Carolina Environmental Diversity Explorations
Roan Mountain Highlands · By Dirk Frankenberg and Jennifer Godwin-Wyer
Mature spruce-fir forest
Figure 10. A mature spruce-fir forest on Roan High Knob. (Photograph by Dirk Frankenberg. More about the photograph)
Figure 10 shows a fully developed spruce-fir forest on the flanks of Roan High Knob. The road is the access to the Forest Service Fee area at Rhododendron Gardens and the site of the Cloudland Hotel which once stood on the North Carolina-Tennessee state line near Roan High Knob. This photo shows a mature forest with prominent large trees among smaller ones of uneven ages. This is typical of this forest type as it grows in such exposed conditions that wind, snow and ice often combine to fell the largest trees thereby opening holes in the canopy in which small trees can germinate and grow. Some of these canopy openings can be seen beyond the trees on the right side of the road.
This forest type is formally called the red spruce-Fraser fir community, but several other tree species are common components of it. Many of these are invaders from the northern hardwood forest which grades into the spruce-fir forest at lower elevations. Fully developed spruce-fir forest like the one in Figure 10 are generally found at elevations above 5500 feet.
