Old-Growth Forest Hike

The Old-growth Forest Tour at Burnwood lets visitors experience the forest before the logging days.

Thomas Saladyga

 

Old-growth forests are forests that escaped the large-scale industrial clearing that most of the modern landscape in Appalachia has historically experienced. These forests presently act as a window to glimpse back in time and see what most forests across the Eastern United States would have originally looked like. Natural processes have been the main driver shaping old-growth forests and they often differ significantly in composition and function compared to younger forests. Large, old, charismatic trees and multi-layered canopies are defining features. Decomposing woody debris covers old-growth forest floors. Scientists use old-growth forests as baselines to help manage modern forests. On the Burnwood trail, visitors can see an old-growth forest dating back to the 17th century.

The Burnwood trail is 1.2 miles of easy to moderate difficulty in the shape of a lollipop. The main trail will lead to a loop portion that goes through the heart of the old-growth forest. After finishing the loop, hikers will retrace their steps on the main trail to return to the parking lot. Along the way, numbered signs on the trail will correspond to the stops on this webpage for hikers to read as part of the self-guided tour.

Directions to Burnwood Trail

From Canyon Rim Visitor Center: Take a left out of the parking lot and return to US-19. Carefully cross US-19 into the Burnwood area. Continue up the hill into the Day Use area. The trailhead sign is just before the picnic pavilion. Parking is available in the gravel lot in front of the trailer.

From Beckley, WV: Take US-19 north from Beckley towards Summersville and Oak Hill. After passing the Glen Jean exit, continue for 12.7 miles past the towns of Oak Hill and Fayetteville. Cross the New River Gorge Bridge and take the first left crossing the southbound lane of US-19. Continue up the hill into the Day Use area. The trailhead sign is just before the picnic pavilion. Parking is available in the gravel lot in front of the trailer.

 

A logger in Webster County, WV posing with a large tulip poplar log.

West Virginia & Regional History Collection

Stop 1 - Logging History of Appalachia

Directions: From the Burnwood Introduction Wayside, hike roughly .03 miles, or about 70 yards.

Coordinates: 38.07632, -81.07547

Large trees over 100 feet tall and hundreds of years old were once common across the Appalachian landscape. Throughout the late 19th to early 20th century, a large-scale commercial logging boom swept across the forests of Appalachia. New advancements in sawmill technology and rapid development of urban areas across the country created a higher demand for lumber, resulting in millions of acres of forests being clearcut within a few decades. It is estimated that less than 1% of the original forests remain throughout the eastern United States and West Virginia, usually in small patches of a few dozen acres or less.

The forest along this trail was a small tract of private property owned by the Laing family. Evidence along the trail reveals part of the land was cleared for pasture and a homestead, but some of the forest was left to grow naturally with minimal human impact. It is unclear why they chose not to cut a portion of their land. Perhaps they left the forest for hunting or as a form of insurance where they could sell their timber during times of potential hardship. Look for clues of past land use from the remnant fencing found along the sides of this portion of the trail.

 

Large tree in the Burnwood forest.

Thomas Saladyga

Stop 2 - Defining Old-Growth

Directions: Continue on the trail for 0.01 miles, about 20 yards.

Coordinates: 38.07647, -81.07530

What determines if a forest is old-growth? A defining attribute is that an old-growth forest hasn’t experienced any major human disturbance throughout its history. This rule can be hard to adhere to since Native Americans actively managed forestlands across the entirety of North America, and it would be difficult to say no existing forest hasn’t had some human intervention at some point in time. Native Americans frequently used fire to promote wild game habitat and cleared land to build larger settlements along fertile bottomlands. A timeline cutoff often used is that a deciduous forest in Appalachia can be considered old-growth if it existed prior to the widespread industrial or agricultural land clearing of the 19th century. The industrial land use era had a large impact across the landscape and the effects can still be seen today throughout the forests that grew back. Forests that predate the industrial era may have had some level of human intervention historically, but enough time has passed so that the disturbance can no longer be observed. In these forests, natural processes have been the major force shaping their development.

