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The following article was first published in the Fall, 1994 issue of Wild Earth ( 4, (3), 37 - 49) . However, virtually all descriptions of conditions in the article are still as pertinent as when they were first written. Where changes have occurred or corrections made, they are generally indicated by brackets. It should also be noted that our case against the US Forest Service - still as strong as ever - and the role and need for our Project, are here documented in some detail.
CENTRAL APPALACHIAN
FORESTS
A Guide for
Activists
by R. F. Mueller
The Central Appalachians are a meeting ground of opposites, of cold - loving northern floras and plants with origins in the deep south, of sublime mountain expanses marred by garish developments. Taking a page from Vice President Al Gore's book, we may say that these are mountains in the balance, but it is a balance precariously unstable in an ecological sense.
Our struggle to protect and restore Appalachian ecosystems resolves into a confrontation between a growing body of knowledge in the field of conservation biology, and the resistance, if not downright hostility, of land management agencies to this knowledge. These agencies, led by the US Forest Service, operate as sources of deceit and pseudo - science, refusing to break with the special interests they have so long favored.
Details are important here, and we need to know the ecosystems well in order to save them. Noss (1992a) stated that, "No substitute exists for detailed on - the - ground knowledge of the ecology and natural history of the region." We need to study the biologic communities and apply this knowledge to scoping notices, environmental assessments, and other project and program level planning documents. In many cases citizens will find it easy to "get ahead" of experts employed by the agencies in knowledge of the biologic communities and the latest theories.
The Central Appalachians consist of linear ridges and valleys, deeply dissected plateaus, bold escarpments, wet and dry glades and numerous other landforms that defy easy classification. They form parts of four geomorphic (landform) provinces and reflect a long geologic history (Press and Siever 1985 ; Dietrich 1970) . Their oldest rocks are 600 million to 1.8 billion - year - old crystalline granites, gneisses and metamorphosed volcanics of the eastern Blue Ridge. Faults separate the Blue Ridge from the slightly younger rocks of similar nature in the Piedmont Province. By contrast the western Blue Ridge is largely composed of far younger (500 to 600 million - year - old) rocks of the Cambrian Period, which are dominantly quartzites of sedimentary origin as well as other sediments and volcanics. These sediments are part of the eastern exposed edge and oldest members of a thick sequence of limestones, dolomites, shales and sandstones of the Paleozoic Era which form the adjacent Valley and Ridge Province. They are the roots of fold mountains and form the long, roughly parallel ridges and valleys that characterize this province. They are also the products of stream erosion which has left the ridge tops capped by resistant sandstones and quartzites and the valleys underlain by less resistant shales and limestones. Immediately to the west of the Valley and Ridge the folds become less pronounced and the major escarpment of the Cumberland and Allegheny Front marks the eastern edge of the flat - lying and only slightly folded rock of the Appalachian Mountain and Plateau Province ( Fenneman 1938) .
These landforms have a direct bearing on the nature and distribution of the various forest and other vegetation types. The eastern Blue Ridge, with its variety of nutrient - rich igneous and metamorphic rocks, is more hospitable to plant growth than is the western Blue Ridge and most of the Valley and Ridge. The latter province, except for certain areas such as limestone valleys, has nutrient deficient sandstones and quartzites or shales which yield subsoils less amenable to moisture circulation and root penetration. The dry, stony and frequently leached and acid (podsol) soils of these mountains favor xeric oak and pine forests with ericaceous shrubs and ground cover, whereas the better soils favor more mesic forests. Water storage capacity of many Central Appalachian soils is severely restricted due to high rock content (Armson1979) . This not only leads to xeric conditions but promotes rapid water runoff and consequent flash flooding and bank erosion as part of the normal hydrologic regime in this region.
As important as geology are the factors of moisture, temperature and cloud distribution. There is a fairly strong orographic effect in the Central Appalachians: most precipitation falls on the western slopes of the plateau, the Valley and Ridge receives far less. The average yearly precipitation at Pickens, West Virginia, on the western Allegheny Plateau, exceeds 60 inches ( 152 cm) while Moorefield, West Virginia, 80 miles (130 km) to the northeast, in the Valley and Ridge, gets only 25 inches (64 cm) (Strausbaugh and Core 1977) . However, precipitation increases again in the east of the Great Valley of Virginia with a sharp peak of 50 inches (127 cm) over the Blue Ridge (Hayden1979).
Temperature variations in the Central Appalachians have three major components which affect forest type: latitude, elevation, and continentality. Latitudinal variation is expressed in the geographic limitations of northern and southern species ranges. For example the southern limit of Black Spruce is in central Pennsylvania's Valley and Ridge while the Southern Appalachian plant Galax (Galax aphylla) ranges only as far north as Preston County, West Virginia and western Maryland. Elevation counters latitude, causing isotherms to loop southward along the mountains. On daily weather maps this loop often extends 150 miles (240 km) or more south in the Central Appalachians. This decrease in temperature with elevation (lapse rate ) is approximately 3.4 degrees Fahrenheit per 1000 feet (6.4 degrees Celsius per 1000 meters), and mean temperatures may vary at least three times this F value as a function of elevation. However the lowest temperatures are usually attained in high mountain valleys where cold air drains down from the peaks and collects, Continentality, or distance from the ocean, tends to align the isotherms parallel to the coast with the lowest winter and highest summer temperatures farthest from the water. The interplay of elevation, topography and continentality gives a fine structure to the effect of latitude so that many northern species are confined to selected high elevation sites or local low elevation "frost pockets" with the result that the Central Appalachians are rich in species at their extreme southern limits.
Bearing some relation to precipitation, but partly independent of it, is cloud cover. Cloud cover is important because it affects photosynthesis, air and soil moisture and temperature. The Allegheny Mountains are the locus of a remarkable cloudy day maximum of more than 160 days per year compared to 120 days or less immediately to the southeast in the Valley and Ridge and Piedmont (Reifsnyder and Lull 1965) . This variation in cloudiness may be the defining characteristic of the Central Appalachians since the variation in forest type corresponds more closely to it than to rainfall. The distribution of cloudiness is consistent with the dominance of shade tolerant and other mesophytic species in the Alleghenies as contrasted with the less tolerant and xeric species that dominate the sunnier forests to the southeast. The relatively cool summer climate of the cloudy Allegheny Highlands and the western Appalachians in general favors cold climate species that would not ordinarily be associated with the relatively mild winter temperatures of these mountains.
Precipitation, cloud cover and temperature in the Central Appalachians have probably all differed from their present distributions much of the time during the last 18,000 years since the ice sheets were at their maximum southward advance in northern Pennsylvania and central Ohio. Pollen data (Delcourt and Delcourt 1981) indicate that around the glacial maximum a boreal Jack Pine / spruce parkland ( as distinguished from a closed canopy forest) extended as far south as Tennessee, and tundra probably occupied the highest Appalachian elevations. At that time deciduous forest of the types now covering these mountains lay far to the south along the Gulf and lower Atlantic coastal plains, with the mixed mesophytic component probably confined to dissected major river system blufflands. However, even before the ice sheet reached its points of greatest advance, a warming trend set in. When the temperature reached a maximum (the hypsithermal interval) some 7000 years ago, existing forest types were temporarily displaced northward perhaps 200 miles (300 km) and to several hundred meters higher elevation. Similar displacements of this type probably have occurred a number of times in the last 10,000 years (Pielou 1991) . Thus there emerges a picture of a geographically dynamic forest that was able to migrate hundreds of miles and reconstitute itself on a time scale of several thousand years or less.
