Southern Appalachian wanderings   Jess Riddle   Aug 14, 2004 13:52 PDT  Over the past few weeks, I've passed through several varied forests in the Southern Appalachians, but have seen relatively few noteworthy individual trees. Where I'm living and the season of the year have prompted me to focus much of my time on the spruce forests occurring at high elevations in the Smokies, which, fortunately for me, are not as close to impenetrable as some indications warned. On the south side of Clingmans Dome, including the headwaters of the Left Fork Deep Creek most areas seem to follow the pattern of: red spruce and yellow birch dominating in steep, south facing coves with a mountain maple understory above 5200'; yellow birch and yellow buckeye over a dense herbaceous layer over small, low-gradient streams; hemlock and dense rosebay rhododendron lining slightly higher gradient streams; and spruce over dense rhododendron on the slopes and small spur ridges. The major ridge tops appear less consistent, and vary from open spruce-yellow birch-mountain ash forests to heath balds. In the same area, the upper section of Deep Creek proper follows a somewhat different pattern. The rarity of hemlock above 4000' along the stream is striking; yellow birch, commonly up to three feet dbh, constitutes the vast majority of the canopy on the lower slopes along the stream, and rhododendron remains surprisingly far up the slopes. A dense herbaceous layer takes advantage of the low shrub densities along the stream where the birch mixes with yellow buckeye and small patches of dead beech provide higher light access. The small, south-facing coves opening onto the stream around 4500' support considerably more diverse forest with significant sugar maple and serviceberry. Red spruce with a few relatively large (3.5' dbh) hemlocks mixed in dominate the adjacent spur ridges. On the other side of the main divide of the Smokies, Walker Camp Prong initially drains southwest from the large ridge that connects Mount LeConte (6593') to the main divide, and supports forests of the same general type as found on the other side of the side of the divide but with some significant differences. Again, yellow birch and red spruce form a two tiered canopy, and mountain maple is the primary stream-side understory species; however, yellow buckeye is essentially absent above 4500' and young fraser fir forming a think understory above 5100'. Downstream from the fir understory, rhododendron, primarily rosebay, cloaks part of the slopes right down to the waters edge in nearly impenetrable tangles and precludes the development of an herbaceous layer. The areas without rhododendron are no more easily traversed since they are primarily steeply inclined slopes of minimally weathered bare rock. The many bleached, dead spruce trunks standing on the upper slopes, presumably the result of more intense acid deposition than occurs on the other side of the divide, adds to the austere appearance of the slopes. The red spruce in this area between Mount LeConte and Clingmans Dome commonly reach sizes up to 9' cbh and 120' tall, but larger individuals appear widely scattered, some of which are much larger. Off trail travel through the area is generally least difficult along the middle of a drainage; unfortunately, those routes may bias searches away from the best spruce habitat since red spruce reaching relatively large sizes on ridges and occurring infrequently on stream banks suggests the possibility that midslopes could be the best habitat for spruce in the area. These generalizations probably cannot be extended to the rest of the park; the spruce forest of the Greenbrier section of the park remains completely unexplored and the Ravens Fork watershed provides some contradictory data. Ravons Fork drains a high, several thousand acre, plateau-like area and is home to both of the current national co-champion red spruce as well as several of the parks past record spruces. This high potential area also remains largely unknown since trails don't quite encircle the area and no trails lead into the interior of the area. The south fork of Pole Road Creek flows northeast through a small, bowl-like basin on the south side of Clingmans Dome on the NC side of the Smokies. An uncut forest of tuliptree and hemlock with rhododendron understory lines the stream from its mouth at 3040' up to approximately 3600'. Both over story species reach four feet dbh occasionally, but they do not hint that one of the largest known hemlocks stands a short distance away on the main stem of the creek. Higher up the drainage, an area with many silverbell, small hemlocks, dead beech, and several large cucumbertrees leads into northern hardwood type forest dominated by buckeye, sugar maple, and silverbell, which gives way to more oak oriented forest on the upper slopes. The upper parts of the main stem of Pole Road Creek support generally similar forest. The effects of the adelgid are quite evident in this area with some patches of hemlock showing no new growth. COWEETA HYDROLOGIC LABRATORY MACON Co., NC Scarlet Oak 8'3" x ~113' Scarlet Oak 7'0" x 119.1' Second growth, well-formed Black Birch 8'3" x 95.8' White Ash 9'9" x 119.5 Pin Cherry 5'11" x 60.6'+ Pin Cherry 5'2" x 81.4' LEFT FORK DEEP CREEK HEADWATERS GSMNP, NC Red Spruce 12'2" Near top of Fork Ridge Red Spruce 10'5" x 128.4' Red Spruce 10'7" x 138.2' GRASSY BRANCH JOYCE KILMER WILDERNESS Northern Red Oak 13'3" x ~139' UPPER DEEP CREEK GSMNP, NC Birch, yellow 10'5" x 87.0' Columnar Cherry, Black 12'3.5" x ~90' Cherry, Black 12'4.5" Maple, Red 10'7" x ~125' Serviceberry 6'8" Serviceberry 5'3" x ~71' Serviceberry 4'3" x 89.5'+ Straight Serviceberry 5'9" x 100.3' New state champ Spruce, Red 11'7" x ~120' FLINT ROCK BRANCH GSMNP, TN White Ash 8'6.5" x 135.6' second growth, measured by Michael Davie Tuliptree to low 150's in area JOE BRANCH RABUN CO., GA Cucumbertree 5'0" x124.4' Third tallest known in state White Oak 8'0" x ~128' 2nd tallest known forest grown in state INDIAN CREEK GRAHAM CO., NC Sycamore 16'11" x ~140' NOLAND DIVIDE TRAIL GSMNP, NC Mountain-Ash 1'11.5" x 54.8' POLE ROAD CREEK Yellow Buckeye 10'11" x 123.9' Cucumbertree 8'10" x 127.3' Cucumbertree 12'2" x 135.0' Cucumbertree 11'4" x 139.6' MOUNT KEPHART GSMNP, TN Fraser Fir 4'6.5" x 39.1' (50.2' dead top) Fraser Fir 4'1" x 48.1' WALKER CAMP PRONG GSMNP, TN Yellow Birch 13'10" x ~80'     massive, dead RUFUS MORGAN FALLS MACON Co., NC Black Birch 5'7.5" x 109.1' WAYAH BALD MACON Co., NC American Chestnut 4'1" Jess Riddle   Home