Paint Rock

The 20 ha Paint Rock Forest Dynamics Plot was established between 2019 and 2021 near Huntsville, Alabama in The Nature Conservancy Sharp Bingham Mountain Preserve.  The site is on a deeply dissected karst landscape with a sandstone cap and successive layers of limestone with occasional thin interbedding of shale. Site elevation ranges from 226 to 323 meters and is primarily slope with some benches and bottomland. Current forests have regenerated from widespread repeated high-graded logging that occurred in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Slope forests belong to Appalachian - Northeastern Oak-Hardwood group, and diverse Appalachian-Central Interior-Northeastern Mesic Forest is found in sheltered coves and bottoms.  Dominant tree species include oaks (Quercus), hickories (Carya), ash (Fraxinus), maples (Acer), American beech (Fagus grandifolia), yellow poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera), sweetgum (Liquidambar styraciflua), basswood (Tilia americana), and red cedar (Juniperus virginiana).

Plot Established By: Luben Dimov, William Finch, Stephen Hubbell, & Dawn Lemke