See the full sized version at my Deviant Art: https://www.deviantart.com/mrarbors.....0%3A1641939014
This old road is a closed out, but not technically fully decommissioned, haul road. The road bed is over 100 years old, with its most recent use being ~30-50 years ago (Forester of old kept great records...if you can find them...), and is in exceedingly good condition. We *were* going to use this road as the main haul road for a new timber sale, but unfortunately every possible unit along this road was dropped from the project. The areas with the best timber, were simply too steep to harvest in a way that is compliant with the Forest Plan. People who don't understand actual forest ecology will celebrate this, as no trees will be cut, and people who do understand forest ecology will shrug in disappointment.
Kinda sad, there was a lot of seed origin Oak regeneration in the under-story, that will never become anything, because the relative density of the stand, essentially the density of the over-story, is too high. The young oak stems will eventually give way to more shade tolerant species such as Red Maple and Black Gum (I'd say Ash, but EAB has rocked this area; Ash can't even get pole sized before they are killed), and given enough time without logging or a fire, Oaks will lose dominance in these stands. Not the natural, or historical, state for this part of Appalachia.
This old road is a closed out, but not technically fully decommissioned, haul road. The road bed is over 100 years old, with its most recent use being ~30-50 years ago (Forester of old kept great records...if you can find them...), and is in exceedingly good condition. We *were* going to use this road as the main haul road for a new timber sale, but unfortunately every possible unit along this road was dropped from the project. The areas with the best timber, were simply too steep to harvest in a way that is compliant with the Forest Plan. People who don't understand actual forest ecology will celebrate this, as no trees will be cut, and people who do understand forest ecology will shrug in disappointment.
Kinda sad, there was a lot of seed origin Oak regeneration in the under-story, that will never become anything, because the relative density of the stand, essentially the density of the over-story, is too high. The young oak stems will eventually give way to more shade tolerant species such as Red Maple and Black Gum (I'd say Ash, but EAB has rocked this area; Ash can't even get pole sized before they are killed), and given enough time without logging or a fire, Oaks will lose dominance in these stands. Not the natural, or historical, state for this part of Appalachia.
Category Photography / Scenery
Species Unspecified / Any
Gender Any
Size 1280 x 855px
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