Connestee Falls
Natural Resources Stewardship Committee
Managing Forest Health
EcoForesters Forest Management Plan
In 2023, the NRSC commissioned EcoForesters, a nonprofit professional forestry organization dedicated to conserving and restoring our Appalachian forests, to develop a long-term CF Forest Management Plan. The EcoForesters Forest Management Plan (FMP) is an extension of the Natural Resources Inventory (NRI) created by Equinox Environmental. The purpose of the FMP is to further explore and define the conditions of the CF forested property to identify threats, to make sound forest management recommendations, and to promote ecosystem health and long-term sustainability. (View the slide presentation)
2023 Equinox Natural Resources Inventory
In 2021, the NRSC commissioned Equinox Environmental to conduct an inventory of CF natural resources to form a basis for future planning. The completed 2023 Equinox NRI report contains a baseline assessment of the natural resources within CF, delineating the composition of the forested natural communities and assessing their age, health, and notable components. The NRI report describes six distinct Forest Community Types present on CF property, as well as wildlife presence/absence and habitat type/quality.
"The Property’s forests, gorges, outcrops, streams, and wetlands offer excellent habitat heterogeneity for a diversity of plants and animals. The sheer size of the property, complemented by its close proximity and contiguity to several other largely undisturbed, protected properties only adds to the Property’s biological significance." (Equinox NRI Report, page 8)
Acidic Cove Forest
This community can be found occupying most of the mid- to lower elevation mesic drainages and stream corridors across the Property. Representative examples can be found in the stream valley along Ogana and Amakola Trails.
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Vegetation: Canopy and subcanopy include tulip poplar, Fraser magnolia, yellow birch, eastern white pine, silverbell, northern red oak, pignut hickory, hemlock, Eastern red maple, black locust, sourwood, and blackgum.
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The presence, abundance, and density of healthy hemlocks is an important component to these forests; this would not be the case without diligent and repeated chemical treatments by community members.
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Small streamside seepages occur in places within this forest type. Woody debris from fallen hemlocks offers habitat for insects, amphibians, and small rodents.
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The acidic coves lining the Carson Creek gorge in the northern extent of the Property have a unique prevalence of yellow birch (Betula allegheniensis). The narrow, steep, and sheltered nature of the gorge has created a microclimate favorable for the species, which normally occurs in coves and above 3500’.
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Estimated Age: There is a considerable age range throughout the patches of this forest on the property. While the coves in the deep recesses of Carson Creek gorge are relatively mature with specimen trees up to 120 years old; these are mainly red oak and chestnut oak, which typically reach a maximum age of 150 years. There are many more examples that range between 30-70 years old based on average diameter and stand density.
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Health: These cove forests are generally in good health. One of the most historically important elements of these forests, the hemlocks, have been at least partially preserved by the efforts of the community to have them chemically treated to reduce and prevent infestation by the hemlock woolly adelgid (HWA). In the past, most of the region’s acidic coves were strongly dominated by Eastern hemlock, but their populations have been drastically reduced by the HWA; in places it has been mostly extirpated, leaving behind large, standing dead trees that eventually fall, scattering the forest floor with debris.
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(Source: Equinox NRI page 11)
Chestnut Oak Forest (Dry Heath)
This forest type occurs primarily on xeric slopes and ridges in the Property’s western and southern extent. Representative examples can be found along the western extent of Kelley Mountain Trail.
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Vegetation: Canopy and subcanopy includes dry-tolerant oaks such as Northern red, scarlet, and chestnut oak; white oak, yellow pines, sourwood, serviceberry, sassafras, flowering dogwood, and eastern red maple. *Notably, American chestnut sprouts are visible in some places.
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Estimated Age: The xeric nature of the sites containing this community type is prohibitive to regular annual plant growth, thus it is difficult to determine the age of some of those forests. The situation is further confounded by the shallow soils that are often underlain by bedrock, slowing mass-producing growth and sometimes causing stunting. Some of the largest chestnut oaks could be between 80-120 years old.
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Health: This community type is historically fire-adapted, but the long absence of fire has led to a general overcrowding of the shrub layer, particularly by mountain laurel and huckleberry; this suppresses the establishment and development of canopy tree seedlings and can cause the buildup of fuels on the forest floor that could lead to more catastrophic effects in the event of a wildfire.
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Source: Equinox NRI Report, page 13
Chestnut Oak Forest-Mesic
This subtype occurs mainly in the steep, moist upper slopes of the gorge and narrow coves containing Carson Creek, located on the northern extent of the Property. Representative examples can be found along the Carson Creek Trail & its Connector Trails, which pass through it on their descent into the bottom of the gorge.
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Vegetation: Slopes within this community tend to be extremely steep, with rock outcroppings and large boulders occurring frequently. Canopy and subcanopy include chestnut oak, northern red oak, Eastern hemlock, sourwood, and black gum.
Estimated Age: These forests are considerably mature, especially in the steepest and rockiest areas. Some canopy trees like chestnut oak, red oak, and Fraser magnolia, appear to be between 80-150 years old, with some large individuals exceeding 40 inches in diameter that were found in extreme topographic positions.
