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West Virginia
Burnwood Trail Stop 7: A Forest Giant
0.3 mi
Distance
120 ft
Gain
8 min
Time
No verdict for this trail
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What we do know
Inside New River Gorge National Park and Preserve
National Park unit boundary is mapped — agency alerts for it feed this page automatically.
Boundary data
What's missing
No access route mapped
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Burnwood Trail Stop 7: A Forest Giant
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Elevation & route
- Distance
- 0.3 mi
- Elevation gain
- 120 ft
- Elevation loss
- 120 ft
Photos
Directions & GPX
Permits & access
- Managing agency
- National Park Service
About this trail
<p><strong>Old-Growth Forest Hike Stop 7 - A Forest Giant</strong></p> <p>This American beech is the largest tree by diameter and volume along the trail. Unfortunately this tree couldn’t be dated due to being hollow, but despite its size it may not be as old as it appears. Some large trees are young, and some small trees are old. While larger trees are usually older, this relationship between size and age will not be as consistent with the oldest of trees.<br /> <br /> The graph from the study conducted by Concord University researchers shows that the relationship between tree size and age starts to fade once a tree reaches about 200 years old. Oftentimes, the oldest trees are rather small and unsuspecting; the oldest tree in this forest is a blackgum off-trail that dated to 1671 but was less than 19 inches in diameter. Trees like this example have usually been growing under closed forest canopies for long periods of time, waiting for an opportunity to capture sunlight.<br /> <br /> The large, spreading branches on this American beech indicates that it has been growing in more open conditions free of neighboring trees competing for sunlight, allowing for decades of rapid growth. Two American beech trees smaller than this individual were sampled in this forest, each with inner ring year dates of 1829 and 1755 respectively, and the age of this large tree is probably within that range</p>
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