|
Location: Swain and Graham counties, NC 12 miles southwest of Bryson City,, Cheoah Ranger District, Nantahala National Forest
USGS Topographic Maps: Hewitt, Wesser, Tuskegee, Noland Creek
The Cheoah Bald roadless area was once a very large area of over 21,000 acres. However, logging and road building during the 1980s and 1990s reduced the size of the inventoried roadless area to 7,810 acres. The larger Mountain Treasure area is still an exceptional and exceptionally wild, with tremendous biological, scenic, and recreational value. Almost 5,000 acres of old growth forest have been documented in the area.
The conservation community would like to see much of the larger area restored and protected with some of the logging roads decommissioned. During the RARE II study in the late 1970s, and to this day, conservationists have considered this area a top candidate for wilderness.
|
 |
Approximate size:
9,453 acres
Roadless acreage:
7,810 acres
Old growth acreage:
4,635 acres |
|
Almost 10 rugged miles of the Appalachian Trail traverse the area. The Trail runs over Cheoah Bald, at 5,062 feet the "grandstand of the Appalachians." The Bald offers are sweeping views to the north of the Smokies, Stecoah and portions of Lake Fontana. To the northwest are the Yellow Mountains, Joyce Kilmer and Snowbird, and to the south the Wesser/Tellico/Wayah Ridge, Piercy Bald, Ash Cove, and Tusquitee. The Appalachian Trail's Sassafras Gap shelter stands. near the center of the tract. The Nantahala River runs through the spectacular Nantahala Gorge along the southeast border. The Forest Service plans to study the Nantahala River for suitability for National Wild and Scenic designation.
|
|
Forest Communities
Montane Oak-Hickory, Northern Hardwood, Rich Cove (high and low elevation), Basic Mesic Forest, High Elevation Northern Red Oak, Mesic Oak, Submesic Oak, Dry Oak, and Pine-Oak Heath.
Largest Diameter Tree of Its Kind in Nantahala-Pisgah:
* Red mulberry, 14 inches (Nantahala Gorge-northwest side).
* Persimmon, 12 inches (Ledbetter Creek).
Unusual Plants and Animals
* Thirty snail species have been found in the Nantahala Gorge, one of which, the noonday globe snail, was listed as a rare species in 1978.
* The Nantahala Gorge area held the highest concentration of large, medium, and small slippery elm trees found in the course of the Western North Carolina Alliance's old growth survey. Spicebush is present by the Nantahala River and on slopes on both sides of the river. Green ash, umbrella magnolia, pawpaw, and red mulberry stand in some areas near the river.
* Calcareous and circum-neutral substrates are common in some areas of this gorge. Basic Mesic Forest (with high herb, shrub, and tree diversity) was found in a deep cove upslope of the Ferebee exclusion zone. Northern Hardwood and Rich Cove forests were found mainly on the north side of Cheoah Bald ridge, yet deep valley slopes on the Nantahala River side of the ridge also have rich forest communities.
* Forest communities along the Nantahala River basically reflected the substrates (or rock types) they were growing on. This ranged from marble, talc, meta-siltstone, and a few, more acidic, rock types that contain quartz. |
