Changing Landscape

Changing Landscape. New River Gorge National River. The scene around you recently changed-again. The landscape here has undergone several transitions in the past 150 years. Native Americans and settlers in the early 1800s saw solid forest, but in the late 1800s mining companies cut much of the timber., When the Nuttallburg mine closed in 1958 nature took over again. But instead of native plants, non-natives invaded. Before this area could be opened to visitors, park workers spent hundreds of hours removing unwanted species, to be replaced with native plants such as wingstem and jewelweed., Revealing Nuttallburg , The primary plant that invaded Nuttallburg was kudzu (Pueraria lobata), an Asian vine. Removing it required a monumental effort., This scene from early Nuttallburg and Kaymoor shows how mine sites in the gorge were typically free of vegetation., Mine leases often included the rights to the timber on the surface above the mine. Mine owners built sawmills and cut lumber for houses, mine structures, railroad ties, and timbers to support the mine roof., When workers removed the kudzu, they discovered foundations and other remnants of Nuttallburg., It is National Park Service policy, wherever feasible, to remove non-native plants and try to restore and maintain the landscape as it might have appeared in historic times.