The forest resources of West Virginia /

Abstract

, and subsequent amendments, the Forest Service, U. S. Department of Agriculture, conducts a series of continuing forest surveys of all states to provide up-to-date information about the forest resources of the Nation. This is a report on the latest forest survey of West Virginia. It supersedes two previous reports published in 1952 and 1964. The .Northeastern Forest Experiment Station staff during this most recent effort had the excellent help and cooperation of the West Virginia Department of Natural Resources. The resurvey of the State was directed by Carl E. Mayer, Resources Evaluation Project Leader. He was assisted by Joseph E. Barnard, who was responsible for the design of the inventory and sample selection as well as for supervision of data compilation. John R. Peters supervised the photo interpretation and the data collection by field crews. David R. Dickson applied the generalized data processing system, FINSYS, to the specific data needs of the West Virginia inventory and produced summary tables for the State and by counties and units. Teresa M. Bowers assisted in the inventory design by performing all the calculations necessary for sample-size determination and plot selection. She was responsible for the coordination of key-punching and other data-preparation tasks and the final preparation and statistical checking of tables for the report. James T. Bones, with the assistance of State personnel, collected and compiled the data on current utilization levels, timber products output, and harvesting and manufacturing residues. He was assisted in the compilation phase by

Climatic Trends of West Virginia: A Representative Appalachian Microcosm

“…Extensive LULC changes occurred across West Virginia (WV) and the broader Appalachian region between 1900 and 2016 that greatly contrast global LULC changes [26]. WV's dominant LULC transitioned from agricultural land (72%) to native forest cover (64%) between 1909 and 1949 [5]. Forest cover continued to increase in areal coverage (79%) and density (i.e., timber volume) through 2012 [6].…”

“…Spatial characteristics of temporal trends were estimated and statistical significance (α = 0.05) assessed over the entire time series (1900-2016) and during the first and second (1959-2016) halves of each time series at each observation location. Analyses for each half of the time series were performed because the data series was sufficiently long and the first half corresponded with reforestation whereas the second half corresponded with forest maturation and globally averaged warming exceeding 0.65 • C [4][5][6]23]. Except for New Cumberland (Table 1, Figure 1), each observation location had a more complete time series of each variable during the second half (93.8%) rather than the first half (71.7%) of the POR suggesting early data gaps (1900-1930) could have influenced results.…”

“…By the 1920s, most lumbermen abandoned WV for lands further south and west [2] and extensive fire prevention efforts resulted in the redevelopment of vast hardwood forests [4]. When the first United States (US) Forest Service forest survey of WV was completed in 1949 an estimated 64% of WV lands were forested, which increased to 75% by the 1961 forest survey [5] and was relatively steady (75% to 79%) through 2012 [6]. Despite relatively steady areal coverage since the 1961 forest survey, timber volume increased through 2012 consistent with a maturing forest ecosystem [6].…”

Changing Climatic Averages and Variance: Implications for Mesophication at the Eastern Edge of North America’s Eastern Deciduous Forest

“…Changes in WV's land use and land cover are representative of the broader EDF where old growth forest was converted to agricultural land uses before farms were abandoned allowing for rapid forest recovery [39]. For example, old growth hardwood forest covered approximately two thirds of WV in 1880 [26], in 1909, agriculture or pasture lands covered approximately 72% of WV ( Figure S1), and by 1949 approximately 64% of WV was forested [40]. Forest cover gradually increased through the 1975 forest survey (79%; [40]) and areal coverage remained steady through the 2013 forest survey, but timber volume increased to record levels in 2013 consistent with a maturing forest ecosystem [32].…”

Old-growth red spruce communities in the mid-Appalachians

“…However, by 1920 nearly all of the spruce forest type had been cut over (Clarkson 1964), and the distribution of spruce in West Virginia is presently much more restricted. Less than 24000 ha of forest were classified as red spruce or spruce-fir in a survey completed in 1975 (Bones 1978).…”