The forest type is also important in determining when a forest should be considered old-growth. Some of the larger and older trees within the forest need to near the maximum age for their species. A 250-year-old forest in the Eastern United States could be considered old-growth since most overstory tree species reach a maximum life of 300-400 years. However, a 250-year-old forest may not classify as old-growth in the Pacific Northwest where trees can live for over 1,000 years. Some forests and ecosystems don’t ever achieve old-growth characteristics due to naturally occurring large, frequent disturbances. In the New River Gorge, riverscour prairies are habitats on the river’s edge where frequent flooding scours the riverbank and keeps vegetation from ever reaching old age. A riverscour prairie could exist that has never even had humans set foot in it, but it still wouldn’t be considered old-growth since flooding naturally keeps most of the plants from achieving old age.

Despite some subjectivity surrounding the definition of old-growth, there are many characteristics that are unique to old-growth deciduous forests that can be scientifically measured and classified that set them apart from younger forests.

 

Aerial imagery of Burnwood shows the field filling in with trees over twenty years.

Aerial footage captured in Google Earth

Stop 3 - Forest Succession

Directions: Continue on the trail for 0.06 miles, about 100 yards.

Coordinates: 38.07737, -81.07519

The forest to your right is in stark contrast with the forest along the rest of this trail. This young forest was an old field probably used for livestock, hay, or a yard. Aerial imagery from Google Earth reveals that the National Park Service stopped mowing the field in the mid-2000s and young tulip poplar trees have quickly infilled. Tulip poplars are not tolerant of shade and are quick to establish in open areas with high sunlight, growing vigorously so that other species don’t overtop them.

This young forest is an example of a secondary, early successional forest that is in the beginning stages of development. Succession is the process by which vegetation communities change in species composition and structure through time as the ecosystem matures. This forest is considered even-aged, where all of the trees began growing at the same time after mowing stopped. Old-growth forests are late-successional and uneven-aged, where trees naturally grow to their upper age limits and numerous canopy layers and ages of trees can be found. The uneven-age of older forests is evidence that the trees didn’t all begin growing at the same time after a large human disturbance cleared the entire area. Instead, numerous smaller events such as infrequent windstorms knock down a small percentage of trees, creating gaps in the canopy that allow for new growth to establish in pockets throughout the forest once sunlight reaches the ground.

 

Research team from Concord University. From left to right: Ricardo Chinea-Pegler, Thomas Saladyga, Alexis Foster (documentarian), Joseph Duffer (in front), Mitchell Roush, Madison Cook, Haidyn DePinho, Madison Cornett, and Andrew Trump. Not shown: Keiley Dudding

NPS / Chance Raso

Stop 4 - Decoding the Old-Growth

Directions: Continue on the trail for 0.04 miles, about 70 yards.

Coordinates: 38.07724, -81.07576

You are now in the heart of the old-growth forest. How do we know that the Burnwood forest is old-growth? The presence of numerous species of large trees made park rangers at New River Gorge National Park & Preserve believe that the forest could be considered old-growth. During the fall of 2022, the National Park Service partnered with Dr. Tom Saladyga, Professor of Geography at Concord University in Athens, West Virginia. Dr. Saladyga is a dendrochronologist, or a scientist who specializes in using annual growth rings to accurately date trees and study changes in the environment, such as past fire, climate, storms, and human activities.

Dr. Saladyga led eight of his students for a class project to classify Burnwood as an old-growth forest. The work led to a research report published by the National Park Service titled, Documenting Remnant Old Growth at New River Gorge National Park & Preserve: A Pre-Industrial Legacy Forest at the Burnwood Area.

The study confirmed that the forest should be considered old-growth. Fourteen of the fifty trees that were sampled were at least 250 years old, with five individuals dating to the 1670s. This research revealed that the forest escaped the industrial logging period of the early 20th century, has experienced minimal human disturbance, and existed prior to European settlement of the New River Gorge.

