“Come into the light of things. Let nature be your teacher.”
William Wordsworth
The Setting:
An
Ecological Glimpse of the Shavers Fork Watershed
Stories in this book describe vast wild areas
and great forests. Following are short descriptions of the various habitats
found in the Shavers Fork watershed. While the areas tend to occur as layers as
one travels downhill from the highest points at Snowshoe and Bald Knob, many
exceptions exist. East- and west-facing slopes and water drainage patterns are
major factors. Millions of influences determine which species will live in any
particular area; however, general rules apply.
A Brief Ecological History
Shavers Fork has been forming since the
continental plates first began their slow, inevitable drift. Approximately 500
million years ago, what are now Africa and North America collided, forming the
Appalachian Mountains. Since then, the Appalachians have undergone three cycles
of buildup and erosion.
In the last two million years, Cheat Mountain has experienced approximately eighteen to twenty glacier cycles (Constanz, 14). While glaciers did not cover Cheat Mountain, they acutely impacted its climate. Giant animals like short-faced bears (larger than modern grizzlies), huge camels, two species of elephants, mastodons, mammoths, saber-toothed cats, American lions, and huge dire wolves ruled the landscape until humans appeared approximately 12,000 years ago.
The flora and fauna have undergone drastic
changes. When the Appalachians first formed, there were none of the trees and
laurel thickets prevalent today—these had not yet evolved. Mountains were
covered with primitive seed ferns, tree club mosses, and giant horsetails up to
sixty feet tall. These plants still exist, but as dwarf species. Modern
horsetails are often only two feet tall (Weidensaul, 12, 14). Later, animals and
insects populated the area.
As these glaciers retreated northward,
organisms dispersed with them. Boreal forest replaced tundra, then mixed
hardwoods, and then even more southern organisms. Some species became stranded
on mountains as the warmer climate moved in and broke up the forest. As the
weather continued to warm, the only place to find colder weather was at higher
elevations, separating species in the mountains. However, a mountain only goes
up so far, and some species literally climbed to extinction, at least locally.
View to the south (upstream) with Greenbrier Junction in lower center.
Photo courtesy
Zach Henderson
Shavers Fork Journey
The Shavers Fork is the highest river of its
size east of the Mississippi.
The watershed’s highest point is the top of Bald
Knob, 4,860 feet. A drop of rain that falls on Bald Knob cascades down roughly
eighty-four stream miles before it reaches Parsons. Over the course of its
journey, the river drops more than 3,200 feet, almost double the drop over the
rest of the 3,000-some odd mile journey through the Cheat, Monongahela, Ohio,
and Mississippi rivers before reaching the Gulf of Mexico (Brooks, 263).
Cheat Mountain’s precipitation offered the red spruce another advantage. The top of Cheat Mountain is the second wettest area in the state. Snowshoe Mountain Resort records more than fifty-six inches of precipitation per year and an average temperature of forty-three degrees (Stevenson, 7). This rain and snow create a climate that cools more than the elevation alone does.
Red spruce (Picea rubens), defines the forest atop Cheat Mountain. Rolling a needle in your fingers reveals the classic characteristics of spruce: short, stiff, sharp needles with squared edges. Like other conifers, it produces cones that are reddish with small seeds. If seed predators, like the red squirrel do not eat them, the seeds will likely produce the next generation of red spruce.
Before drastic ecological changes occurred as European settlers migrated to the region in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, spruce stands extended down to 2,000 feet in elevation. Changes in the ecosystem and intensive logging now limit stands to sites above 2,500 feet, and then the red spruce only thrive in wet, cold locations (Core, 35).
The condition of the original forest was lost
to intensive logging, which began around the turn of the nineteenth century.
Through anecdotal evidence, we have glimpses of what the forests were once like;
but there is virtually no scientific research from that time. In 1891, the
spruce forest in West Virginia was estimated at 469,000 acres with 140,500 acres
in Randolph County and 70,000 in Pocahontas (Brooks, 373, 374). The cutting
didn’t stop there. By 1910, less than twenty years later, the red spruce forest
area had declined to 190,000 acres—80,000 in Randolph and 70,000 in Pocahontas.