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Health: These forests are in good condition and are generally sheltered from disturbances. Populations of Eastern hemlock have been repeatedly treated for HWA, leading to very healthy and mostly intact trees that make up a fair proportion of the canopy and keep the gorge consistently dark and humid. Although it was likely that much if not all the timber was cut from Carson Creek gorge, there are certainly areas steep and rocky enough to potentially discourage loggers from cutting certain trees. Furthermore, chestnut oak was historically a less desirable timber species due to the prevalence of knots in the wood and the propensity of the tree to undulate along the bole, making it more difficult to mill. Although effects from Botryosphaeria or Phytophthora were not observed, if they were to become introduced into the system, those diseases have the potential to decimate stands of great laurel because of its clonal nature and the overall maturity of stands within this community. They could also transfer to other populations found in acidic coves or pine-oak/heath communities. This community is not strongly fire- adapted due to its mesic setting and dense shrub layer, but it appears that fire must play at least a passive role in its development due to the recurrent dominance of oaks in the canopy; fire openings must have been sufficient to allow for seedling regeneration of oaks and other canopy hardwoods.
Montane Oak-Hickory
This is the most common forest type across the Property and its presence is representative of the overall soil acidity of the area. It occurs over a broad range of topographic positions and aspects and thus has a wide range of variability within its vegetative composition. It rarely occurs in concave landscapes, more often occupying ridgetops and convex flank slopes. Excellent examples can be found on the Kelley Mountain Trail.
Estimated Age: Generally speaking, the most common onsite examples of this forest range between 30 and 70 years old. The youngest examples occur within proximity to heavily disturbed/managed areas, such as previously logged areas or disturbance associated with road and home construction. However, in isolated places along Kelley Mountain and in the steep, upper slopes of the Carson Creek Gorge, there are larger trees, fewer logging roads, and a more natural structure to the forest floor; these areas may be up to 100 years old.
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Health: Overall these forests are in good health, with interior areas exhibiting good structure and lacking observable disease. Like other communities onsite, these forests are fire adapted and under historic fire suppression regimes they have become increasingly dense with laurel and huckleberry, limiting the reproduction of canopy tree seedlings. Continued fire suppression may impact the succession of slow-growing canopy trees such as oaks and hickories and favor more pioneering species such as red maple; it will also further the over-accumulation of fuels on the forest floor, which can lead to catastrophic effects during natural wildfire.
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Source: Equinox NRI Report, page 17
Pine-Oak/Heath
This community is found on sharp ridges and dry slopes on the northern and western extent of the Property, with the best examples found primarily along the ridges surrounding Kelly Mountain and some upper slopes surrounding Laurel Branch in the southern extent of the Property.
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Vegetation: Pitch pine; shortleaf pine; scarlet, southern red, and chestnut oaks; blackgums and scattered American chestnut seedlings
Estimated Age: The most mature examples could be approximately 70-120 years old based on the diameter of the largest pines found throughout the forests in combination with the considerable maturity and density of mountain laurel in the understory.
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Health: These mature forests are in very good health. The pines show very little evidence of damage from pine bark borer beetles or related stress (epicormic sprouting). However, there is poor seedling recruitment of natural pine and hardwoods, perhaps due to historic fire suppression.
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Source: Equinox NRI Report, page 19
Southern Appalachian Mountain Bog
This unique and rare community type is confined to a very small area in the far southeastern extent of the Property; it occurs across several unbuilt lots, and a new home was constructed recently on one of the lots that is part of the bog’s immediate watershed.​
Estimated Age: It is difficult to determine the exact age of the bog, but long-term research into this community type in the Southern Appalachian region indicate that bogs existed in our region for a long period and were likely larger and more widespread in the wetter and cooler conditions of the Pleistocene epoch, from 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago. They have remained a small but important part of the landscape since our modern climate was established; evidence suggests that bogs are not ephemeral communities and did not appear and disappear widely across the landscape, but that they have long occurred where they are found. Although few bogs have been studied to determine their age, MacDonald (2010) found organic deposits extending back to 14,934 years ago in one site, and Shafer (1988) found organic material back to 3,300 years; thus, it is appropriate to infer that the bog found on the Property is within that age range.
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Health: The bog appears to be moderately healthy, although there are many unnatural factors currently affecting its vegetative diversity and overall integrity. Most importantly, there are exotic invasive plants (EIP) in and around the bog that threaten the native flora. Also, the directly adjacent areas contain impervious road surface that contributes stormwater runoff, which is warmer than rainwater and carries pollutants, directly into the bog. Finally, the directly-adjacent Unbuilt Lots contain the local watershed for the bog, known as the “bogshed”, an area that is critical to the hydrologic integrity of the bog. Any substantive changes to those lots, including removal of vegetation, construction of structures, and establishment of impervious surface, pose a true threat to the bog’s integrity.
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Source: Equinox NRI Report, page 21
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