| Goldie
Deaden (Joyce Kilmer Wilderness) |
Jess
Riddle |
| Jul
25, 2004 18:26 PDT |
The rather ambiguous label on topo maps Goldie Deaden appears to
refer to
an area of ridgetop at approximately 4000' elevation along the
Stratton
Bald Trail on the southeast side of the Joyce Kilmer Wilderness
in western
North Carolina. That section of ridge rises approximately 1000'
above
Santeetlah Creek to the south and a few hundred feet more above
Little
Santeetlah Creek to the north, so the Goldie Deaden area is
quite exposed.
However, the very broad, gently inclined ridge top supports an
unusually
fertile forest for the topographic position with an exceptional
concentration of large northern red oaks. Northern red oaks,
frequently
around 10' cbh, constitute the vast majority of the basal area
and form
much of the 70 to 110' high canopy. While one swollen northern
red oak
reaches 17'5" cbh and another more normally proportioned
individual
reaches 14'1" cbh, with the exception of a couple of whites
oaks a pignut
hickory and possibly one black-northern red hybrid, no trees of
other
species exceed even 6' cbh in the area, furthering the visual
dominance of
the stand by northern red oak. Slender silverbells make up the
next
largest proportion of the canopy followed by small numbers of
red maples
and widely scattered pignut hickories, white oaks, black
locusts, and
black oaks. Black birch is common under the main canopy along
with
patches of small hemlocks and scattered striped maples. Below
the trees,
shrubs are sparse and over 20 species of herbaceous plants form
a
relatively thick ground layer; New York fern, hay-scented fern,
solomon's
seal, whorled horse balm, solomon's plume, and a species of
Solidago are
among the most common species. In the past, American chestnut
would also
have been an important component of the forest as evidenced by
the
frequent sprouts and moderate quantity of debris.
The stand grows along the edge of a tract of a few thousand
acres of uncut
forest sheltered in Joyce Kilmer Wilderness. While some of the
coves
draining the area support the even larger northern red oaks I
wrote about
in a post a few weeks ago, adjacent section of the ridge support
much
drier, smaller statured, forest with a different mix of dominant
oaks.
The ridge in the latter areas is substantially narrower with
much
shallower bedrock. The deep soils likely contribute to the rapid
growth
of the oaks in the stand; visual examination in the field of
cores taken
as part of an ongoing dendrochronology project in the area
suggest most of
the large red oaks in the area are only about 125-150 years old.
Conversely, one trail cut black locust showed unusually slow
growth; the
roughly 20" diameter log showed approximately 146 rings 15'
above the
base, an unusually great age for the species in the southern
Appalachians.
Some equally exposed ridges in the Smokies support equally
massive
northern red oaks and some high elevation coves may approach the
concentration of large red oaks, but this area was particularly
striking
to me for the combination of exposure and grouping of large
trees, which I
have not seen equaled.
Jess Riddle |
|