Appalachian Mixed Mesophytic Forest

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The core text in the following was obtained from BioImages, which based their text on Terrestrial ecoregions of North America: a conservation assessment from Island Press. I'm in the process of rewriting and adding information to this core.

At one time a broad, temperate forest covering much of Europe, Asia, and North America. Today, this forest is known only from remnants in central China and in the Appalachian Mountains of the United Staes. In North America, this forest, comprising what is known as the Appalachian Mixed Mesophytic Forest ecoregion, extends from Pennsylvania and New York, south through West Virginia, Virginia, Tennessee, and Georgia.
	Pink area denotes Appalachian Mixed Mesophytic Forest Ecoregion. "Mesophytic" refers to "Plants that prefer wet environments". In Southwest Virginia such enviornments occur in the area shown in pink because they are west of the Eastern Continental divide. Prevailing winds flow west to east. When they hit the Appalachians they begin to rise, cool, and loose moisture. As a result the areas west of the divide receive more rainfall, and thus support the mesophytic (plant that prefer moderate amounts of moisture) vegetation characteristic of the area.
It is not entirely coincidental that this portion of Southwest Virginia was not settled until after the turn of the century. The reasons for that have more to do with topography, than with the type of vegetation, but the type of vegetation in the area is in fact controlled by the amount of rainfall, which in turn is a function of topography.
During the last glacial period, much of North America was much drier than today, the result of so much moisture being tied up in the glaciers. The high areas west of the eastern continental divide became refuges for plants which required higher moisture levels. As a result many species characteristic of the old forests became restricted to the Appalachians west of the divide. Because of the colder temperatures encountered in the highest levels of the Appalachians, species normally found much further north survived in the Appalachians as "relict" populations. Thus spruce and fir, characteristic of the mountains of New England, are found in the peaks of the Appalachians as far south as the Smoky Mountains. In Southwest Virginia, these and similar cold-wet adapted species, are found only in the upper elevations of Mount Rogers, the highest of Virginia's Mountain peaks.

The Lower elevation forests magnolias (Magnolia spp.), oaks (Quercus spp.), hickories (Carya spp.), walnuts (Juglans spp.), elms (Ulmus spp.), birches (Betula spp.), ashes (Fraxinus spp.), basswoods (Tilia spp.), maples (Acer spp.),

locusts (Robinia spp.), and 

pines (Pinus spp.).

The grand tulip poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera), blackgum (Nyssa sylvatica), eastern hemlock (Tsuga canadensis), black cherry (Prunus serotina), sweetgum (Liquidambar styraciflua),

American beech (Fagus grandifolia), and 

yellow buckeye (Aesculus octandra).

The American chestnut (Castanea dentata) was a dominant canopy species, but was extirpated at the turn of the century by the introduced chestnut blight fungus (Cryphonectria parasitica).

Higher elevation forests towards the east have yellow birch, mountain maple, sugar maple, beech, and eastern hemlock

with extensive understories of mountain laurel (Kalmia latifolia) and rhododendron (Rhododendron spp.).

A variety of restricted habitats occur within the forests including glades, heath barrens, shale barrens, and spaghnum bogs. Many of these communities support endemic plants and land snails. Cranberry bogs harbor a range of species that are normally associated with more northerly ecoregions such as cranberry (Vaccinium spp.), blueberry (Vaccinium spp.), bog rosemary (Andromeda glaucophylla), buckbean (Menyanthes trifoliata), northern goshawk (Accipiter gentilis), fisher (Martes pennanti), and black-billed magpie (Pica pica). Such bogs and glades are relicts that have survived with their disjunct populations of cool-adapted species since cooler glacial epochs. Surrounding high elevation forests also support disjunct northern species such as the Canada yew (Taxus canadensis), eastern larch (Larix laricina), red pine (Pinus resinosa), and balsam fir (Abies balsamea).

Remaining Blocks of Intact Habitat

Few remaining patches of undisturbed forest remain, although older pioneer forests (i.e., forests that have regrown from previously cleared land) can be relatively large. The larger habitat blocks that do exist are found primarily on public lands. Some of the larger extant blocks of relatively intact habitat can be found within the following areas:

Daniel Boone National Forest - east-central and southeastern Kentucky Shawnee State Forest - southern Ohio Wayne National Forest - southern Ohio Big South Fork National Recreational Area - north-central Tennessee Savage Gulf State Natural Area - south-central Tennessee (Grundy County) Cranberry Wilderness - southeastern West Virginia Monongahela National Forest - eastern West Virginia Frozen Head State Natural Area - east-central Tennessee Cumberland Gap - southeastern Kentucky Pine Mountain - southeastern Kentucky (Letcher County) Blanton Forest - southeastern Kentucky (Harlan County) Sipsey Wilderness - north-central Alabama Talladega National Forest - east-central Alabama Scott State Forest - northeastern Tennessee Degree of Fragmentation

Much of the existing forest, whether old growth or regrowth forests, is still distributed in a highly fragmented mosaic throughout the region, broken by agriculture, roads, power lines, towns, and other forms of development. However, when one considers regrowth forests, the Appalachian Mixed Mesophytic Forests ecoregion has lower levels of fragmentation relative to other East Coast ecoregions. Fragmentation is highest in the northern part of the ecoregion, primarily in southwestern Pennsylvania and Ohio. The southern section of the ecoregion is comparatively less fragmented and has better potential for restoration into larger blocks within the context of a conservation strategy.