Ambrose Bierce, who lived on top of Cheat
Mountain at Fort Milroy in the winter of 1861–1862, provided one of the best
descriptions. Bierce compared the spruce forests to a dark pelt upon the
mountains—the legs of the pelt descending to lower reaches where conditions were
favorable.
Map showing distribution of Red Spruce in West
Virginia in 1911.
From A.B. Brooks’ survey published that year for the West
Virginia Agriculture Department.
Today, the forests may be close to 100 percent
spruce in the highest reaches. At lower elevations spruce trees mix with other
tree species, including, in order of decreasing abundance: yellow birch,
American beech, black cherry, red maple, striped maple, cucumber magnolia,
mountain magnolia, and yellow poplar (Stephenson, 27). The trees, while being
physically very large, do not determine all aspects of the forest. In fact,
trees often are found at a certain location because of help of other organisms.
Red spruce thrives in sites with a cold, wet climate and poor soil. Byzzania
moss helps to create this environment and needs the shade red spruce trees
provide. Symbiotic relationships like these, as well as other interactions,
yield a multitude of environments that support a wide variety of plant and
animal species.
The Cheat Mountain climate maintains many niches and environments that support an array of flora and fauna. Because the climate is so drastically different from the top of Cheat Mountain to the valleys, many species have been isolated here for thousands of years. Because of this isolation, populations would only breed with others on the mountain, creating genetic variations and serving to create numerous isolated populations of species that are normally found much further north. The Cheat Mountain salamander, the West Virginia northern flying squirrel, and running buffalo clover are examples of these locally rare and endangered species.
Numerous swamps and bogs are sprinkled among
the red spruce forests. While it may seem peculiar for mountains to have
wetlands, most do, and such areas are vital to many species. These wetlands
exist as small isolated pockets no larger than 250 acres in size, making them
small oases within the island in the sky that Cheat Mountain forms. Stands of
red spruce usually surround these wetlands, thriving in the wet, cool climate
and rich peat soil that the wetlands have produced.
Perhaps the best example of a high-elevation
wetland ecosystem is Blister Swamp, near Gaudineer Knob and named after the
balsam fir trees that grow in the area. Balsam firs are also called blister pine
because of the small pockets of resin on its trunk. These small pouches look and
feel like blisters on a person’s skin. When pinched, they pop, spraying a sticky
resin that is very hard to remove. Blister Swamp is one of the two southern-most
stands of balsam fir – it was named a national landmark in 1974. For the last
several years, a small insect called the balsam fir wooly adelgid has killed
many trees in this stand.
Beaver dam built in a bog on Cheat
Mountain. Courtesy The Nature Conservancy.
Mountain wetlands play a very important role in maintaining a cool climate, as they trap the moist air. Thus, the swamps help maintain the cool climate needed by red spruce trees. These wetlands also provide a unique habitat for many plants and animals, such as beavers, which actually create and maintain of some of these wetland areas.
Scour Zone
Another habitat along the upper reaches of the
Shavers Fork provides home to several rare species. Large blocks of ice form on
the surfaces of the streams during the winter. On warm days, the water rises
above the ice and becomes trapped, later freezing and enlarging the ice sheet
beyond the stream banks. As spring approaches, the ice melts and these sheets
shift and destabilize, scouring the stream banks. Annual scour prevents woody
plants from establishing themselves. This bare ground provides habitat for
herbaceous perennials, which die back each fall, except for their roots,
anchored in the rocks. This zone also makes for easy shore fishing. In well-used
areas, such as
around Cheat Bridge, the heavy foot traffic can destroy these
plants.