As is well known, the end of the last glacial ice advance (Wisconsinan) was succeeded by great megafaunal extinctions. It is also inferred that in the Appalachians there was a transition from a complex habitat mosaic (plaid pattern) of open parklands to a simpler habitat of closed canopy forest. Guthrie (1984) speculated that the megafaunal extinction episode with associated loss of floral diversity was related to the onset of greater continentality and a less equable climate than the previous interglacials. This latest interglacial has also seen the end of the apparently worldwide coexistence of cold and warm climate species usually described as "disharmonious." Remnant communities of mixed cold and warm adapted species are still fairly common in the Central Appalachians and may be a sort of microcosm of Pleistocene diversity.
As was emphasized by Lucy Braun (1950), the most widely recognized authority on Appalachian forests, there is a strong relation between topography, soil and forest type. The Central Appalachians are the locus of a salient of acid and leached podzol soils that extends down from the boreal region of Canada where these soils are widespread and associated with coniferous forests. In the Appalachians they grade into other shallow, rocky soil types common to many mountain regions. However, there also are substantial areas of gray - brown forest soils that culminate in the rich mull and melanized types characteristic of our most diverse forests, the mixed mesophytes. By contrast the rocky and acid podzols favor coniferous, xeric oak - chestnut, or oak - pine forests. Conifers generally prevail on cold plateaus; the latter two types generally prevail on dry sandstone ridges. Although the better soils once covered extensive mountain slopes, as in the Cumberlands and Alleghenies, continued logging, fires and poor agricultural practices have degraded the entire region to the extent that such soils are now largely confined to topographic concavities such as coves and riparian zones. This condition is particularly characteristic of the Valley and Ridge Province where precipitation is low, and dry rocky ridges are the norm.
The most complex forest and presumed parent forest of the Central Appalachians is the mixed mesophytic. This type derived from similar forests that occupied eastern North America and other centers such as Europe and East Asia in Tertiary times (Braun 1950), although subject to climate - induced migrations. Many species of the European forests were eliminated when ice sheets forced them against inhospitable east - west mountain ranges and seas. However, those of East Asia survived and many close relatives of eastern North American species still live there. The mixed mesophyte forest shows its most characteristic development in the Cumberland Mountains and in the Alleghenies of west Virginia below 2500 feet (760 meters) asl. It extends northward with attenuated diversity into Maryland, Pennsylvania and Ohio where it is increasingly confined to stream valleys. Eastward in Virginia it is largely restricted to topographic concavities such as coves, ravines and riparian zones, usually of the latest erosion cycle (Braun 1950) .
The mixed mesophytic forest is diverse with a number of species each of magnolias, oaks, hickories, walnuts, elms, birches, ashes, maples, basswoods, locusts and pines. There is also Tuliptree, Black and Sweet Gum, Black Cherry, American Beech and Canadian Hemlock (Tsuga canadensis) [ also known as Eastern Hemlock, but the latter common name doesn't as clearly distinguish it from the Carolina Hemlock ]. The most characteristic type indicators are White Basswood and Yellow Buckeye. However Yellow Buckeye does not generally occur in the Valley and Ridge. American Chestnut, once a major component, now survives only as stunted, disease - ridden sprouts. These major canopy species are accompanied by even more diverse understory tree, shrub and herbaceous layers as well as many fungi and mosses. Typical components of the understory are the small trees Musclewood (Carpinus caroliniana) and Sourwood (Oxydendrum arboreum), shrubs such as Spice Bush (Lindera benzoin) and Paw Paw (Asimina triloba) and the herbs Ginseng (Panax quinquefolium) and Goldenseal (Hydrastis canadensis) . Mesophytic plants, including the trees, tend to have soft, juicy leaves that on death rapidly decompose and, as distinguished from those of xeric oak forests, form only light liter but contribute to building rich soils.
Coinciding roughly with the Virginia - West Virginia boundary, the eastern edge of the mixed mesophyte region forms a broad ecotone of transition to the oak - chestnut forest type of the Valley and Ridge. With the temporary (hopefully) decline of the American Chestnut, which once flourished on its dry ridges, the oak - chestnut region is now characterized by the dominance of five oaks - Black, Scarlet, Northern Red, White and Chestnut - and on the driest sites, by Virginia, Pitch, Shortleaf and Table Mountain Pines. Other prominent species are White Pine, Black gum, Black Birch, Pignut Hickory and Red maple. The understory tree layer is usually dominated by Serviceberry, Flowering Dogwood and White Pine and in the shrub and ground layers by Mountain Laurel, Fetterbush, huckleberries, blueberries, azaleas (deciduous rhododendrons), Teaberry (Gaultheria procumbens ) and other acid loving plants. Slope concavities may contain Tuliptree, White Ash, Cucumber Magnolia, Basswood and other mesic species.
Still farther to the east a second ecotone marks the transition to the oak - pine forest of the Piedmont. Since the Piedmont generally lies below 1000 feet (300 meters) asl, it contains a number of species such as Loblolly Pine, Sweet Gum and Southern Red Oak not found at higher elevations.
On ascent to the highest elevations and northward into Maryland, Pennsylvania and Ohio, southern species in the mixed mesophyte forest gradually drop out; northern species such as Yellow Birch and Mountain Maple (Acer spicatum) appear and Sugar Maple, American Beech and Canadian Hemlock assume dominance. American Basswood replaces White Basswood. This is the hemlock - White Pine - northern hardwood forest of Braun (1950). It has a distinctly northern quality in its shrubs and herbaceous flora and may appear identical to forests of the Adirondack foothills or New England. However it frequently contains traces of typically southern and Central Appalachian species such as Cucumber Magnolia, Frazer Magnolia and Black Locust giving it greater diversity. In some places Great Rhododendron (Rhododendron maximum) forms heavy understory thickets, a feature uncharacteristic of the northern forest.
Above 3500 feet (1000 meters) in West Virginia and at lower elevations in Maryland and Pennsylvania, the northern hardwoods yield gradually to Red Spruce montane forest of boreal appearance. In this forest, circumpolar flowering plants such as Mountain Oxalis (Oxalis montana ) and Goldthread (Coptis groenlandica) vie with lycopods, liverworts and mosses in the ground cover while shrubs are rare because of dense shade. Southward this forest type occurs only in a few isolated and climate - modified stands as at Mountain Lake Wilderness and Beartown Wilderness in the Valley and Ridge and in the Balsam Range in the Mount Rogers National Recreation Area of the Jefferson National Forest. At Mountain Lake is a small isolated stand of old growth consisting of Red Spruce, Hemlock, Sugar and Red Maple, Black and Yellow Birch, White Ash, Northern Red and White Oak, Black Cherry, Cucumber Magnolia and Tuliptree. Mountain Maple and rhododendron form the understory, and ground cover contains intergrowths of the boreal species Maianthemum canadense and the Southern Appalachian Galax aphylla, all at about 3600 feet asl. In the Balsam Range this forest, which here is mostly restricted at elevations above 5000 feet (1500 m), assumes the character of the southern spruce - fir type with the accompaniment of Red Spruce by Fraser Fir, the Southern Appalachian endemic. Even the most northern appearing Central Appalachian spruce forests, as on west Virginia's Allegheny Plateau, contain an admixture of Southern Appalachian species such as Mountain Holly (Ilex montana) and Southern Mountain Cranberry (Vaccinium erythrocarpum) which are out of the range of boreal forests.
