Is There A Rainforest In West Virginia?

I continue my quest of finding rainforests in unexpected places by venturing deep into the mountains of West Virginia!

Follow me on Twitter/X @theatlaspro

Sources / Further Reading:

[AtlasPro]

Sorry about the apparent reupload from earlier today, what was posted was a mistake, an unfinished draft that still had some unfinished graphics. This is the final and proper version! Anyway, enjoy!

[kitchentroll]

What is difficult to see is that almost the entirety of West Virginia was strip-logged in the early part of the 20th century. I am 62 now, but when I was 8 or 9, the forests of most of WV looked pretty threadbare. I am pretty confident that most of what comprises the canopy of a typical WV forest now is very little like it was formerly. From what I remember being said by my great great grandfather, the forests were mostly white oak and everything else made up the understory. This change of composition does not change your statement that there is temperate rain forest biome in my home state, but I can only imagine the sort of diversity you might have found on your walk if it were 1824 instead of 2024. You might have even caught sight of a mountain bison or even an (original) eastern elk.

[Pykenike]

and here is me, thinking there were only country roads there.

[FnSpiralMedia]

@atlasPro You already know this, but I just want to point out that your efforts are genuinely advancing the world's understanding of the planet we live on. Like, that's incredible and I hope you continue to keep up your hard work as well as enjoy it!!

[grahamrankin]

According to "Tumult of the Mountains" by Clarkson (1964) most of primeval forest of West Virginia was clear cut by 1929 and further destroyed by fires that spread through area. In some places the soil was urned down to the bedrock and has not recovered to this day.

[SaraBearRawr]

As a North Carolinian, the southern Appalachians are some of the most beautiful natural environments that North America has to offer. They may not have the spectacle of the Pacific and interior ranges of the western US, Canada & Alaska, but the Appalachians have an "old" feeling to them which is fitting given how old the apps are, and standing in the thick of the forest or looking out on the canopy tops from a mountain gives the sense of something ancient or even magical in a way.

For the Tolkien nerds reading this, exploring the depths of the Appalacians has always made me imagine them like the Forest of Doriath, under the veil of Maiar magic from Melian. A deep mystique meanders through those woods in both a calming and unnerving way.

[BHuang]

Ive stayed in WV for a couple years in college and was genuinely surprised by the forests in WV.
The state was renowned for the abundance of pinewood forests that once covered the Appalachian mountains but overlogging caused it to go extinct and so i was part of a volunteer group that planted hundreds of tree saplings to restore the former forests.

[croatia]

It’s actually so cool seeing you go out and answer research questions that further humanity’s knowledge of biogeography. For a relatively underfunded and under-researched field, things like this really do make a big difference.

[StyTheMage]

Very nice video! It's weird seeing Rhododendrons being praised so much since they're an invasive species in large parts of Europe, but in it's natural habitat they really do look stunning.

[thecreativecrawdad]

So happy about this video! I'm a WV native and been a fan for a while now. So glad to see you explore wild and wonderful WV. The state has some true treasures that are not that well known.

[the_chandler]

Every time in the video that I heard you say "Appalachian" the right way (APP-UH-LATCH-UHN) I threw a fist in the air, and I'm not joking at all haha. Love the video. Thank you for coming to my home state of West Virginia. Its got so much beautiful land. I miss it dearly.

[robertmcdonald]

Hi, big salamander guy here. The salamander you thought was a spring salamander in North Carolina is probably a red salamander. Great video, love the content.

[GrimYarrow]

Rhododendrons are WV's state flower for a reason.

[verilliumfunk]

Interesting how flipping rocks in New York works better because there is no understory and therefore less leaves to hide under 12:57

[basilbrushbooshieboosh]

Glaciers don't mean you won't have deep top-soils. They're present via two main methods:
1. Glaciers can force top-soils into depressions where the glacier may grind the surrounding rock and glide over the depression. The crushed rock from above also adds to the creation of soils in the depressions, as crushed rock is nutrient rich and encourages microbe activity.
2. Soils naturally gravitate to post-glacial depressions, and 10, 000 odd years is plenty of time for this to happen, as well as the soils in these high rainfall areas to have had the time to naturally be built in any case through microbe processes.
The pockets of rainforest made these two ways will more often be smaller, though not always, because it depends on quirks of geographies, and as you know, there are a heck of a lot of these.

[renedemers]

Looking forward to your Poconos trip! it's definitely interesting to find out that the main thing holding parts of the green mountains back from being a rainforest is the lack of soil, but also can't say I'm surprised - the cloud formations you showed from the top of white mountains were a familiar sight to me in my youth in VT, but I've never seen an understory like in these videos.

[ThecrazyJH]

Imagine how great the temperate rainforest was before the Industrial Revolution! The biodiversity of trees and plants thanks to the help of the carrier pidgeon, Carolina parakeet esc. Elk, wolves, cougars, more bears. More salamanders. Unbelievably huge chestnut trees. So sad we couldn’t see it at its peak diversity

[ebogar]

You can find thick Rhododendrons where I'm from in Alleghany County, VA too. It's in SW VA on the border of WV. It gets thick here with plant life. The higher you go up the mountain, the more exotic looking plant life you can find that makes you feel you're in a rain forest. There are lots of different varieties of fish, animal, and bug life too. I've seen things deep in the mountains, in streams that I've never seen since. Tons of different salamanders too.

[mucpougaming]

getting to watch clouds form before your eyes on the mountainside is truly a privilege innit.
love from malaysia

[christopherappleton]

If rhododendrons and mountain laurel makes a rainforest, then a whole lot of the Pennsylvania mountains are covered in rain forest