 

An old red maple with a twisted trunk, a common feature of older trees.

Thomas Saladyga

Stop 5 - Characteristics of Old Trees

Directions: Take a left at the intersection to do the loop trail in a clockwise direction. Continue the trail for 0.09 miles, or 150 yards

Coordinates: 38.07670, -81.07717

This large chestnut oak is over 160 years old and provides an example of some of the unique physical characteristics trees develop in older age. By looking around the entire trunk, you will notice some parts of the tree’s bark are thick-plated and blocky while some areas of bark are flat. Many older trees will have a mix of balding and protruding bark patterns up and down the entire trunk. Bark on old trees can also be strikingly different in appearance compared to younger trees of the same species. Old trees also have very little stem taper, with minimal change in diameter from the base of the tree to the top near the crown.

Perhaps the best clue to determine if a tree is old lies within the branches and the crown. Lower branches are absent, indicating the tree grew in a closed-canopy forest where lower branches wouldn’t be useful to capture sunlight. Older trees usually have only a few large diameter branches that are high up into the crown, resembling a stalk of celery that only has leaves at the top of the tall stem. The upper branches are twisted and gnarled from decades of withstanding harsh winds and continuously reaching through the canopy attempting to capture available sunlight.

 

An increment borer with an extracted tree ring sample inside an American beech tree.

Thomas Saladyga

Stop 6 - How Tree Age is Determined

Directions: Continue on the trail for 0.03 miles, about 50 yards

Coordinates: 38.07675, -81.07778

The large tree just off the trail to the left with thick-plated, irregular shaped, blocky bark resembling alligator hide is a blackgum. Blackgum is a long-lived, slow growing tree that is highly tolerant of shade, being able to wait in the understory for centuries before a neighboring tree falls and allows for direct sunlight to reach the forest floor. This blackgum is the oldest tree along the trail and has an inner-ring date of 1674, being at least 350 years old.

How are trees accurately dated? The researchers from Concord University who led the Burnwood study used an instrument called an increment borer to extract a straw-sized sample containing the growth rings from the tree. The increment borer has a sharp bit that is twisted into the tree by the user and the wood sample is then extracted from the hollow auger.

While this tree is confirmed to be at least 350 years old, it could be much older. When coring a large tree, if the increment borer is off from the center of the tree by even a couple of inches, decades of growth rings could be missing from the sample, especially on slow growing trees like the blackgum.

 

A graph showing the relationship between tree age and diameter for each tree that was sampled for the Burnwood project. The graph shows that after a certain age, tree size isn’t always a reliable metric to determine age.

Thomas Saladyga

Stop 7 - A Forest Giant

Directions: Continue on the trail for 0.07 miles, about 115 yards.

Coordinates: 38.07751, -81.07830

This American beech is the largest tree by diameter and volume along the trail. Unfortunately this tree couldn’t be dated due to being hollow, but despite its size it may not be as old as it appears. Some large trees are young, and some small trees are old. While larger trees are usually older, this relationship between size and age will not be as consistent with the oldest of trees.

The graph from the study conducted by Concord University researchers shows that the relationship between tree size and age starts to fade once a tree reaches about 200 years old. Oftentimes, the oldest trees are rather small and unsuspecting; the oldest tree in this forest is a blackgum off-trail that dated to 1671 but was less than 19 inches in diameter. Trees like this example have usually been growing under closed forest canopies for long periods of time, waiting for an opportunity to capture sunlight.

The large, spreading branches on this American beech indicates that it has been growing in more open conditions free of neighboring trees competing for sunlight, allowing for decades of rapid growth. Two American beech trees smaller than this individual were sampled in this forest, each with inner ring year dates of 1829 and 1755 respectively, and the age of this large tree is probably within that range.

 

Jack-o-lantern mushrooms growing on decayed coarse woody debris.