In the oak - chestnut type forests of the Valley and Ridge and Blue Ridge provinces, the effects of elevation are more subtle, even cryptic. This is due in part to the different species segregates that result from lower precipitation and / or cloud cover and continentality as compared with the Allegheny highlands. Effects take the form of higher temperatures and influence of the nearby ocean on day to day weather, which tends to be somewhat erratic. In the vicinity of latitude 38 degrees north Tuliptree generally grows below 2500 feet and Chestnut Oak below 3500 feet asl. The mountains of the Valley and Ridge have very little spruce montane forest. Instead "orchard" type Northern Red Oak stands with gnarled, thick - trunked and widely spaced trees dominate the highest elevations. On the most exposed peaks trees are greatly stunted and contorted by the wind. Many show long, thick limbs growing at right angles to the trunk as an adaptation to the weight of ice and wind stress(1). At elevations where rocky, acid soils or other inhospitable conditions are intensified, there are "barrens" of low heath shrubs, Sweet Fern (Comptonia peregrina) and Bear Oak (Quercus ilicifolia) . These shrub expanses are punctuated by taller wind - contorted (banner) Pitch and Table Mountain Pines, or in some cases, shrubby Hemlock. Above 3500 feet, low elevation shrubs and herbaceous flora are replaced by such northerners as American Mountain Ash ( Pyrus americana), Mountain Maple, Clintonia borealis and Maianthemum canadense, as in the Alleghenies. Perhaps because of relatively high precipitation there, the northern Blue Ridge is favored by a number of rare disjuncts. On it are found Virginia's only known occurrences of Bearberry (Arctostaphalos uva - ursi) and Balsam Fir (Abies balsamea), the latter at its southern - most station on the planet. It is confined to the summit regions of Hawksbill and Stonyman Mountains, which reach 4000 feet in elevation, and is a minor component of oak forest. It must have passed through a rather narrow thermal bottleneck during the hypsithermal period.
Changes in vegetation with elevation are not solely due to lapse rate. The restriction of Tuliptree below 2500 feet in the Valley and Ridge at 38 degrees N and its occurrence above 3000 feet at the same latitude in cooler West Virginia requires another explanation. The survival of seedlings frequently depends on the interaction of temperature, soil and air moisture and light intensity. Although the Valley and Ridge an Blue Ridge are less continental than the Allegheny Plateau, their weather varies greatly from day to day. Warm spells that activate buds are frequently followed by hard frosts and frost heaving that damage buds and roots. These conditions are more prevalent in the Valley and Ridge and Blue Ridge than on the Allegheny Plateau, with its greater snowfall and cloud cover.
Within the areas of the major Central Appalachian forest types are many smaller biologic communities with special characteristics. These communities have resulted from geologic, topographic or climatic conditions that are unique in their details. Most widespread are the glades or natural openings that result from such conditions as interrupted drainage or bedrock - imposed moisture or drought conditions. In terms of area the most common glades are the high - elevation bogs, fens, swamps and other wetlands of the Allegheny Mountains and Plateau. There are also many small forested wetlands, usually associated with floodplain topography, artesian springs, perched water tables or sinkholes. Many of these communities, both large and small, contain rare, frequently disjunct, species. An example is the famous Cranberry Glade complex that covers 750 acres ( roughly 300 hectares) on West Virginia's Allegheny Plateau. Lying at 3400 feet elevation, its boreal type bogs, fens, marshes and swamps are rich in acid soil disjuncts such as Bog Rosemary (Andromeda glaucophylla) and Small Cranberry (Vaccinium oxycoccos) as well as some with greater soil tolerance ranges such as Buckbean (Menyanthes trifoliata), a circumpolar member of the gentian family (Core 1955) . Of similar nature is the 7000 acre Canaan Valley complex, the largest wetland in the Central Appalachians. At 3200 feet elevation and lying just north of the Monongahela National Forest, Canaan Valley is under consideration for National Wildlife Refuge status.
Some of the smaller wetlands are also great centers of diversity. An example occurs alongside Folly Mills Stream in the Shenandoah Valley. This small wetland, at only 1580 feet asl, is home to an impressive array of northern disluncts as well as southern species, many of which I first identified less than a decade ago and which are still being inventoried. As in the Cranberry Glades, Buckbean occurs here, but in an almost acid - neutral environment of a calcareous marsh and fen. Here also are such indicators of this environment as Prairie Loosestrife (Lysimachia quadri - flora) and Swamp Lousewort (Pedicularis lanceolata) . Other northerners include Glaucus Willow (Salix discolor), in its only Virginia occurrence(2),as well as a number of rare sedges(3). Southern species which form a melange(4) with these northerners are Purple Gerardia (Gerardia purpurea) and the rare Large - leaved Grass of Parnassus (Parnassia grandifolia) which is a member of the saxifrage family. This complex community owes its origin and continued existence to cool artesian springs and location in a "frost pocket" by virtue of air drainage from surrounding hills. These factors have combined to provide a refugium for species that we may infer were originally driven south by the climate conditions brought about by the ice sheets to the north. However, unlike northern type communities at higher elevations, this refugium is confined to the wetland while the surrounding hills are covered by Appalachian type oak - hickory forest which contains such southerners as Post Oak and Persimmon but no species of northern affinity(5).
Sinkhole ponds along the western edge of Virginia's Blue Ridge harbor such rare disjuncts as White Buttons (Eriocaulon septangulare), and the two - county endemic Virginia Sneezeweed (Helenium virginicum) as well as the Eastern Tiger Salamander (Ambystoma tigrinum tigrinum) . Other, even rarer, small ponds and wetlands occur at various elevations, some on perched water tables, and provide habitat for long isolated populations of salamanders and other species. All are under threat of poor management policies and roads that expose them to ORVs (Mueller 1991) .
Dry cedar glades and limestone and shale barrens contain assemblages of drought, cold and heat resistant plants and animals. Some of the most outstanding examples occur in West Virginia's Smoke Hole region in the Valley and Ridge Province (The Nature Conservancy 1991) . There limestone barrens and cedar glades support a number of Midwestern and Western species, some of which, like Prairie Flax (Linum lewisii), are disjunct from west of the Mississippi River. The floras of the more common shale barrens have received considerable attention in recent years and are known for rare species such as Shale Barren Rock Cress (Arabis serotina), a federally listed endangered species (Wieboldt 1991) .
Other special habitats on exposed ridges and peaks, frequently on rocky terrain, harbor montane and boreal plants such as Michaux's Saxifrage (Saxifraga michauxii), Greenland Sandwort (Arenaria proenlandica) and Three - toothed Cinquefoil (Potentilla tridentata). However, natural "balds" with extensive grass and shrub communities in place of trees, such as characterize high elevations in the Southern Appalachians, are rare in the Central Appalachians. The Central Appalachians do, though, have numerous small openings in addition to the previously described heath barrens which are more mesic than the latter. These merge with the more widespread orchard type summit forests of Northern Red Oak or in some cases American Beech and hawthorn (Strausbaugh and Core 1977) . These may have ground covers of grasses such as Danthonia compressa, Hay - scented Fern (Dennstaedtia punctilobula), sedges and cushions of haircap moss (Polytrichum sp) . Unfortunately the US Forest Service has taken upon itself to create - with great energy and money expenditure - artificial balds and "savannas" which only clash with the local ecosystems and fragment the forest.
