WEST VIRGINIA GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 



103 



ply suitable ground for a dense growth of ferns and wild grasses. 

 Throughout the whole burnt region, particularly on the waters 

 of Stony river in Grant, on the Blackwater Fork of Cheat, in 

 Tucker, on Glady Fork of Cheat and on Gandy creek in Ran- 

 dolph, and on the headwaters of Greenbrier in Pocahontas, there 

 are burns which have not yet suffered so seriously as the one 

 first mentioned. These are on the road to complete destruction, 

 however, and a few. more fires will put them out of reach of 

 easy help. 



There seem to be four very well marked stages which ap- 

 pear in succession when fires run frequently through the for- 

 ests of the West Virginia spruce belt and adjacent highlands. 

 These may be designated as the "fire cherry" stage, the black- 

 berry stage, the fern stage, and the bare ground stage. An ex- 

 amination of any region of comparatively recent lumber opera- 

 tions, immediately on the west of the Alleghany mountains, will 

 show the four stages more or less perfectly. The reduction by 

 fire in this region takes place, with numerous variations, as fol- 

 lows : It has been and is still the practice of the manufactures 

 of spruce timber in this State to cut to a very low limit, leaving 

 nothing but small saplings standing among the tangled heaps 

 of treetops and brush from "haul roads." About the first or 

 second year after lumbermen have abandoned their cut over 

 lands fires are almost certain to burn through them, with the 

 result that practically all the small and inferior trees left 

 standing are killed. The first fires are usually followed by a 

 dense growth of wild red cherries or ' ' fire cherries, ' ' as they are 

 commonly called. When these are killed blackberries frequently 

 spring up and occupy the ground almost entirely until they are 

 in turn killed in the same way. Thousands of acres of this 

 stage can be seen along Glady Fork and Dry Fork of Cheat and 

 on the head of the West Fork of Greenbrier. In the next stage 

 a tall, branching species of fern — the bracken — often takes ex- 

 clusive possession and, if the soil is not completely destroyed 

 by fires, remains indefinitely. A good example of this stage can 

 be seen along the headwaters of Big and Seneca creeks in Pen- 

 dleton county and in the plateau region of Tucker county. The 

 bare ground stage is found only in the areas where the vege- 

 table soil has been entirely destroyed exposing the loose^ broken 



