www.primalnature.org/updates.html
Exotic Species and
Old Growth: Lilley Cornett Woods and
In discussing with PrimalNature the enormous threat that exotic species pose
for old growth, Ryan McEwan, a researcher at the
University of Kentucky, pointed to a site that he regards as hopeful, the
123-acre Big Everidge
Hollow, which is part of the Lilley
Cornett Woods Appalachian Research Station (Letcher County) on the
Cumberland Plateau. The Hollow is an
old-growth mixed mesophytic forest. When McEwan and
other researchers surveyed it botanically, they found no exotic species,
although such species are common on trail edges and in openings in
second-growth stands in the area. They
also found in the Hollow no specimens of the invasive species that have
established themselves in other forests in eastern
McEwan speculates that a major reason for the lack of exotic and invasive species is the lack of human visitors to the Hollow. He is now conducting research on how outbreaks of invasive species can be predicted and barriers to the invasive species set up before the outbreaks take place. Eradication once the invasives are established, is so difficult, he notes, that means of protection need to be put in place in advance. Griffith Woods, a forty to fifty- old-growth savanna in Harrison County, Kentucky, heavily infested with fescue, bush honeysuckle, and poison hemlock, is a case in point, McEwan notes. Even developing a means of approaching the problem at Griffith Woods is an enormous challenge. The state-owned Lilley Cornett Woods has been managed and protected by Eastern Kentucky University for decades; the University of Kentucky acquired Griffith Woods only recently.
Sources:
Davis, Mary Byrd. 2007. Old Growth in the East: A Survey. Online edition. Available on this web site.
McEwan, Ryan. 2007. Personal communication.
McEwan, Ryan et al. “The Vascular Flora of an Old-Growth Mixed Mesophytic Forest in southeastern Kentucky.” Journal of the Torrey Botanical Society 132, no. 4 (2005): 618-27.
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