More common than the conspicuously novel communities discussed above are some that are merely unusual in the forest type in which they occur. Frequently they involve only slight disjunction of common or rare species in combination with the dominant regional flora. Thus distinctly northern species may occur in mixed mesophyte forest with dominantly southern species. An example is the occurrence of northern herbs such as Wild Sarsaparilla (Aralia nudicaulis) and the grass Miliun effusum with Tuliptree and Black Walnut as in the lower Back Creek drainage of Virginia's Valley and Ridge, or Canadian Yew (Taxus canadensis) and Mountain Maple at less than 2500 feet asl in certain steep sided northeast facing gorges that cut through the Allegheny Mountains in West Virginia.
The occurrence of melange communities and the sequence of types reflect the so - called "disharmonious" Pleistocene communities which they resemble and of which they may be relict. According to MacArthur (1975) there is an inverse relation between species diversity and climatic variability as measured by winter - summer differences in mean temperature. That is, stabler climates tend to accommodate more species. A striking case is the small isolated Folly Mills wetland where the effects of seasonal fluctuations in growing conditions are moderated by the artesian springs and salubrious chemistry. Thus although the surrounding forest, which is more subject to climatic variations, is typically Southern Appalachian, the wetland is a melange of many northern and even Arctic species with other species of wide as well as decidedly southern distributions.
With markedly less disjunction and not separated from the regional forest like the Folly Mills wetland, are sites with northern mesic species such as Aralia nudicaulis and Milium effusum in a Southern Appalachian mesic forest type. The cited occurrence in the Back Creek drainage is an example.
Finally, most common among melange communities is the occurrence of rare and common northern species - some disjunct, some not - in high elevation wetlands such as in the Cranberry Glades or in the surrounding forest with which the wetlands harmonize in climatic type. However, as pointed out earlier, all Central Appalachian northern type communities also have admixtures of Southern Appalachian species.
Accompanying the disjunct and other northern floras of the cooler Central Appalachians are many animal species. ranging from the Canadian zone Pink - edged Sulfur Butterfly (Colias interior) to the Northern Flying Squirrel. This northern fauna also includes such rare Pleistocene holdovers as the Rock Vole (Microtus chrotorrhinus) which is regarded as disharmonious with the Eastern Wood rat (Neotoma floridana ; Graham and Lundelius 1984) . This mutual incompatibility underscores the difficulty in meeting the complex needs of all native species in any limited reserve system (Mueller 1992c) .
In the Central Appalachians the most shade tolerant species of trees are those that characteristically occur in the medium moisture, or mesic regimes. They are the Canadian Hemlock, American Beech, Sugar and Black Maples, Red Spruce and Balsam Fir, as well as a number of small understory trees among which Flowering Dogwood, Eastern Hophornbeam and Striped Maple are most common. The basswoods and Yellow Buckeye are also quite tolerant. Most oak species are of intermediate tolerance. However Scarlet Oak shows low tolerance of shade, as do Tuliptree, Black Cherry and most of the birches. Shagbark Hickory, a tree of rich mesic environments, is moderately tolerant but other members of this genus and the related walnuts are relatively intolerant. Some species, such as White Pine and White Ash, are very tolerant when young but become intolerant with age.
Red Maple, which is of intermediate tolerance, but more tolerant than any oak, has a special role. Red Maple is at home in habitats ranging from southern swamps to the driest mountain ridges and the fringes of the boreal forest. Because conditions exclude the most tolerant species such as American Beech and Sugar Maple, Red Maple, along with Striped Maple, is frequently the most tolerant species in the xeric oak - chestnut forests of the Central Appalachians. As a consequence it has become a prime scapegoat and cover for a multitude of silvicultural sins perpetrated by the US Forest Service and other industrial foresters.
Virgin mixed mesophyte forests have an abundance of species of all shade tolerance levels. Thus Tuliptree and intolerant oaks are major components even of many stands where shade tolerant species frequently dominate. In the dry oak - chestnut forests, intermediate and intolerant oaks (White, Chestnut, Black, Red and Scarlet) dominate in stands undisturbed by humans, since the most tolerant species are excluded by soil and climate. This fact is a source of embarrassment to the Forest Service, which steadfastly maintains that the commercially desirable but intolerant oaks need the help of large openings such as clearcuts to reproduce and prevent takeover by Red Maple and other undesirable species. The prominent ecological forester Leon Minckler has repeatedly made the point that large openings are not necessary for reproduction (e.g. Minckler 1974) . It is becoming increasingly clear that a major mechanism of forest reproduction in mature deciduous forests is the formation of tree fall gaps which allow sufficient light to encourage even the least tolerant species.
Next to tree fall gaps, usually formed by windthrow, fire was probably most responsible for natural forest openings. While the role of fire in the Central Appalachians is still poorly understood. extensive observations by Virginians for wilderness have revealed surprising effects of this agent. Quite obviously fire was most common in the dry oak - chestnut and oak - pine uplands before human suppression became routine. However, many trees in moist coves also show fire scars. This is probably a consequence of the relatively thin bark of many cove species such as Shagbark Hickory, Beech and Tuliptree, as compared with thick - barked Chestnut Oak for example. Although the virgin high elevation spruce forests of the Allegheny Plateau presumably had substantial fire potential, it appears that the prevailing high moisture levels prevented many fires until logging and land clearing produced incendiary slashings and ignition sparks.
In addition to charred wood, evidence for forest fires frequently takes the form of inverted U - shaped basal trunk scars or cavities. These scars are usually confined to a single (lee?) side of the tree for any given fire. Also evidencing fire are sprout clumps in which the sprouts of individual clumps are widely spaced. In contrast to logging, fires tend to kill stumps so that sprouting is from surrounding roots. Where such sprouting occurs, it points to high fire frequencies in the past since trees in excess of 100 years of age seldom sprout much. Such evidence has a bearing on the identification of primary and old - growth stands. Contrary to some opinions, however, fires set by indigenous Americans or otherwise were not required to protect Appalachian oak forests from invasion by more shade tolerant species.
Although oaks are fairly resistant to fire - particularly Chestnut Oak with its thick bark ridges - they are not as all - around fire adapted as Shortleaf, Pitch and Table Mountain Pines. Examination of these pines reveals multi - layered and hence highly insulated bark. Consequently, although oaks in a burn area may show fire scars and even high mortality, coexisting Pitch Pine and Table Mountain Pine show only blackened lower trunks with no visible damage to living tissues(6). As a result of this fire resistance, pines may be the oldest and largest trees on some dry sites.Also, since they have serotinous cones and, in the case of pitch and Shortleaf Pines, sprouting ability, they are ever ready to renew themselves should an intense fire occur. By contrast White Pine is not nearly as fire - adapted(7).
Exposed ridges most subject to fire are also most vulnerable to high winds and ice storms which result in the common high elevation forms of orchard type deciduous trees and the one - sided banner forms, particularly of conifers such as pine and spruce. Although large blow - downs are not as common in the Central Appalachians as in boreal forests, wind does sometimes have widespread effects, as in the case of Hurricane Hugo.
Disturbances that involve insects and diseases are, unfortunately, exploited by special interests. An example is the current rash of salvage timber sales attributed to Gypsy Moth defoliation, particularly in the George Washington National Forest, at the leading edge of the southward advance of this insect. The FS makes sporadic vain attempts at suppression. Here I espouse the diametrically opposite view, namely that insects and diseases are a part of normal forest evolution and that they can be accommodated as long as the forest tracts are large, healthy and diverse enough to harbor the seeds of resistance and re - colonization. Although the Gypsy Moth, Chestnut Blight and Dutch Elm Disease are all particularly virulent, in part because of their human vectors, such virulence is not unknown in nature(8).
