Forest

Half of Sunnyside is forest. The forested areas of the property adjoin the 311 square miles of almost entirely forested Shenandoah National Park and immediately abut a section of the park designated by Congress as wilderness in 1976. This is a forest,  nevertheless, that has undergone tremendous change since European settlement. Virtually all  of it, including the land within Shenandoah National Park, was logged at least once and used  for agriculture. That means few of our trees are likely more than 100 years old. Forest composition, too, is dramatically different. American chestnut, a keystone species that served as a critical food source for wildlife and people alike, was effectively extirpated from the  landscape by a fungal blight that arrived from Europe in the early 1900s. The extensive  disturbance favored fast-growing species like tulip poplars and ashes as well as invasive  ailanthus. The elimination of large predators like wolves and mountain lions partly account for  a tremendous increase in white-tailed deer, which in turn has dramatically affected forest  understory and regeneration. All this leaves us with a forest larger and wilder than at any time  in nearly four hundred years yet basically unrecognizable from the one that existed prior to European settlement.

Conservations Practices: The history described above invites a series of intriguing questions  as we think about how and for what purpose to manage our forestlands. Compounding the  challenge is the arrival less than a decade ago of emerald ash borer, an invasive insect that  almost overnight has wiped ash off the Sunnyside landscape and opened up large areas of our  forest canopy. Invasive species management has been our primary forest management  practice to date. We’ve been targeting ailanthus as well as Oriental bittersweet, mile-a-minute  vine, Japanese stilt grass and multiflora rose — all species that thrive in our youngest, early  successional woodlands. In order to protect a genetic lineage of our ash, we’ve partnered with  the Virginia Department of Forestry in a cost-share program to treat a small number of trees  with an insecticide to protect them from the borer. We do not harvest timber for commercial or  other purposes, though may consider selective cutting in the future to favor the survival of  certain species of high conservation importance (e.g., mast-producing oaks and hickories). We  hunt a small number of deer each year (using non-lead ammunition only) but more importantly do not undertake any type of predator control, allowing bear, coyote, red and gray foxes and bobcats to thrive.

Indicator Species: Black bear, bobcat, gray fox, Eastern spotted skunk, Allegheny woodrat,  great-horned owl, Kentucky warbler, worm-eating warbler, ovenbird, box turtle, timber  rattlesnake, stream salamanders (various species), oaks and hickories (various species), 

Goods and Services: Conserving forests plays an important role in protecting our watershed  by reducing runoff and improving water quality. Forests are also important carbon storehouses.

Explore Other Ecosystem Features

Orchards
Production Fields & High Tunnels
Hayfields & Pastures
Relic & Existing Farm Infrastructure
Native Meadows & Savannas
Ponds
Stream Corridors & Hedgerows
Forest
Manicured Areas