Ricardo Chinea-Pegler

Stop 8 – Decomposition

Directions: Continue on the trail for 0.14 miles, about 245 yards.

Coordinates: 38.07841, -81.07714

There are many different components other than just big, old trees that make up an old-growth forest. Large fallen trees on the forest floor, also called coarse woody debris, are a key feature researchers use to determine if a forest truly is old-growth. When a large tree falls it can take decades if not over a century for the wood to fully decompose. Finding this decomposing debris highlights that humans haven’t altered the forest by taking fallen wood for use. This rotting wood does not go to waste. The decomposition of wood recycles nutrients and carbon back into the forest soils, which act as long-term carbon sinks for greenhouse gases.

Old-growth forests generally have a higher composition of plants and decomposers such as moss, lichen, and mushrooms that either live or feed on the moist, decomposing wood. Many species of wildlife rely on the large coarse woody debris found in old-growth forests for their habitat. The moisture retained in the shaded forest floor and in the coarse woody debris create perfect conditions for salamanders to flourish. Coarse woody debris is also used as denning habitat for smaller mammals such as foxes, skunks, and opossums. Dead standing trees called snags are also more common in old-growth forests and provide great habitat for bats, owls, and the cerulean warbler, a declining bird species that relies on mature, deciduous forests.

 

A fallen tree in the Burnwood forest

Thomas Saladyga

Stop 9 - Old-Growth Complexity

Directions: Continue on the trail for 0.12 miles, about 210 yards.

Coordinates: 38.07735, -81.07581

This large oak tree fell and took out a few other trees with it during a snowstorm in January 2024. Infrequent disturbance events like storms and low-intensity wildfires that knock over and kill a small percentage of trees within the forest are an important ecosystem process. These fallen trees are not necessarily a bad thing, disturbances like this are part of the processes that add complexity to an old-growth forest.

When this tree fell the root ball came with it, creating a large pit in the ground. Pit and mound topography is a defining characteristic of old-growth forests and these features can last on the landscape for centuries. The pit will eventually fill up from the dirt that erodes off the root ball, creating an obvious mound. Look to your left off trail and you will see an old mound from a tree that probably fell decades ago.

Now that the snowstorm blew over these trees, more coarse woody debris is on the forest floor that will slowly decompose, recycling nutrients and creating new wildlife habitat. A beam of light now shines through the opening in the canopy, allowing for young tree seedlings to grow. Old-growth forests are always in a constant state of change but are self-renewing, where the end of one organism means new beginnings for others.

 

Attendees from the ceremony inducting the Burnwood trail into the Old-Growth Forest Network on August 4th, 2023.

Mark Strella & Kayla Green

Stop 10 - Old-Growth Forest Network

Directions: Continue on the trail, finishing the loop for 0.05 miles, about 85 yards. After finishing the loop, return up the trail back towards the parking lot the way you came. After the final stop, it is about 0.3 miles hike to the parking lot.

Coordinates: 38.07728, -81.07540

On August 4th, 2023, a ceremony was held with over 50 people in attendance to induct the Burnwood Trail into the Old-Growth Forest Network, a national non-profit organization with the goal of dedicating at least one protected old-growth forest open to the public in each county in the United States that can sustain a native forest.

Having forests permanently protected in parks like these at New River Gorge National Park & Preserve means more forests will be allowed to continue to grow and mature into old-growth in the future. The research done by Concord University allows park managers to better understand what kind of forest we are managing towards.

Trails like Burnwood allow visitors to look through a window into the past and see what the original forests looked like. Now that you know what kind of unique characteristics old trees and forests have, look for these features whenever you are hiking and you may stumble across a previously undocumented old-growth forest that could potentially be part of the Old-Growth Forest Network.

To learn more about old-growth forests within New River Gorge National Park & Preserve, including a video about Burnwood and a link to the research report produced in partnership with Concord University, visit Old-Growth Forests - New River Gorge National Park & Preserve.

 

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