On December 9th 2020, I closed on the purchase of 10.06 acres of mountainous forest in North Carolina in the Black Mountain region at an elevation 885 - 980 m (2,900 - 3,210 ft). On July 28th 2021, I closed on an adjacent 10.21 acre lot, bringing the total area to 20.27 acres. Towards the end of June 2022, I closed on a third adjacent lot of 10.04 acres, bringing the total to 30.31 acres (or 1.32 million square feet). The third lot reaches a slightly higher elevation that the other two, at 1020m, 3,346ft. It is a fairly mature forest with some huge specimens, and is almost entirely deciduous. It seems to be a combination of mountain oak forest on the ridges and acidic cove forest in the valleys. It is bordered on the west side (and the NE corner) by an SAHC conservation area which extends across the peaks of the mountains, and by currently undeveloped lots to the N, E and S. I have visited several times since 2020, and my discoveries during each visit are documented at the links below.
The image below shows a satellite map with the boundaries of my three lots, from left to right Lots A, B, and C. The top of the picture is the westerly direction leading up to the crest of the mountains. The access road is on the bottom left, terminating in Lot A.
A tilted view to show the topography is shown below.
Green means I have found at least one huge specimen, at least 7 feet in circumference (8 species)
Black means I have found at least one mature specimen for that species
Orange means I have only found small or medium-sized specimens, significantly smaller than the mature size for that species (5 species)
Red means I haven't found anything much bigger than a sapling (2 species).
The number in brackets after the species name represents the number of medium-large specimens I have been able to find. In some cases, such as Sassafras and Mountain Silverbell, there are a lot of seedlings and saplings, but very few medium or large specimens. There are probably more than 1000 Chestnut Oak trees, several 100 Sourwood, Red Maple, Tulip Tree, Sweet Birch, and Northern Red Oak trees, and probably more than 100 Fraser Magnolia trees (these first seven species probably account for more than 95% of the trees). From Scarlet Oak onwards, they start to become increasingly rare. The least abundant is the Basswood for which I have only found one isolated sapling, on Lot A. For the 8 species where I have only a handful of precious medium or large specimens: Scarlet Oak (1 mature), Eastern White Pine (3 mature), Mountain Silverbell (2 medium), Cucumber Magnolia (2 medium), Eastern Hemlock (2 medium), Yellow Buckeye (1 mature), Sassafras (1 medium), White Ash (1 mature), loss of a single tree would be disastrous. I recently measured the circumferences at chest-height of the largest specimens I could find on my land for most of my tree species. A plot is shown below. The Black Locust tree is missing from the plot as all the larger specimens are either dead or almost dead.
The 9 "small tree or shrub" species I have positively identified so far, in order of abundance, are as follows: Carolina Rhododendron, Rosebay Rhododendron, Mountain Laurel, Witch-hazel, Striped Maple, Flowering Dogwood, American Chestnut, Alternate-leaf Dogwood, Glaucous Willow (1)
I've included the American Chestnut in the small tree or shrub category because it never reaches tree size due to the blight.
Tree species that are known to grow in this region of the North Carolina mountains, at this elevation range, but I have so far not been able to find on my lots, are the following - 16 of them: Sugar Maple, Yellow Birch, Bitternut Hickory, Shagbark Hickory, Common Persimmon, American Beech, Green Ash, American Holly, Black Walnut, Umbrella Magnolia, Shortleaf Pine, Table Mountain Pine, Pitch Pine, Virginia Pine, Blackjack Oak, Carolina Hemlock.
Each lot has its own special features: Lot A: One spring, one ridge. Largest Tulip Tree, Northern Red Oak, Chestnut Oak, and Red Hickory. Sole specimens of Mockernut Hickory, medium-sized Mountain Silverbell (2), and Sassafras (4). Lot B: Two streams, two ridges, rock outcrops. Largest Yellow Buckeye, and Sweet Birch. Sole specimens of medium-sized Cucumber Magnolia (2). Lot C: One stream, one ridge. Largest Scarlet Oak, White Oak, and Black Oak. Sole specimens of mature Eastern White Pine (3 large), White Ash (1), Eastern Hemlock (2, one of them straddles the border with Lot B), and Glaucous Willow (1).