In addition to disturbances clearly attributable to well identified insects and diseases is a vaguely defined condition known as "oak decline" which is said to be ravaging the Southern and Central Appalachians. I say "condition" because it is not at all clear that oak decline is a disease within the conventional meaning. It is said to be characterized by symptoms such as chlorosis, limb dieback and epicormic branching, mostly in the red oak group. Forest Service experts have yet to find a solid explanation for the condition and are forced to fall back on a broad spectrum of insects and diseases triggered by such factors as drought and poor site quality (Stark et al 1989) . In his discussion of oak decline in the Southern Appalachians, Zahner (1992) proposed "benign neglect" as a proper curative agent. He attributed many of the symptoms to normal senescence of comparatively short - lived species such as Scarlet and Black Oak in the process of replacement by longer - lived Chestnut and White Oak. Certainly the public agencies make little effort to find causes of oak decline in past management practices which have brought about changes in soils, moisture regimes and even forest types over wide areas. As Lucy Braun recognized long ago, many rich mixed mesophyte forests have been degraded through cutting to depauperate and xeric oak - pine stands, consisting mostly of the short - lived species referred to by Zahner. Oak decline may manifest a healing process of reversion to a more complex forest type through succession from simple, excessively oak - rich stands that have resulted from human activities. In many areas where the Forest Service has identified oak decline in the Central Appalachians, they have used a heavy dose of imagination and have failed to distinguish it from normal limb shedding and mortality in a healthy forest.
The result of natural and human induced disturbances is succession, the progressive change of biological habitat from one occupied by pioneering species to some form of "climax" community. In forests this progression is usually from shade intolerant to tolerant species, since many intolerant species are adapted to the high light intensity and degraded soils of forest openings. However, many tolerant species also do well in openings, especially if they originate from sprouts, or, like Red Maple, are adapted to hash conditions. It was once rather naively thought that eastern North American deciduous forests inevitably progressed toward a beech - maple climax, an idea that gained credence chiefly in the Northeast, where this climax is common because of the climate and limited species richness (and where many foresters lived) . However it was subsequently learned that the climax community of mixed mesophyte forest includes many common intolerant species. Also, as stressed by Lucy Braun, some major forest types, such as oak - chestnut, are physiographic climaxes[ The author of this article no longer believes that this term is valid, but that these forest climaxes have the same basis as that of the mixed mesophyte type.] consisting of shade intolerant species like oaks and pines. In all these Eastern forest types, tree - falls, fires, blow - downs and other disturbances are frequent enough to perpetuate intolerant species.
Associated with the great forest migrations after the glacial maximum were, in all probability, corresponding changes in soil types. Evidence comes from studies in glaciated regions in which all soil changes occurred less than 10,000 years ago (Armson 1979). The speed with which such changes can occur was illustrated by Langmaid (1964) who showed that earth worms could obliterate upper horizons of podzol in as little as three years. In their studies of soils in a prairie ecotone in Minnesota, Severson and Arnemann (1973) found that transformation of mesic deciduous to pine - hardwood forest was accompanied by alterations of the soil profile to one meter depth in less than 2000 years. These results lead one to believe that soil adjustments could easily have kept pace with changes in vegetation type in the Central Appalachians during the last 18,000 years. Soil transformations, which depend on favorable kinetics in chemical and micro - organic reactions, appear to be far more rapid than secular genetic adjustments since the glacial maximum. Genetic inertia seems to perpetuate certain Pleistocene characters in the flora (Mueller 1990) . Such appears to be the case in the persistence of conspicuously thorned trees such as the hawthorns (Crataegus) which may have developed thorns as a defense against the Pleistocene browsing msgafauna in eastern North America. In support of this conclusion, since the disappearance of this megafauna, virtually the only browser in much of the region has been the White - tailed Deer, a species that easily browses between the large thorns. In the Central Appalachians these thorny ice age holdovers still occupy a great variety of niches including the understory of closed canopy deciduous forests and the most exposed mountain peaks.
Old growth is the touchstone of ecological forestry. Foresters who fail to recognize its importance can only claim to be industrial woodcutters. Zahner (1989) gave the following simple definition: "Old Growth forests are forests having a long uninterrupted period of development." Note that this definition says nothing about the ages of individual trees but says a great deal about their habitat. This definition fits the Central Appalachians well because, while easily identifiable old growth with obviously old, large trees, is scarce, many stands seem undisturbed by humans, and may qualify despite a scarcity of old trees. In many forest types - cove, mixed mesophyte, northern hardwood, spruce montane and various dry oak forests - large old trees are still being discovered. An old stand was recently found in cutting unit one of the proposed Stillhouse Timber Sale - even though the George Washington National Forest officials had attempted to conceal its existence. However, in the driest oak - chestnut and oak - pine forests on inaccessible ridges we find ambiguity. Many such areas burned frequently in the past. Thus, although, except for the loss of Chestnut, such stands may be primary and even virgin; they may contain few old trees and so are difficult to distinguish from stands disturbed by humans.
The ages of tree species have considerable significance with respect to their classification by industrial foresters. The US Forest Service regularly twists normal tree mortality data to justify timber sales. They attempt to conceal that, as a healthy forest matures, most, indeed more than 99 percent, of its trees must die before it reaches maturity, to say nothing of old growth. And this mortality is entirely independent of species longevity. Most of this mortality occurs while the forest is still young. Industrial foresters would have us believe that 80 - 90 year old stands are "decadent", "overmature" or "falling apart" because they contain dead trees. In this distortion they ignore their own literature (e. g. Fowells 1965 ) which gives the following commonly attained ages for eastern forest trees: White Oak 600 years, Northern Red Oak 200 - 300 years, Black Oak 200 years, Sugar Maple 400 years, American Beech more than360 years, White Pine 450 years and Canadian Hemlock 900 years. These data show that survivors in a healthy maturing forest have the capacity of attaining far greater ages and larger sizes than those classified as mature by industrial foresters.
The greatest significance of old growth lies in the now rare habitat niches it contains. Features such as large standing (frequently hollow) snags, abundant large woody debris, stream debris dams, pit and mound topography, and canopy gaps that result from large tree falls are some of the criteria for old growth(9). Recently edaphic macropores, large elongated openings in soils due to root decay or burrowing by animals, have been stressed by Martin (1992) in his discussion of old growth mixed mesophyte forests. Such features combine to form a complex horizontal and vertical structure that can accommodate a great diversity of sensitive forest interior species. Examples include most salamanders, small mammals, neotropical migratory birds and large raptors like the Coopers Hawk. Old growth also hosts abundant arthropods, some, like millipedes, striking in appearance, some endemic ( Hoffman 1991).
Steve Krichbaum has stressed the importance of the regional setting and area required to sustain old growth conditions and species (personal communication) . Martin (1992) also stressed the need to protect old growth on a watershed scale. In small "stands" of old growth now being proposed by the Forest Service as adjuncts to their destructive timbering and "wildlife" operations, stochastic effects, from storm, fire, insects or pathogens, will soon profoundly degrade, convert to "all edge" or extirpate these stands.
Virtually all forest destruction begins with roads. Forest roads are the loci of many evils: erosion, sedimentation, drainage interruption and diversion; barrier formation; wildlife entrapment, exclusion and concentration; and as conduits of alien pests and diseases like Spotted Knapweed and the Gypsy Moth (Noss 1992b ). Roads may even capture streams when their eroding beds cross natural channels. The Forest Service and other agencies rely on "water bars" to prevent erosion of the road surface by deflecting the water to the side. However, these structures only add to the impact of roads since they require ditches and disturbed areas in the surrounding forest. In the Central Appalachians, Forest Service road - building has degraded many riparian zones as along the North River in the Proposed Shenandoah Wilderness [ now proposed as the "Ernie Dickerman Wilderness" ]. Roads to the tops of mountain peaks, such as Reddish Knob in the Shenandoah Range and White Top in the Mt. Rogers National Recreation Area, have sparked recent controversies and a flurry of appeals. Like their Western counterparts these peaks are "sky islands" that harbor assemblages of rare and disjunct species which the Forest Service is prepared to sacrifice in the name of "driving for pleasure", "scenic vistas" and even "star gazing."
