The Once and Future Forest

The Once and Future Forest. Mammoth Cave National Park. , You stand at the head of forested Doyel Valley. It has not always looked this way., Native Americans traveled this way through old-growth forest of oak, hickory and other trees. European settlers found an ancient woodland thick with the bark of many centuries. It took them less than one to cut it down., By the beginning of the 20th century, Doyel Valley lay open as farm fields, logged for lumber, wilderness no longer., Yet in the 1930s, change came again - Doyel Valley became part of the future National Park. Buildings were removed, fields abandoned…and trees began to grow again., The forest below you is now more than 90 years old. By the time a forest is 120 years old, it is considered an old-growth forest., What was once, will be., (photo captions:), Seen from Above and Back in Time, This 1930s-era aerial photograph of Doyel Valley shows a very different landscape from what you see now. In the open fields you can trace the fencerows, dirt paths and other signs of human life. Now, those traces are all but lost as the forest naturally reclaims what man once turned to other purposes. , Meet the New Moss, Same as the Old Moss, Beginning with pioneering woody plants like cedars, sumac, redwood and dogwood, abandoned farmlands soon begin to welcome back their old inhabitants. A look into Doyel Valley today finds the following woodland dwellers, just as they might have been two centuries ago., Flowering Dogwood (Cormus florida) . Redbud (Cercis canadensis) . Rattlesnake Plantain (Goodyera pubescens) . Spring Beauty (Claytonia virgnica) . Golden Ragwort (Senecio aureus) . Christmas Fern (sprouting "fiddle head") (Polystichum acrostichoides) . Solomon's Seal (Poloygonatum biflorum) . False Solomon's Seal (Maianthemum racemosum) . Mayapple (female) (Podopyllum peltatum) . Common Fleabane (Erigeron philadlphicus)