Appalachian balds


In the Appalachian Mountains of the eastern United States, balds are mountain summits or crests covered primarily by thick vegetation of native grasses or shrubs occurring in areas where heavy forest growth would be expected.
Balds are found primarily in the Southern Appalachians, where, even at the highest elevations, the climate is too warm to support an alpine zone, areas where trees fail to grow due to short or non-existent growing seasons. The difference between an alpine summit, such as Mount Washington in New Hampshire, and a bald, such as Gregory Bald in the Great Smoky Mountains, is that a lack of trees is normal for the colder climate of the former but abnormal for the warmer climate of the latter. One example of southern balds' abnormality can be found at Roan Mountain, where Roan High Knob is coated with a dense stand of spruce-fir forest, whereas an adjacent summit, Round Bald, is almost entirely devoid of trees. Why some summits are bald and some are not is a mystery, though there are several hypotheses.

Types

Two types of balds are found in the Appalachians:

Grassy balds

Grassy balds are relatively blunt summits covered by a dense sward of native grasses. Two types have been identified: those completely covered by grasses and those with a scattered overstory of mixed hardwoods with a grassy herbaceous layer. Grassy balds are normally found at the summit of hills, but can also be found on broad upper slopes.
Species found here include mountain oat-grass, sedges, and forbs such as three-toothed cinquefoil and Blue Ridge St. Johns-wort.

Heath balds

Heath balds are typically found along narrow ridges and mountain crests, and consist of dense evergreen shrubs. While the formation of grassy balds is a mystery, heath balds are often located in areas where the soil experiences heavy drainage or is highly acidic, which would complicate the growth of large wooded plants.
Four general types of vegetation are found on heath balds:
The character and distribution of Appalachian balds remained stable from the time the first naturalists explored the region, until forestry regulations no longer permitted annual pasturing of local cattle. How and why a summit develops into a grassy bald is unknown; they represent "an ecological enigma and a conservation dilemma". Weigl and Knowles note that "the presence of both rare, endemic plants and northern relicts requiring open habitat suggests a long evolutionary history" and offer a scenario in which grazing pressure of the giant herbivores of the Pleistocene retained the open tundra habitat as the Wisconsin glaciation retreated far to the north. With the arrival of the paleoindians and the disappearance of the megaherbivores, grazing pressure was maintained by deer and elk, and then by the grazing animals of European settlers. Some recent studies have attempted to uncover the vegetation history of some balds through analysis of the soil's organic component, since grasses leave a characteristic carbon-13 fingerprint. While there is some evidence that grassy balds have natural origins, the forest quickly started to reclaim the balds once large-scale livestock grazing was eliminated by the creation of national parks and national forests. Grassy balds such as Gregory Bald and Andrews Bald in the Great Smokies and the balds in the Roan Highlands are currently maintained as bald areas by the National Park Service and U.S. Forest Service.
The mountaintop meadows called the Southern Balds form a distinctive stretch for hikers of the Appalachian Trail.

List of major Appalachian Balds

MountainElevationRangeStateSurface
Richland Balsam6,410 ft/1,950 mGreat Balsam Mtns.N.C.Grassy
Black Balsam Knob6,214 ft/1,894 mGreat Balsam Mtns.N.C.Grassy
Grassy Ridge Bald6,189 ft/1,886 mRoan HighlandsN.C.Grassy
Andrews Bald5,920 ft/1,804 mGreat Smoky Mtns.N.C.Grassy
Round Bald5,826 ft/1,775 mRoan HighlandsTenn./N.C.Grassy
Jane Bald5,820 ft/1,773 mRoan HighlandsTenn./N.C.Heath/Grassy
Silers Bald5,607 ft/1,709 mGreat Smoky Mtns.Tenn./N.C.Grassy/Young forest
Hump Mountain5,587 ft/1,703 mRoan HighlandsTenn./N.C.Grassy
Buck Bald5,560 ft/1,609 mGreat Balsam Mtns.N.C.Grassy
Huckleberry Knob5,560 ft/1,609 mUnicoi Mtns.N.C.Grassy
Whitetop Mountain5,540 ft/1,688 mGrayson HighlandsVirginiaGrassy
Big Bald5,516 ft/1,681 mBald Mtns.Tenn./N.C.Grassy
Thunderhead Mountain
5,485 ft/1,672 mGreat Smoky Mtns.Tenn./N.C.Heath
Hooper Bald5,429 ft/1,655 mUnicoi Mtns.N.C.Grassy
Yellow Mountain5,420 ft/1,652 mRoan HighlandsTenn./N.C.Grassy
Hemphill Bald5,400 ft/1,646 mGreat Smoky Mtns.N.C.Grassy
Bob Stratton Bald5,360 ft/1,634 mUnicoi Mtns.N.C.Grassy
Wayah Bald5,342 ft/1,628 mNantahala Mtns.N.C.Heath
Tusquitee Bald5,240 ft/1,597 mNantahala Mtns.N.C.Grassy
Maddron Bald5,200 ft/1,585 mGreat Smoky Mtns.TennesseeHeath
Siler Bald5,200 ft/1,585 mNantahala Mtns.N.C.Grassy
Sandymush Bald5,152 ft/1,507 mCentral Blue Ridge Mtns.N.C.Grassy
Cheoah Bald5,062 ft/1,543 mCheoah Mtns.N.C.Grassy
Gregory Bald4,949 ft/1,508 mGreat Smoky Mtns.Tenn./N.C.Grassy
Spence Field4,920 ft/1,500 mGreat Smoky Mtns.Tenn./N.C.Grassy/Young forest
Brasstown Bald4,784 ft/1,458 mSouthern Blue Ridge Mtns.GeorgiaHeath
Ben Parton Lookout4,754 ft/1,449 mGreat Smoky Mtns.TennesseeHeath
Parson Bald4,732 ft/1,442 mGreat Smoky Mtns.Tenn./N.C.Grassy
Rabun Bald4,696 ft/1,431 mSouthern Blue Ridge Mtns.GeorgiaHeath
Max Patch Mountain4,629 ft/1,411 mBald Mtns.N.C.Grassy
Russell Field4,455 ft/1,358 mGreat Smoky Mtns.Tenn./N.C.Grassy/Young forest
Elk Garden4,450 ft/1,356 mGrayson HighlandsVirginiaGrassy
Beauty Spot4,437 ft/1,352 mUnaka Mtns.Tenn./N.C.Grassy
Big Bald Mountain4,075 ft/1,242 mSouthern Blue Ridge Mtns.GeorgiaGrassy