Hunting and digging ginseng, the most famous of the wild cash crops, is an abiding passion for a number of men on Coal River. Every spare minute I had was spent a-ginsenging. And, of course, each season has its quarry, and each quarry its aficionados, for whom gathering wild products provides opportunities to observe this year's distribution of preferred game, whether deer, bear, turkey, grouse, rabbit, raccoon, groundhog, squirrel, or rattlesnakes. Participation in this round informs local timbering practices. Bob Daniel , of Dry Creek, owner of Appalachian Hardwoods, spoke of the importance of den trees.
Some people call beeches 'wolf trees' because they gobble up all the nutrients.
Such talk may seem at first blush irrelevant to national goals of forest preservation and management, since none of the forested land there falls within a National Forest. On Coal River, descriptions of a forest as part of a living, working landscape spell out those requirements, modeling a diversified system of mixed-age stands that is a dynamic, healthy, and human environment. Tied to a diminishing seasonal round, memories of residents highlight the importance of old-growth in a biocultural system. Traditional practices like honey harvesting, squirrel hunting, and tapping maple syrup depended on the presence of mature trees. You couldn't go a hundred feet in the mountains until you found walnuts, beeches.