The forests of the wilderness area often follow a fairly distinct
pattern. Hemlock, white pine, and rhododendron dominate along the larger
entrenched streams, and Virginia pine also plays a significant role along
the low elevation streams flowing along relatively gentle topography.
Increasing in elevation and sheltering along the streams, white pine
drops out of the mix, but hemlock and rhododendron persist. Still
farther upstream when the streams give way to sheltered north or east
facing coves, tuliptree dominates the canopy, the understory clears, and
the herbaceous layer is often dense. The ridgetops above the coves show
more varied forms, ranging from stands of gnarled remnant white oaks, to
much younger stands of Virginia pine, to nearly pure stands of black
birch, sometimes with dense mountain winterberry and witch hazel
understories. 

Similar forests occur throughout the Blue Ridge section of
the Georgia mountains, but usually in a less well defined pattern and
with drier ridge tops. The latter condition appears at least partially
responsible for the unusually large concentrations of black birch,
sassafras, mountain winterberry, and witch hazel present throughout the
range. Even though the escarpment that forms the southern edge of the
range contains some of the largest tracts of uncut forests remaining in
north Georgia, railroad logging continuing into the 1930’s thoroughly
cleared the land now in the wilderness area. The operations left small
patches of stunted oaks on the some ridgetops and all of the hemlocks
along a few streams, but forests currently covering most of the
wilderness area are younger than the second growth forest in most other
regions of north Georgia.

A series of hardwood dominated coves drain the east side of the often
nearly level ridge extending north from Cowpens Mountain (4151). The
coves face east or northeast and generally range in elevation from around
3000’ up to 3500-4000’. The overstory ranges from a simple near
monoculture of tuliptree to mixture dominated by tuliptree, sugar maple,
and basswood with significant black cherry, bitternut hickory, and white
ash. Most of the canopy trees appear around 70 years old, but scattered
older trees are present. Sugar maple, rare elsewhere in north Georgia,
forms the understory along with yellow buckeye near the streams. The
consistently diverse herbaceous layers include purple phacilea, a wood
fern, black cohosh, blue cohosh, foamflower, yellow manderin, a trillium,
and several other species.

Species                                  Cbh                Height       
        Comment
Ash, White                           6’9”                128.0’          
     Slightly older tree
Basswood, White               4’7”                118.7’
Cherry, Black                        2’8”                ~110’           
    130:1 HDR
Cherry, Black                        10’3”                113’+          
     W. side of ridge
Cherry, Black                        4’7”                125.7’
Cherry, Black                        7’9”                137.8’          
     Slightly older tree
Hickory, Bitternut                5’5”                116.6’
Hickory, Shagbark                6’8”                109.5’              
Scarce in N GA
Maple, Sugar                        10’2”                106’+           
    W. side of ridge
Maple, Sugar                        8’10”                110.9’+         
      Remnant Tree
Maple, Sugar                        5’10”                114.3’
Maple, Sugar                        5’9.5”                116.5’
Oak, Northern Red               7’3”                118.0’               
W. side of ridge
Oak, Northern Red               8’3”                123.0’      
Tuliptree                                NA                141.7’        
       W. side of ridge
Tuliptree                                5’11”                143.6’

Cohutta Wilderness Area
Tuliptree                      146.4’
Hemlock                      145.5’
Pignut Hickory           140.3’
White Pine                  140.0’
Black Cherry               137.8’
White Ash                  128.0’
N. Red Oak                 123.0’
Yellow Buckeye         120.8’
Sugar Maple               119.3’
White Basswood       118.7’
Rucker Index               132.0’

The shot on the tallest black cherry was a poor one, and I didn’t see any
other cherries approaching that height, although cherries over 120’ were
common. However, vertical shots with the rangefinder put the tree at
over 130’, so I will stay with that measurement for now. The sugar
maples may not be tall by New England standards, but the current Georgia
height record is only 119.3’. The tuliptrees should add many more feet
with time. For several of the species, taller individuals are known from
adjacent areas, so the Rucker Index probably has significant room for
improvement.

Jess Riddle