While roads fragment and open the forest to development, industrial timber management devastates the mountains in massive blocks. Easily the worst of the timbering methods is clearcutting, in which all trees down to seedling size are felled and the forest floor is churned under the tracks of bulldozers. Clearcutting has been the focus of opposition to logging (Fritz 1989) . In its response to the threat to its image the Forest Service has, with fanfare, been shifting to shelterwood, seed tree and other generally more benign sounding methods. However, all alternative methods now in use fall under the dominant category of even - age management and depend on the same heavy equipment abuse as clearcutting even if they allow some trees to stand awhile. All are implicated in recent studies by Duffy and Meier (1992) who have shown that herbaceous understory vegetation probably takes hundreds of years to recover and re-colonize in such abused forest. Analogous studies by Petranka et al (1993) indicate equally devastating effects on salamanders, with recovery times of 50 - 70 years for these sensitive animals(11). Research by Raymond and Hardy ( 1991) established that populations of mole salamanders are significantly affected by clearcutting even in land adjacent to the clearcut.
Some activists propose selective logging of small groups (group selection) or of individual trees as more benign alternatives to even - age logging. Others (e. g. Noss 1992c) maintain that selective logging may be as damaging as clearcutting because of the larger area impacted for the same volume harvested and the frequency of entry (every ten years or so) . I have personally observed that selective logging can have far less impact on the forest floor than clearcutting. However, to attain equal volume this mild damage must be spread over a far larger area. Negative effects of selective logging probably correspond to the short rotations (time between successive harvests) usually employed . Given a minimum rotation period of 150 years and selective logging without entry for this long, many, but not all, detrimental effects would likely vanish. Notwithstanding any conceivable advantage of selective logging, however, serious damage accompanies any type of industrial scale logging in the mountainous sections of the Central Appalachians(10). Most serious is the inevitable degradation any form of logging brings to the region's fragile, nutrient - poor soils and the fragmentation by the many required roads.
Deciduous forests have the capacity to regenerate (form anew) by either seeding or by sprouting from the stumps and roots of cut trees. Trees in excess of 100 years in age seldom sprout much, which allows us to determine the recent history of the forest by the presence or absence and type of sprouts. Although logging - induced sprouts are common in agricultural areas such as the Shenandoah Valley and the Piedmont, where immature trees have been cut repeatedly, they are less common in the mountains where large areas are recovering from the turn - of - the- century logging of the primary forest. There are exceptions, of course, particularly in mountain areas that have been repeatedly burned. On average, however, the result of natural regeneration is stands of 80 - 90 year old single - stemmed trees which contrast starkly with the young stands of multiple sprout clumps in recent clearcuts. The sprouts of clearcuts frequently produce inferior trees, because they originate either high on the stump and thus rot, or low on the stump or from the roots, where they bow outward (Mueller 1992b) .
Short rotations and even - age management also cause poor regeneration and forest health due to loss of nutrients associated with cutting and extracting many small trees from the site. Since most nutrients are bound in the cambium [ actually, in the entire outer, partly living part of the tree, including the cambium, as distinguished from the heartwood ], small trees [ since they have proportionally less heartwood ] bear a greater proportion of these nutrients than do large trees, leading to excessive soil depletion. Robinson (1988) discussed this factor, as well as the relatively greater expense per board foot of harvesting small timber.
Presumably everyone is for forest health, but this term has a different meaning for the Forest Service than for the rest of us. Whereas the enlightened regard a naturally evolving forest as the epitome of health, benighted industrial loggers focus on the dead and dying components and call for salvage and even pre - salvage logging, the latter a preemptive strike on healthy trees seen as threatened by disease or insects. In the Central Appalachians concern is largely with oak decline and the Gypsy Moth. Playing the roles of first and second violins, "oak decline" is orchestrated as making the forest more susceptible to the Moth. The stage is then set for replacement of mature trees with more "vigorous" trees of even - age cuts before the Moth strikes. Despite the FS's use of this argument in numerous timber sales in the George Washington NF, we have yet to find evidence of oak decline that goes beyond expected dieback and mortality in a normal, healthy forest (Jones 1992, Krichbaum 1992) . Stands singled out as declining in the White Rock Sale, for instance, fail to show even minimal criteria of chlorosis, limb dieback and epicormic branching. Not surprisingly the Forest Service conducted no quantitative surveys for oak decline in these sale areas; by their own admission, they used only a qualitative "eyeball" determination to identify oak decline.
The US Forest Service and the state agencies still promote logging as a benefit to wildlife. Not only is even - age logging said to have this side benefit, but expressly designed "wildlife openings" are standard elements of commercial sales these days. In the White Rock Sale extensive new even - age cuts are slated for 2255 acres that already contain more than 35 "wildlife openings" of several acres each as well as extensive recent clearcuts. The area, typical of the more accessible parts of the Central Appalachians, is thus already so fragmented and contains so much edge habitat that, although its forest tracts are connected, it contains no real forest interior habitat. In addition, habitat of many forest species such as salamanders has been reduced through the destruction of the forest floor in these fertilized, mowed and grass covered openings.
In many areas the abundant edge - loving species - Deer, Raccoons, Cowbirds, etc. - have had a profound effect on forest interior species. One victim is the Canada Yew, a northern evergreen shrub once common at higher elevations and even on some cool low elevation sites in the Central Appalachians. Today this plant has been virtually extirpated over much of its range by severe Deer browsing and survives only on steep rocky sites less accessible to Deer. Also, many rare, disjunct species are suffering, as for example in the boreal plant communities of Blister Swamp, which lies partly within the Monongahela National Forest ( Mueller 1992c) . In this diverse wetland no Balsam Fir between the size of minute seedlings and three inch diameter saplings have escaped the Deer; reproduction has halted. Twinflower (Linnaea borealis), Alder leaved Buckthorn (Rhamnus alnifolia) and other rare disjuncts are also at risk. A recent inventory (Miller et al 1992) of plants disturbed by White - tailed Deer revealed that more than 40 % occur in the Central Appalachians.
Even apparently benign wildlife, such as Ruffed Grouse and Wild Turkey, may have profound negative impacts when promoted as game species. Wildlife openings and constructed water holes may encourage a local overabundance of these birds. The result will be intensified foraging for small amphibians and reptiles, including rare salamanders, snakes and lizards. These "game" birds may also eat neotropical migratory bird eggs and young, since many songbirds, especially warblers, are ground nesters. In addition, water holes may bring water breeding salamanders that may compete with or prey upon rare woodland salamanders.
Roads, timber sales, wildlife management and general development pressures have resulted in a hefty burden of Threatened, Endangered and sensitive species. Many additional species are propose for listing as Threatened or Endangered. Sensitive species are "those plant and animal species identified by the Regional Forester for which population viability is a concern as evidenced by (a) significant current or predicted downward trends in population numbers or density and (b) significant current or predicted downward trends in habitat capability that would reduce a species' existing distribution." (Forest Service Manual 19/26, Amendment 52, Title 2600) . Canadian Yew fits this definition better than many designated sensitive plants and in addition is conspicuous and easily identifiable. Yet neither managers of the Monongahela nor the George Washington National Forest, both of which fall in its historic range, have adopted it as sensitive. In the Monongahela, where the plant was once common, its catastrophic decline in numbers is a source of Forest Service embarrassment.
