page_title: Hickory Flats
section_title: Natural history
hierarchical_section_title: Hickory Flats / Natural history
caption_attribution_description: Cerulean Warbler (male)
context_page_description: Hickory Flats is an area in the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests of western Virginia that has been recognized by the Wilderness Society as a special place worthy of protection from logging and road construction. It is in a remote location at the headwaters of two streams with a wetland that contains rare plants and provides an unusual habitat for wildlife.
  The area is part of the Mountain Lake Wilderness Cluster.
context_section_description: The habitat of the southern Appalachians is rich in its biological diversity with nearly 10,000 species, some not found anywhere else.  The great diversity is related to the many ridges and valleys which form isolated communities in which species evolve separately from one another.  The region lies south of the glaciers that covered North America 11,000 years go.  To escape the glaciers, northern species retreated south to find refuge in the southern Appalachians.  When the glaciers retreated, many of these species remained along with the southern species that were native to the area.  The diversity includes trees, mosses, millipedes and salamanders.
  Unusual plants are the five-rowed peat moss, red peat moss and northern bog club moss.  The  five-rowed peat moss (Sphagnum quinquefanum) can be recognized by its rather short and stiff branches which appear angular because of the arrangement of its closely set leaves widely angled in 5 ranks.
  Red peat moss (Sphagnum rubellum) is a small reddish-coloured peat moss with tongue-shaped stem leaves. And northern bog club moss (Lycopodiella inundata) has branches up to 10 cm high with narrow, pointed leaves 4–8 mm long.
  Hickory Flats provides a secluded habitat for a population of black bear (Ursus americanus).  Since bears are shy and secretive, they are rarely seen.  When encountered, they will usually run away except in spring when females will protect their cubs, generally by sending them up a tree and returning later to gather them up.  The area also provides habitat for ovenbirds, cerulean warblers, hooded warblers, pileated woodpeckers, eastern gray squirrel and eastern wild turkey.  Johnson Flats, as well as the Peters Mountain summit, contain old growth forest.  These areas serve as optimal habitat for a variety of species, particularly salamanders and other reptiles and amphibians. The valleys contain numerous beaver meadows.
  The area includes the upper watershed for both Stony Creek, which flows south into the New River, and Potts Creek, which flows north into the James River. The North Fork of Stony Creek has 259 acres designated as Mountains Wetland Rare Community. It includes 50 acres of the 250-acre North Fork Stony Creek Special Biological Area.  Stony Creek is eligible for Recreational River status.  The colorful candy darter is found in Stony Creek's rubble riffles with fast-flowing currents.
  The Stony Creek watershed on the west end of this area has been a hotspot for gypsy moth damage, with recurring infestations in various parts of the watershed and vicinity for many years.  Gypsy moths have cyclical populations.  After peaking in nearby Kelly Flats around 2005, populations crashed in 2009, but are expected to return.
caption: Cerulean Warbler (male)
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