Gaudineer Knob

 

Gaudineer Knob is a virgin spruce forest on Cheat Mountain in Randolph and Pocahontas counties in West Virginia. It is one of only two virgin forests in West Virginia, the other being Cathedral State Park. Gaudineer Knob is the result of a surveying error and was later incorporated into the Monongahela National Forest. One of the things we noticed was that this forest contained several species of trees not just red spruce. There were many varieties of birch, oak and other trees present. This was a vibrant forest where the flora and fauna is quite diverse.

We started our visit to Gaudineer with Steve discussing what we expected to experience in this virgin forest. Having visited Cathedral, a virgin hemlock forest, gave us a reference point. We had also visited Bald Knob, a second or third growth red spruce forest.

One of the first things we noticed at Gaudineer is the amount of moss, fungi, lichens and other organisms that live in moist environments. As you can see here, moss covered the ground like a carpet in many ares.

One of the things that surprised me about this forest was the number of trees that had fallen in the forest and how shallow their root balls were. This is caused by the proximity of bedrock to the surface. Many small saplings grew from rocks. Above you can see how the rocks are incorporated into the root balls.

Ferns were ubiquitous in the forest.

Fungi and Lichens growing on the side of a tree.