Most Forest Service lists of sensitive species fail to include a significant number of deep woods species since this would slow down timber sales. Instead these lists are heavy on very rare, but not necessarily declining, components of unusual communities of restricted occurrence. Listing such species as sensitive is prudent, but more common and conspicuous species in decline in representative forest types also need listing.
In some cases PETS species lists are even used to divert attention from threats to biodiversity. Examples are PETS lists prepared by the Monongahela National Forest for the High Top and Douthat Creek Opportunity Areas in which species such as the Cheat Mountain Salamander from other parts of the Forest appear but species of high occurrence and probability such as the Jefferson Salamander are not mentioned. Such bogus lists make it easy to eliminate habitat considerations and get on with the timber sales.
The failure to protect PETS species in our National Forests and other public lands is grounded in more general derelictions. Primarily there is a reluctance to recognize that a forest is more than trees. Consequently no systematic inventories are done of even the most visible elements of diversity, the herbaceous plants, shrubs and trees other than commercial species(12). Similarly, the lavish concern devoted to "game" species is not accompanied by anything like equal attention to sensitive "non - game" animals. The FS rarely conducts site - specific surveys, as we found on the notorious California Timber Sale (Mueller and Hammond 1990) and many others, and tends to ignore unique habitats if they occur in timber sale areas. When frustrated in their destructive designs, the FS makes every effort to stonewall protection. Thus although Virginians for Wilderness managed to save a rare mountain pond from the Mill Mountain Timber Sale (Mueller 1992a), the Forest service still fails to recognize the pond in its newly released Forest Plan and again threatens nearby areas with roading and development.
To frustrate the public's right to know, the Forest Service routinely omits monitoring and record keeping of ecosystems under its care as well as its own actions in them. In 1986 the FS carried out a "prescribed burn" on Signal Corps Knob next to a clearcut. When we inquired about this burn, they could at first find no record and could only date it to the year and season by asking around the District office. Here in the late 20th century, the Forest Service still keeps some of its records in the oral tradition! Thus any ecological or management information that might conceivably have been gained was lost along with many large high quality Red and Chestnut Oaks.
The Forest Service frequently employs faulty logic and science to accomplish its ends. In their analysis of the Big Flattop Opportunity Area in the Jefferson National Forest, Forest Supervisor Joy Berg made the following statement:
During harvesting activities, the various wildlife species that utilize the area would be displaced to adjacent stands or drainages. In my judgment this displacement would be acceptable, short term, and would not result in measurable population reductions or overcrowding within the Opportunity Area.
This reasoning flies in the face of population dynamics. It fails to consider that adjacent like drainages in all probability are already occupied so that overcrowding would result. It also fails to take into account the immobility and limited re-colonization ability of many herbaceous species and animals such as woodland salamanders, as documented by Duffy and Meier and Petranka et al.
In numerous environmental assessments, the FS often makes the spurious argument that forest fragmentation occurs only in isolated woodlots of agricultural terrain and not in continuous forest interrupted by wildlife openings and even - age timber cuts. This conclusion has been refuted by David Wilcove and other authorities ( Young 1992).
The ecological indictment of the US Forest Service extends to the highest levels. Nothing illustrates this better than the illegal and deceitful responses of a Regional Forester to citizen appeals of timber sales and other actions taken by his agency. In his finding on the Big Flattop Opportunity Area appeals, Region 8 Forester John Alcock refused to consider the impacts of timber sales and road building on PETS species that were not discussed in the scoping process ( Bamford and Mueller 1992) . This same finding was also applied to the issue of wildlife displacement and crowding resulting from habitat destruction. In addition, Alcock bluntly stated that herbaceous species need not be considered in the environmental assessment, All this is in violation of the Forest Service Manual (Title 2600) . Alcock's decision was so sloppily concocted as to conclude that "no PETS species of 'anthropods' [sic!] are found on the JNF." If we translate to "arthropods," the beetle Sphaeroderus schaumi proves him wrong. In a final insult to the public, Alcock threw out all literature references in the appeals on the grounds that the actual papers and volumes referred to were not sent to his office in Atlanta, thus ignoring literature easily accessible in his library down the hall. Such arrogance is made generic in most appeals as questions issued by the appellant are simply reworded as answers by the reviewing officer. Thus the chain of mismanagement and corruption is complete from the Chief in Washington to managers of the most remote biological communities, threatening these communities with bureaucratic extirpation.
There is an inspiration in the rolling blue ridges that triumphs over their glum prognosis. Now and then, discouraged by the juggernaut, our little band of Virginians feels the forest's healing influence even while surveying clearcut wastelands, knowing that paths also lead to groves we might yet save. We think of our vision of the future as proactive, leaping ahead of the bureaucratic destruction we fight each day to the wilderness reserves we know are the only feasible salvation of these mountains.
Knowing that every one can help, we dare reach into the cogs of the machine itself, hoping to find kindred spirits to aid our cause. We appeal to those active and potential moles in the agencies, particularly in the US Forest Service, who may have knowledge of illegal roads, timber sales (or give - aways) or other law circumventions. We'll keep your confidence. Try Virginians for Wilderness, and feel good about the mountains next time you get up.
I appreciate the association in the field and numerous discussions with Steve Krichbaum, Mike Jones and Gus Mueller. Consultation with Dr. Robert Hunsucker has been most productive, particularly in identifying rare plants of the Folly Mills wetland. In addition, I'm indebted to Steve Krichbaum for callingsome literature to my attention, and to Gus Mueller for his able word processing.
Armson, K. A. (1979) Forest Soils: Properties and Processes. University of Toronto Press. Toronto, Ontario.
Bamford, Sherman and R. F. Mueller (1992) Appeals Before the Regional Forester, Region 8, Big Flattop Opportunity Area, Jefferson National Forest.
Braun, E. Lucy (1950) Deciduous Forests of Eastern North America. Macmillan, New York, New York.
Core, Earl L. (1955) Cranberry Glades Natural Area. Contribution No.74 from Herbarium of West Virginia University, Wildflowers 31, pages 65 - 81.
Davis, Margaret Bryan (1981) "Mid - Holocene Hemlock Decline: Evidence for a Pathogen or Insect Outbreak," page 253 in Robert C. Romans, editor, Geobotany II, Plenum Press, New York, New York.
Delcourt, Paul A. and Hazel R. Delcourt (1981) "Vegetation Map for Eastern North America: 40,000 Years Before Present to the Present," pages 123 - 165, in Robert C. Romans, editor, Geobotany II, Plenum Press, New York, New York.
Dietrich, Richard V. (1970) Geology and Virginia. University Press of Virginia. Charlottesville, Virginia.
Duffy, David Cameron and Albert J. Meier (1992) "Do Appalachian Herbaceous Understories Ever Recover from Clearcutting?" Conservation Biology 6 (2), pages 196 - 201.
Fowells, H. A. (1965) Silvics of Forest Trees of the United States. Agriculture Handbook 271, US Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C.
Fenneman, N. M. (1938) Physiography of the Eastern United States. McGraw - Hill, New York, New York.
Fritz, Edward C. (1989) Clearcutting, A Crime Against Nature. Eakin Press, Austin, Texas.
