Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Site characteristics of American chestnut, oak, and hickory witness trees on the Monongahela National Forest, West Virginia

Informally Refereed

Abstract

Early metes and bounds surveys of the area that would become the Monongahela National Forest in West Virginia were used to create a digital database of corner witness trees. With these electronic and geo-referenced data, physical characteristics were obtained to describe species' locations on the landscape. To characterize the physical environment, variables associated with the corner points were extracted from existing spatial datasets and derived from a digital elevation model. The terrain components that were assessed included topographic roughness, moisture index, aspect, and landform. Calculations were made for American chestnut, several oak species, and hickory species. Species-site associations differed by subsection. American chestnut, chestnut oak, and scarlet oaks, however, were generally found in areas of low moisture and at moderate elevations. White oak was more likely on areas of high moisture and valley floor landforms. Northern red oaks were more likely on S-SE facing benches with low moisture levels. While few differences between subsections were noted for these species, construction of predictive models should consider subsectional differences.

Parent Publication

Citation

Thomas-Van Gundy, Melissa; Strager, Michael. 2011. Site characteristics of American chestnut, oak, and hickory witness trees on the Monongahela National Forest, West Virginia. In: Fei, Songlin; Lhotka, John M.; Stringer, Jeffrey W.; Gottschalk, Kurt W.; Miller, Gary W., eds. Proceedings, 17th central hardwood forest conference; 2010 April 5-7; Lexington, KY; Gen. Tech. Rep. NRS-P-78. Newtown Square, PA: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Northern Research Station: 208-218.
https://www.fs.usda.gov/research/treesearch/38055