliptrees as well as white ash and cherry. Among the trees they left behind is a white basswood growing at the edge of a boulderfield about 200' up the slope south of the stream. The tree has now reached 13'5" cbh and 137.1' tall, large enough to qualify as a potential state champion. At the foot of the other side of the ridge the basswood grows on, flows Kalanu Prong, the largest tributary of False Gap Prong. For decades the flats on Kalanu Prong have been known to support some of the finest forest in the Smokies, thanks to the area having escaped not only farming but also highgrading.   Much of that perception of the forests comes from the immense tuliptrees that still grow around the flats; three of them exceed 20' cbh, and all have the columnar trunk and massive branches typical of old tuliptrees. They grow amongst large sugar maples, silverbells, basswoods, and buckeyes in an unusually broad expanse of rich cove forest. Hemlock and red maple dominated acidic cove forest surrounds the rich cove and makes occasional inroads into the flats. A steep sided ridge rises above those forests and separates the flats from False Gap Prong, but half way up the Kalanu Prong side hangs a shallow, north facing cove, one of the main intended destinations of the day's hike. While one side of the cove climbs up a couple hundred feet to the crest of the main ridge, the other side rises up only about 40' before descending to Kalanu Prong. Basswoods and buckeyes line the stream while rhododendron and hemlocks cover with slopes with scattered red maples, tuliptrees and birches. Directly on top on the ridge that forms the cove's lower side stands a massive, 19.8' cbh tuliptree snag. Young birches sprout from the snag's top where immense limbs have broken of, and linear shards of five inch think bark litter the ground below. On the other side of the main ridge, False Gap Prong displays a strikingly different character. A sea of rhododendron replaces fields of herbs, and hemlocks and red maple line the stream. Tuliptrees grow in about the same abundance as on the other stream, but do not reach near the size; possibly due to more extensive logging on False Gap Prong. Below the two stream's confluence, settlers entirely cleared the sides of False Gap Prong for farms. Next to a stone chimney stands the co-record holder for sassafras height, a skinny 119' tall individual striving not to be overtopped by tuliptrees. Nearby stands one of the last surviving black locusts in the fields, which my dad and I originally located several years ago. The locust has now reached 6'5" x 152.1', a height record for Tennessee. Also in the same vicinity, grows a 3'8" cbh umbrella magnolia, the largest diameter individual known in the park. Boulderfields around the edges of the fields tend to sustain greater diversity since they could not be farmed. Those sites now support a 9'1" x 143.5' white ash, and upstream from it grows a 7'2" x 136.2' white basswood. Jess Riddle   Home