Uncut forest heavily dominated by eastern hemlock above
Douglas Falls in the Waterfall Creek watershed.

A survey of the Craggies for old-growth conducted by Alan Smith in
1998 determined the Waterfall Creek/Fork Ridge/Upper Mineral Creek
stand to be the largest remaining tract of uncut forest in the range.
The stand's 1577 acres of reported old-growth span half a vertical
mile to the top of Craggy Dome (6080'). Stunted northern hardwood
forests and extensive beech gaps persist in the harsh climate of
higher parts of the stand. Below them, the yellow birch become
increasingly large until a broad band of hemlocks is encountered at
about 4600'. Within the swath of hemlocks, patches of hardwood forest
with large sugar maples and diverse herb layers occupy the gentler
topography. Diverse hardwood forests with more southern species like
tuliptree grow along the streams at the lower edge of the stand.

To reach the stand, we drove up an idyllic mountain valley with broad
fields and stone buildings. At the end of the valley, a Forest
Service road winds for miles across the slopes and past the better
known old-growth of Walker Cove Research Natural Area before ending at
the Douglas Falls Trailhead. The trail immediately plunges into
old-growth, and traverses a slope covered with old mixed oak forest.
The herbaceous layer along the trail includes the uncommon Coreopsis
latifolia, woodland sunflowers, and several other species. As the
trail approaches the Douglas Falls, large hemlocks and sugar maples
form the canopy over witch-hobble, wood fern, and partridge berry.
Above the falls, the trail continues winding through successive groves
of sugar maple, hemlock, yellow birch, and beech, and eventually ends
on the Blue Ridge parkway.

Our path diverged from the trail at the falls. We crossed a
rhododendron covered slope and descended an open cove to the boulder
strewn Waterfall Creek. On the far side of the stream, 4600' high
Sprucepine Ridge rises up sharply, covered with large hemlocks and
rhododendron except for a few expanses of bare rock. Josh pointed out
that in the Craggies, rhododendron tends to only grow in areas with
thin soils. We weaved our way between the outcrops, and grabbed onto
rhododendron and dog-hobble to haul ourselves up to the more gentle
upper slopes of the ridge. Those slopes were a pleasant change with
deeper soils, few rhododendron, and sugar maples, basswoods, northern
red oaks and cherries mixing in amongst the hemlocks, and the rare
orchid, Goodyera repens, was flowering in several locations. The
hemlocks themselves were a welcome change from most of the southern
Appalachians; while a few areas had undergone noticeable decline from
the adelgid, most of the hemlocks remain a thick, lush green; however,
adelgid populations are heavy, so the real damage is about to begin.

On the far side of the ridge, we descended an open slope only about
100' to reach the headwaters of Carter Creek. Buckeye, basswood, and
clumps of Beech rose out of thick, rocky beds of stinging nettle.
Farther down the stream, yellow birch, white ash, black cherry sugar
maple and bitternut hickory also mixed into the canopy. None of those
species reached especially large sizes, so we veered up to the low
ridge separating Carter Creek from Bearwallow Branch. Bearwallow
Branch has more gentle topography than Carter Creek, and was
apparently more productive. Hence, loggers focused more on the
smaller stream. We saw clear evidence of logging on the edge of the
watershed in the general lack of old trees and the cut American
chestnut stumps.

 
Large hemlock on Carter Creek. 15'4.5" cbh and 143.0' tall.

Since the ridge appeared to hold little promise, we steered back down
towards Carter Creek, and on the way passed a small rock outcrop with
the rare climbing fumitory, an herbaceous vine with flowers and
foliage resembling squirrel-corn. Back at the stream, by far the
largest hemlock we had seen all day immediately greeted us. The tree
stood on a steep slope about 25' above where the stream sheeted across
bedrock. No shrubs obscured the view of the tree's massive trunk that
rose above surrounding smaller hemlocks, basswoods, and beech to a
height of 143.0'. However, more than the height, the slow taper above
the 15'4.5" cbh made the tree impressive. The total volume is
certainly over 1000 cubic feet and probably exceeds 1100 cubic feet;
greater than any other hemlock ENTS has found in limited searching
east of the Smokies.

Hoping to find other equally impressive trees since we were still at
approximately 3800' elevation, we continued down Carter Creek, but
quickly encountered badly eroded remnants of an old logging road. The
road probably explained the lack of large individuals of commercially
valuable species farther upstream. We also started seeing tuliptrees,
all of them young, further indication of high-grading along the
stream. The tuliptrees also indicated a slightly milder climate that
was mirrored by the herbaceous layer with more hepatica, yellow
mandarin, blue cohosh, black cohosh, and other rich site species
mixing in with the nettles. Fungal diversity also increased as we
proceeded downstream, and we stopped to collect a few oyster mushrooms
and chicken mushrooms for later consumption.

The large hemlock on Carter Creek near the confluence with
Waterfall Creek. 17'4" circumference, 147.4' tall.


Near the confluence of Carter Creek with Waterfall Creek, we again
stopped to look at a hemlock that stood out from the rest. This tree
stood on an extremely steep bank between a small stream-side flat and
a level bench, all covered by much younger and smaller trees. The
dog-hobble around the tree's base posed less of a challenge to
measuring than the 9.4' elevation difference between the high and low
sides of the tree. That grade put the lowest measurable circumference
5.1' above midslope, which came out to a whopping 17'4". Above the
influence of root flair, at 9.1' above midslope, the circumference was
a still impressive 14'10". The trunk gradually tapers as it ascends
to a shrub-like top 147.4' above the base. The larger base but faster
taper made the tree appear only slightly smaller than the hemlock that
had stopped us farther upstream.

Leaving that hemlock, we crossed the bench to Waterfall Creek, and
quickly encountered more old trees. However, again the remnants of a
road paralleled the stream and suggested selective cutting. The steep
slopes along the stream supported more rhododendron than Carter Creek,
but strips of rich forest with open understories and diverse herbs
still permitted us easy passage. Rock stonecrop and plantain-leaved
sedge were more common in these woods, but the more acidic slopes
still held the largest hemlocks, including a third giant 15'0" cbh x
145.1'.

Shortly upstream of that hemlock and downstream of a boulderfield, the
old roadbed ended. Above that point, we saw no evidence of past
logging, and started encountering larger hardwoods. Among those,
tuliptree reached 14' 2" cbh and northern red oaks reached 16'0" cbh,
the red oak the second largest reported from the mountain range.
However, the rich forest with those large trees again gave way to
smaller birches and rhododendron thickets as the soils thinned and the
stream approached its large namesake cascade. Eventually, the
rhododendron thickets gave way to expanses of bare rock, and we picked
our way upstream at the base of the cliffs. Not wanting to have to
negotiate the cascades and having completed almost a full loop, we
hiked up the slopes skirting a couple more rock outcrops and climbed
over one small rock ledge to get out of the Waterfall Creek gorge.

Upon scrambling over the ledge, we immediately met a 15'7" cbh
tuliptree that bested the mountain range girth record just set down in
the gorge. Making the tree even more surprising, it grew at about
4200' elevation, above the normal range for tuliptree, and obviously
had limited soil. However, the slope above did appear to have deeper
soil with striped maples and witch-hobble replacing rhododendron and
large hemlocks forming most of the canopy. We stopped briefly to
collect more oyster mushrooms and admire a relatively healthy American
chestnut, but quickly covered the short distance back to the trail and
the car pleased with our day in the woods.

Jess Riddle & Josh Kelly