Agenda - 08-25-1986 - Laserfiche WebLink

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- , y a if 2. Reported, but unverified, occurrence of Small whorled pogonia (Isotoria medeoloides) , a state and nationally endangered species. The orchid was collected over 10 years ago near the border between the hardwood and pine stand (Whigham 1971; and Mehrhoff, pers. comm. IN: Ohmann 1981) . H. Blackwood Mountain 1. Representative of Piedmont monadnock residual landform, dominated by chestnut oak with post and black oak and various hickories (Gibbon 1966) . I. Bald Mountain 1. Representatives of Piedmont monadnock residual landform, composed of resistant rhyolite, slates, diorite, and tonalite (Gibbon 1966) . 2. Good example of an old-growth, climax chestnut oak forest on and surrounding the exposed boulders of the monadnock (Gibbon, 1966) . Description: Duke Forest is located in the eastern Piedmont province of North Carolina. The forest is situated in the western Carolina slate belt, of Cambrian Age. Part of the Duke Division and most of the New Hope Division is underlaid -by. Triassic sediments of the Mesozoic era. The forest physiography consists of gently rolling hills and uplands separated by numerous valleys and streams. Steep, rocky slopes and bluffs occur occasionally, such as along New Hope Creek in the.Korstian Division (Ohmann, 1980) . Like the rest of the Piedmont, Duke Forest retains little of the original vegetation, believed to have been climax oak-hickory forest (Ashe 1987; Braun 1950) . Soon after European settlement, land clearing began on the Piedmont on a major scale. By the mid-1800 's nearly all arable land on the Piedmont was under cultivation (Powell 1975) . Economic factors and poor land management forced abandonment of much farmland during the latter half of the 19th and early part of the 20th century. Today much of the Piedmont landscape is in some stage of recovery from this abandonment. Relatively undisturbed stands of great age exist only in small, scattered locations usually on rocky areas, bluffs, or flooded areas inaccessible for timber cutting or inferior for growing crops (Oosting 1942) . Even many of these areas have at one time been selectively cut as woodlots (Gibbon 1966) . Up to and through the early 20th century, wood was the primary energy source in the Carolinas, and hardwood forests show the effects of selective cutting. During the late 19th century such cutting was intensified to provide wood for a growing furniture industry and for railroad ties (Pinchot and Ashe 1987) . The result is that today no old-growth forests remain on the Piedmont although scattered large oaks, often in excess of 300 years in age (some of them boundary trees) , persist in many of the selectively cut woods. In addition to cutting, grazing of both cattle and hogs has until recently been a chronic source of forest disturbance (Peet and Christensen 1980) .