Graham, Russell and Ernest L. Lundelius Jr. (1984) "Coevolutionary Disequilibrium and Pleistocene Extinctions." pages 223 - 249 in Paul S. Martin and Richard G. Klein, editors,Quaternary Extinctions, A Prehistoric Revolution. University of Arizona Press. Tucson, Arizona.
Guthrie, R. Dale (1984) "Mosaics, Allelochemicals and Nutrients, an Ecological Theory of Late Pleistocene Megafaunal Extinctions." pages 259 - 298 in Paul S. Martin and Richard G. Klein, editors, Quaternary Extinctions, A Prehistoric Revolution. University of Arizona Press, Tucson, Arizona.
Hayden, B. F. (1979) Atlas of Virginia Precipitation. University Press of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia.
Hoffman, Richard L. (1991) "Millipeda." pages 190 - 193 in Karen Terwilliger, editor Virginia's Endangered Species. McDonald and Woodward, Blacksburg, Virginia.
Jones, Mike (1992) Appeal Before the Regional Forester, Region 8, White rock Timber Sale, George Washington National Forest.
Kitteredge, Joseph (1948) Forest Influences. McGraw - Hill, New York, New York.
Krichbaum, Steven (1992) Appeal Before the Regional Forester, Region 8, Chip Shot Timber Sale, George Washington National Forest.
Langmaid, K. K. (1964) "Some Effects of the Earthworm Invasion in Virgin Podzols. Canadian Journal of Soil Science, 44, pages 34 - 37.
MacArthur, J. W. (1975) "Environmental Fluctuations and Species Diversity." pages 74 - 80 in M. L. Cody and J. M. Diamond,editors, Ecology and the Evolution of Communities. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Martin, William H. (1992) "Characteristics of Old Growth Mixed Mesophyte Forests," Natural Areas Journal 12 (3), pages 127 - 135.
Miller, Scott G., Suzan P. Bratton and John Hadidian (1992) "Impacts of White - tailed Deer on Endangered and Threatened Vascular Plants," Natural Areas Journal 12 (3), pages 67 - 74.
Minckler, Leon S. (1974) "Prescribing Silvicultural Systems," Journal of Forestry 72 (5).
Mueller, R. F. and Crickett Hammond (1990) "The California (Virginia) Timber Sale, A Case Study of Mismanagement," Earth First! Journal 10 (7), p9.
Mueller, R. F. (1990) "Floral Legacies of the Megafauna," Earth First! Journal 10 (3) page 23.
Mueller, R. F. (1991) "Central Appalachian Wilderness in Perspective, The George Washington National Forest," Wild Earth 1 (3) pages 63 - 67.
Mueller, R. F. (1992a) "Victory on Mill Mountain," Wild Earth 2 (1) p36.
Mueller, R. F. (1992b) "Appalachian Clearcutters Flunk Silviculture," Wild Earth 2 (1) pages 69 - 70
Mueller, R. F. (1992c) "Central Appalachian Wilderness in Perspective, The Monongahela National Forest," Wild Earth 2 (3) pages 56 - 60..
Mueller, R. F. (1992d) "Forest Service an 'Outlaw Agency,'" letter News Virginian, 5 - 8. Waynesboro, Virginia.
Mueller, R. F. (1992e) "Roads Threaten World Class Biodiversity Centers." Paving Moratorium Update, Issue No. 4, Arcata, California.
Nature Conservancy, The West Virginia Field Office (1991) Characterization and Conservation of Rare Species and Special Habitats of the Eagle Rock and Smoke Hole Opportunity Areas in the Monongahela National Forest. Charleston, West Virginia.
Noss, Reed (1992a) "The Wildlands Project Land Conservation Strategy," Wild Earth Special Issue. pages 19 - 25.
Noss, Reed (1992b) "The Ecological Effects of Roads," Preserve Appalachian Wilderness, Special "Obliterate! Revegetate!" Issue. pages 14 - 25.
Noss, Reed (1992c) "Ancient Forest Legislation Dialogue, Science Editor's Response," Wild Earth 2 (2) page 47.
Petranka, James W., Matthew E. Eldridge and Katherine E. Haley (1993) "Effects of Timber Harvesting on Southern Appalachian Salamanders," Conservation Biology 7 (2) pages 363 - 370.
Pielou, E. C. (1991) After the Ice Age. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois.
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Raymond, Larry R. and Laurence M. Hardy (!991) "Effects of a Clearcut on a Population of the Mole Salamander Ambystoma talpoideum, in an Adjacent Unaltered Forest," Journal of Herpetology 25 (4) pages 509 - 512.
Reifsnyder, William E. and Howard W. Lull (1965) Radiant Energy in Relation to Forests. Technical Bulletin Number 1344, US Department of Agriculture, Forest Service.
Robinson, Gordon (1988) The forest and the Trees, A Guide to Excellent Forestry. Island Press, Washington, D C, 257 pages.
Severson, R. C. and H. F. Arnemann (1973) "Soil Characteristics of the Forest - Prairie Ecotone in Northwestern Minnesota," Soil Science of America Proceedings 37, pages 593 - 599.
Starkey, Dale A., Steven W. Oak, George W. Ryan, Frank H. Tainter, Clair Redmond and H. Daniel Brown (1989) Evaluation of Oak Decline Areas in the South. Protection Report R8 - PR17, September, 1989, US Forest Service, Southern Region.
Strausbaugh, P. D. and Earl L. Core (1977) Flora of West Virginia (second edition) Seneca Books Inc., Grantsville, West Virginia.
Wieboldt, Thomas F. (1991) "Shale Barren Rock Cress," pages 108 - 110 in Karen Terwilliger editor, Virginia's Endangered Species. Mc Donald and Woodward. Blacksburg, Virginia.
Young, Buck (1992) "Toothless Wonders, Government Programs and Neotropical Migratory Songbirds: A Reply to Bonney. Wild Earth 2 (2) page 40.
Zahner, Robert (1989) "Bringing Old Growth Back to the Southern Appalachians," Earth First! Journal 10 (2) pages 18 - 19.
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(2) This plant is considered rare even on the Allegheny Plateau.
(3) These and a number of other rare plants were identified by Dr. Robert Hunsucker only recently.
(4) I use this term to distinguish such assemblages from mixed forest.
(5) An extreme case is Ice Mountain, West Virginia where a boreal community occurs only 700 feet (214 meters) above sea level (asl) associated with permanent ice collected in a talus slope (Strausbaugh and Core 1977).
(6) An excellent example of this differential effect of fire may be seen on the mountainside just east of the Hone Quarry Campground in the Dry River Ranger District of the George Washington National Forest.
(7) Many trees also have quite subtle fire adapted or resistant characteristics. These include rock accumulation rings concentric about the tree base that build up by diameter growth, and greatly thickened bark on the lower and hence most fire - exposed sides of leaning trunks.
(8) Pollen data indicate that some pathogen or insect brought about a catastrophic decline in Canadian Hemlock over wide areas if eastern North America about 4800 years ago (Davis 1981) .
(9) Such features are present in a stand of large Chestnut and White Oaks of the proposed Stillhouse Timber Sale mentioned earlier. In addition a complex fire history is displayed in this stand.
(10) Most logging contractors today possess only heavy equipment so they almost incapable of gentler logging methods.
(11) Steve Krichbaum points out that the data of Petranka et al do not include the numerous salamanders that die immediately while timber operations are occurring.
(12) An example is Butternut (Juglans cinerea), a federal C2 species but ignored quite generally in Forest Service actions
Robert Mueller [727 Stingy Hollow Road, Staunton Va. 24401] is a retired NASA scientist, naturalist and leader of Virginians for Wilderness.