| Anglin
Falls, and Rock Creek RNA, KY |
Jess
Riddle |
| Nov
06, 2006 06:15 PST |
Ents,
A few months ago, Neil Pederson showed me a pair of small,
impressive
sites in eastern Kentucky.
Our first stop was Anglin Falls where a small stream drops over
a
large sandstone ledge and courses down a narrow cove. The
sheltered
conditions and rich substrate support a diverse forest of
mesophytic
species. Tuliptree, white ash, sugar maple, bitternut hickory,
shagbark hickory, and basswood mix to form the canopy. The shrub
and
herbaceous layers similarly reflected the good growing
conditions.
The only trees we measured during our brief visit were a 120.9'
chestnut oak and a 4'11.5" cbh x 104.5' tall butternut
(white walnut).
Rock Creek Research Natural Area protects a small sandstone
gorge that
was probably high-graded but never cleared. Sandstone cliffs rim
the
gorge and help produce a moist microclimate but also acidic,
fast
draining soils. A forest of moderately large hemlocks and beech
thrives in the sheltered environment. Large boulders,
rhododendron,
stewartia (which produce large, white, camellia-like flowers in
late
June), and cinnamon clethra fill the lower levels of the forest.
In
between those layers, big leaf magnolias with simple leaves over
two
feet long lend a slight tropical air to the forest. Most of the
trees
we measured at the site downslope of one particularly large
cliff at
the lower end of the gorge. There, northern red oak reaches
10'4" cbh
x 128', green ash 9'2" x 138.4', and red maple 7'7.5"
x 128.2'. If
the red maple grew in South Carolina it would rank second in
height,
and if it grew in Georgia it would rank first. One fairly
typical
beech measured 116.9', and one of the taller hemlocks was
132.5'. On
the way out, we stopped at the top of a cliff to measure big
leaf
magnolias, and quickly had a new eastern height record. The
tallest
was 99.4'.
Jess Riddle |
|