Sticky false asphodel (Tofieldia glutinosa) is an example of a species
that thrives in this scour zone and exists nowhere else in West Virginia but on
Cheat Mountain. An herbaceous perennial lily, it was first identified close to
the old town of Spruce, near the headwaters of Shavers Fork. Like many lilies,
it has narrow strap-like leaves that arise from the base of the plant. The
fourteen-inch tall flowering stalk is topped with one-quarter-inch broad white
or greenish flowers that appear in midsummer. Glutinosa is Latin for
sticky, referring to the stalk’s gluey feel. Like many other denizens of Cheat
Mountain, sticky false asphodel also occurs in Canada, Alaska, and the northern
U.S. It also can be found in the higher mountains of West Virginia, Georgia, and
North Carolina (Stephenson, 69).
Ice scouring river bottom and
banks, March 2004. Photo courtesy Ruth Blackwell Rogers.
Northern Hardwoods
Descending Cheat Mountain, there are fewer red
spruce and associated species, and the landscape gradually transforms into a
northern hardwood forest. Sugar maple, beech, and yellow birch dominate this
system, although hemlock, basswood, red maple, white ash, black cherry, black
birch, cucumber tree, yellow poplar, red oak, and chestnut oak are usually
present and occasionally co-dominant (Stephenson, 16). In some areas, these tree
species have outpaced the red spruce after logging, so they are likely more
widespread today than they once were. Like the red spruce, these, too, normally
exist farther north. In West Virginia, the northern hardwoods grow in a narrow
altitude band between 2,800 and 3,600 feet; exceptions occur when conditions are
right.
If healthy, the northern hardwood forest has five distinct horizontal layers. The first, the canopy layer, is the uppermost foliage of the tallest trees. The sub-canopy layer, mostly younger trees of the same species and species of trees that do not grow as high as the canopy layer, includes trees like mountain holly and striped maple. The third layer is composed primarily of woody shrubs and bushes like rhododendron, laurel, and red elderberry. These species do not develop a single trunk, but branch out close to the ground.
Herbaceous plants, such as spring wild flowers, ramps, and ginseng, make up the fourth layer; they flower in the spring because there is more light available before the trees leaf out. Bryophytes, including hornworts, liverworts, mosses, and lichens, make up the bottommost layer and play an important role in recycling decaying matter (Stephenson, 20, 21).
Oaks and
Caves
Below 2,800 feet, an oak hardwood community
covers a large part of the remaining Shavers Fork watershed. This ecosystem,
although similar to the northern hardwoods, the oak forest features some
significant differences. It includes sugar maple, white ash, American basswood,
and yellow birch, intermixed with and often dominated by various oak species,
giving the system its name.
In these lower mountain areas, various sediment layers may be exposed. Limestone is more common, creating caves, with many in the Bowden area. Some caves once sheltered Native Americans. These now entertain spelunkers, with some of the most complex, offering several miles of navigable trails. Several caves have been closed because of concern that their ceilings may collapse.
These caves are home to the Indiana bat (Myotis sodalis). While West Virginia is at the eastern edge of this bat’s range, more than 10,000 hibernate here. With a wingspan of ten inches, the Indiana bat weighs about as much as a house key. They are social animals, living in colonies both during the winter and the summer; with the summer colonies divided by sex. In winter, hibernation colonies are large and compact, with densities reaching 300 bats per square foot. This arrangement allows an individual bat to benefit from the heat of nearby bats, lowering the energy it uses to keep warm.
Due to a drastic decline in numbers, the Indiana bat has been named a threatened and endangered species. The causes of decline are not yet understood. One possible reason is loss of habitat in the Midwest since many forests are now gone. Another possibility is winter disturbance by cavers. The bat stores fat during summer and fall months to endure a long hibernation. Every time the bat wakes up from a disturbance, it wastes valuable fat stores, leading to slow, painful death by starvation (West Virginia Department of Natural Resources fact sheet).
Rocks and GeologyThe author at center right looking at High Falls of Cheat. Photo courtesy Vicki Chapin.
Aquatic Life
The
headwaters and small tributaries of the Shavers Fork support sculpins, black
nose dace, darters and several other species of small fish. Creek chubs and
darters swim in the larger channel. The mainstem also hosts the Cheat minnow,
which may be a unique species of fish or simply an interesting hybrid. The
sought-after brook trout runs throughout these waters.
