State Forest Project
Around 300 acres in the Oxley Run Forest Management Complex in 9,474-acre Kumbrabow State Forest have seen intensive management aimed at creating brood-rearing habitat for wild turkeys and ruffed grouse. The ongoing work also provides food and cover for Appalachian cottontails, along with mourning warblers and many other forest birds.
Black Cherry a Key Tree
Starting in 2015, timber harvests have brought a new, younger age class to the forest on Rich Mountain. One goal is to regenerate black cherry, a valuable lumber tree that offers important fruit to both resident and migratory birds.
Habitat management specialists have chemically treated the root sprouts of beech trees to prevent them from choking out other tree types; seeded cleared areas with clover, boosting insect populations to create feeding areas for grouse, wild turkeys, and their chicks; and used prescribed burns to maintain areas of grasses and wildflowers.
Workers also built a dozen vernal pools in which frogs, toads, and salamanders can breed and develop into adults.
Conservationists with The Nature Conservancy and state and federal natural resource agency workers planted aspen and red spruce seedlings, and, in wet areas, speckled alder shrubs. The red spruce were provided by the Central Appalachian Spruce Restoration Initiative, a partnership of private, state, federal, and nongovernmental organizations working to restore historic red spruce-northern hardwood forests in high-elevation areas of Central Appalachia.
Looking Ahead
In 2024 two new areas will be converted to native wildflower plantings that will provide habitat for pollinating insects and add even more diversity to the land. Clover areas will be mowed to keep them productive as feeding areas for grouse and turkey broods.
Mechanical mulching equipment will browse down areas of trees and shrubs, renewing them so that areas of thick cover will remain available to wildlife. Logging skid roads also will be mulched so that hunters and other recreation-minded people can gain access.
How to Visit
Visitors can park at a gate to the Oxley Run Management Complex and walk to the managed areas. The gate is on County Route 219/16 approximately 9 miles from US 219 and 6 miles south of Huttonsville, WV. CR 219/16 is paved to the forest office and then gravel from there to (and beyond) the Oxley Run gate. CR 219/16 is maintained in the winter.
West Virginia DNR has mapped Kumbrabow State Forest.
