IBA Home     Contacts     Criteria for Site Selection     IBA Map     IBA Sites     Links     Nomination Form      Technical Committee     TWRA Home

Note:  Cherokee Wildlife Management Area is within the Cherokee National Forest and is part of the IBA site, Southern Blue Ridge.

Photo by Michael Welch

View on a still day at Birchfield Camp Lake.

Location: Eleven miles southwest of Erwin, Rocky Fork Road, 0.9 mile north of its intersection with state highway 352, Unicoi County, Tennessee.
Physiographic Province:  PIF 23 (Southern Blue Ridge); BCR 28 (Appalachian Mountains)

Geographical Coordinates:
    "Rocky Fork Unit"--Lat. 363300N  Long. 0823430W (center)
    Rocky Fork--Lat. 360215N  Long. 0823252W
Elevation Range: 2,400' - 4,700'
    2,129 Rocky Fork
Size: 10,100 acres (private)
USGS 7.5’ quads: Flag Pond, Greystone

Description:  This site is a privately owned tract of land consisting of 10,100 acres of virtually uninterrupted forest of Cove Hardwood and Northern Hardwood. It is contiguous in all directions with either the Cherokee National Forest in Tennessee and the Pisgah National Forest in North Carolina or the Sampson Mountain Wilderness Area. The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency has leased and managed this private land for more than 50 years, but due to a recent sale, contracts its use yearly. The main ridge is Higgins Ridge and includes many small headwater streams that feed the major creeks including Rocky Fork Creek, Blockstand Creek, Flint Creek, and Higgins Creek. The property is accessible by a system of forest roads and trails.
     The Cove Hardwood habitat is found in the more sheltered ravines of the lower elevations and is dominated by woody species of White Basswood, American Beech, Yellow Buckeye, Sugar Maple, Red Oak, Fraser Magnolia, conifers such as White Pine and Eastern Hemlock, and White Ash. Understory vegetation includes successional species such as Flowering Dogwood, Eastern Redbud and Sassafras. Rhododendron dominates the shrubby layer.
    The Northern Hardwood habitat is found mainly at the highest elevations of Higgins Ridge. The tree species are often stunted or broken due to exposure to strong winds. Species include Red Oak, American Beech, Sugar Maple, Yellow Birch, American Elm, and Virginia Pine. The shrubby layer is mainly rhododendron and mountain laurel but includes huckleberries and blueberries.

IBA Criteria: 1, 3, 4f

Ornithological Importance:  The size and completeness of the forest affords breeding habitat to a complement of neotropical species and the Threatened in Tennessee, Common Raven.
    Note 1. Common Raven, a Tennessee Threatened species, has been documented on White House Cliff during at least three breeding seasons (Trently 1999a, 1999b, pers. obs. 2000). This is one of the few sites in Tennessee where actual nesting has been documented though the species is present year-round in a number of areas. The species is known to only nest at one place here and only one pair at a time.
    Note 2. The significant size of uninterrupted Cove and Northern Hardwood forests not only provides habitats for neotropical species but continues the north-south contiguous forested habitat along Tennessee's eastern border. Twenty-nine neotropical species were documented in the breeding season. Among them were Broad-winged Hawk (most common raptor), Veery, Wood Thrush, Blue-headed Vireo (common), 11 species of warblers including Northern Parula, Chestnut-sided Warbler, Black-throated Blue Warbler, Black-throated Green Warbler, Pine Warbler, Black-and-white Warbler, Worm-eating Warbler, Ovenbird, Louisiana Waterthrush, Hooded Warbler, and Canada Warbler, Scarlet Tanager, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, and Indigo Bunting. Densities of the top 8 species within Cove Hardwood and Northern Hardwood habitats are noted in the tables below. Densities were derived April-June 1999. Numbers were of singing males, but density unit was pairs/250 acres. Six out of the eight species (75%) in each habitat were neotropical.

Ownership:  Private.
   Contact:

Conservation Concerns:  Critical concern is deforestation.  Serious concern is disturbance to birds.  Potential concerns are water pollution, commercial development, and residential development.

Management Program:  None.

Submitted by: Michael Welch, M.S. East Tennessee State University, towerkill@hotmail.com

Additional Contributors:

References:
Trently, A. J. 1999a. The Common Raven (Corvus corax) in Tennessee. M.S. Thesis. East Tennessee State University, Johnson City,      Tennessee.
Trently A. J. 1999b. The Nesting of the Common Raven in Tennessee. Migrant 70(3):85-89.
Welch, J. M. 2001. Thesis, Vertebrate Survey of Rocky Fork Wildlife Management Area, Unicoi and Greene Counties, Tennessee.

Approved under the umbrella IBA site Southern Blue Ridge:  February 2006--Yes 7  No 0

This page was last updated on 02/19/06.