The upper reaches of the Shavers Fork host native populations of brook trout. Unlike other fish, brook trout, which fishermen often call “brookies,” tolerate fairly acidic water. At higher elevations, there is not much limestone to buffer the stream, and the red spruce creates a slightly acidic environment for the water as it drains through the soil. While brookies and other fish species may tolerate this natural level of acidity, new acidic input from acid deposition threatens the species in the river.
Threats
to the Watershed
The red spruce ecosystem on Cheat Mountain is
particularly susceptible to global warming. A five-degree rise in average
temperature could eliminate red spruce and its associated species from Cheat
Mountain. Global warming is a tough problem because it has no single cause. Many
daily human activities, like driving cars and heating homes, add to global
warming.
As previously mentioned, pH levels of the river are also precarious. Surprisingly, the water from local mines is not the source; the primary problem comes from the clouds in the form of acid deposition commonly called acid rain. Since Cheat Mountain is often cloaked in clouds, which tend to have a lower pH than rain, acid arrives in more ways than just rain. Pollution from the Midwest floats eastward until it hits Cheat Mountain, dropping as rain or snow as it climbs over the mountain to continue eastward.
There have been attempts to correct this acidity, such as dumping ground limestone near small streams to help alkalize the acidic water. Acid precipitation still creates problems. One impact acid rain has on trees is that it breaks down the leaves’ outer waxy layer, making the trees more susceptible to infection. Red spruce trees seem especially vulnerable to acid precipitation, which may underlie the marked decline in red spruce trees of all ages in recent times (Stephenson, 261–265).
In certain areas, old trees are dying prematurely. While young trees continue to replace the old, size diversity is important to associated species. Perhaps the most troubling aspect of acid precipitation is that there are no signs of improvement, and there probably will not be until efforts address the sources of the problem and not just the symptoms.
The final threat considered here is invasive plant species, which are slowly moving up the watershed toward the top of Cheat Mountain. These species are able to out-compete an area and can completely choke out other plants. Ferns are a prime example, and it is no longer difficult to find fern-covered forest ground.
Wildlife
One major impact of the turn-of-the 20th
century clearcut was decimation of the deer population. Whitetails almost
disappeared in 
the early 1900s. A small herd survived on the top of Cheat
Mountain. In 1909 a series of laws were passed prohibiting the sale and shipment
of game outside of West Virginia. These laws were in effect until 1921, when
game wardens were hired and a deer-hunting season was established. In 1930, the
population of deer in the Monongahela National Forest was estimated to be only
thirty deer (Berman, 74). By 1945, the population had completely rebounded and
deer were considered pests in some areas.
Black bears were almost wiped out because they were considered an enemy of people. Many counties placed a bounty on the animals, hoping to be rid of the nuisance. If they had a little more time, they might have been successful. West Virginia’s bear population was reduced to approximately 500 bears at one point; but the general perception of the animal began to change. The black bear was named the state mammal in 1955, although Pocahontas County’s bounty remained in effect until 1969 (Stephenson, 219). Now black bear thrive in West Virginia and maintain a stable population.
Entry in Cheat Mountain Club logbook listing species of birds, plants, and animals found during the Brooks Bird Club Annual Foray. Photo by Matthew Branch.
Other species have followed a similar pattern. Turkeys once almost vanished from West Virginia, but due to a change in management practices, and a little bit of luck (many early attempts at increasing the population failed), the turkey population is thriving. Other species were not so lucky. Woodland bison (Bison bison) were the first to disappear; the last one was killed near the headwaters of the Shavers Fork in 1825. Then elk (Cervus elaphus) were hunted to extinction. The last elk was shot in 1890. The last grey wolf was killed in 1900, although coyotes probably now fill their ecological niche. By 1923, beavers (Castor canadensis) were hunted and trapped to extinction because of their sought after pelts. However, they were reintroduced between 1933 and 1940 and have since made a spectacular comeback (Stephenson, 216, 219–221).