Forest Types Maps by County and Associated G1 and G2 Lists  

Terrestrial Forest Types

• Dry Calcareous 
• Dry Mesic Oak
• Dry Oak Pine
• Mixed Mesophytic
• Montane Red Oak
• Northern Hardwood
• Pine Oak Rocky
• Red Spruce

General Conservation Recommendations

• Apply West Virginia Division of Forestry Logging Sediment Control Act Best Management Practices
• Apply Beneficial Forest Management Practices for WNS-affected bats
• Wetlands and Floodplains are particularly sensitive to changes in hydrology and water quality. No flows should be diverted into or withdrawn from the water sources to these communities, and discharges of pollutants, nutrients, or sediment should not be allowed into their water sources.
• Non-native invasive species should be controlled in areas disturbed by the project and should be monitored (and carefully controlled) in the adjacent rare community occurrences following the project.
• If water crossings are necessary:
  • Avoid if possible
  • Use already established fords when possible
  • Utilize timber matts and bank protection to reduce sediment
  • Leave riparian trees and vegetation intact as much as possible.
  • Try to minimize the number of crossings
  • Reduce changes in microclimate
  • Employ uneven aged timber management when possible, and shelterwood cut/leave standing trees when uneven aged management is not possible
  • Leave woody debris on ground, including logs when possible
  • Leave 150 ft buffer around rock outcroppings and boulder piles
• Retain natural plant community
  • Clear equipment/vehicles of mud/soil/seeds from other locations before bringing to site
  • Remove invasive plants, such as autumn olive, bush honeysuckle, J. stilt grass, barberry, and multiflora rose
  • Replant sites with native plants recommended by the West Virginia Planting Tool
    • Emphasis on wildflower species in log landings, road edges, and clearcuts
• Reduce impacts on caves
  • Don’t dispose of waste, including trash, slash, and rubble, in sinkholes/karst
  • Don’t direct water into sinkholes/karst
  • 300 ft reduced ground disturbance buffer around karst features such as a cave entrance
  • 100 ft wide reduced ground disturbance buffer for corridors upstream to karst features
  • 100 ft wide reduced ground disturbance buffer to the edge of losing streams
  • For sinkholes, the reduced ground disturbance buffer shall extend in all directions to a distance of 100’ or to the sinkhole catchment boundary, whichever is less.
  • Restrict hazardous materials storage, equipment refueling, or parking within 100 feet of karst terrain features.
  • Recommendation of conducting pre- and post-construction tests of water quality and quantity for hydrologically active cave systems within 150 ft of the harvestable area.
• Implement road dust control when gravel or dirt roads are used

 Additional Species-specific Conservation Recommendations

Anguispira stihleri

• Limestone outcroppings/bluffs within Greenbrier county should follow timbering guidelines similarly used for Triodopsis platysoides since A. stihleri is a highly endemic species. This would be a primary buffer of 100ft with no disturbance around rock features, plus a secondary buffer of 50ft where up to 20% (based on basal area) of harvestable timber may be removed. Skid roads may be constructed if necessary. Measure must be taken to minimize disturbance. This entails a total
  buffer zone of 150ft.
• Exception: If tributary glades along the Greenbrier River are found to have species presence, this should be attributed to all known occupied habitat, in which case the rock features should have a primary buffer of 150 ft, plus secondary buffer of 50ft where up to 20% (based on basal area) of harvestable timber may be removed. Skid roads may be constructed if necessary. Measure must be taken to minimize disturbance. This entails a total buffer zone of 200ft.

Mesomphix luisant

• As a highly endemic species, same limestone bluff management guidelines as A. stihleri, but in addition to Greenbrier county also extended to limestone bluffs in Logan county.

Helicodiscus villosus

•  Talus slopes and springs within Greenbrier county should follow timbering guidelines similarly
  used for Triodopsis platysoides. This would be a primary buffer of 100ft with no disturbance around talus rock and spring basin features, plus a secondary buffer of 50ft where up to 20% (based on basal area) of harvestable timber may be removed. Skid roads may be constructed if necessary.  Measures must be taken to minimize disturbance. This entails a total buffer zone of 150ft.

Cambarus smilax

•  As an endemic species to West Virginia, mid to headwater reaches of Greenbrier River basin are recommended to have riparian buffers of 100 ft on both sides of the stream to be preserved or restored, with wider buffers recommended on steep slopes.

Cambarus nerterius

This endemic crayfish species typically inhabits caves that are hydrologically connected to surface water and runoff conditions. In consideration of this:

•  300 ft reduced ground disturbance buffer around karst features such as a cave entrance
  • Based on double FERC recommendations for drinking water supplies in consideration of hydrologically connections from surface to subterranean features
• 100 ft wide reduced ground disturbance buffer for corridors upstream to karst features
• 100 ft wide reduced ground disturbance buffer to the edge of losing streams
• For sinkholes, the reduced ground disturbance buffer shall extend in all directions to a distance of 100’ or to the sinkhole catchment boundary, whichever is less.
• Restrict hazardous materials storage, equipment refueling, or parking within 100 feet of karst terrain features.
• Recommendation of conducting pre- and post-construction tests of water quality and quantity for hydrologically active cave systems within 150 ft of the harvestable area.

See pages 48-51 and page 104 of Guidelines for Cave & Karst Protection regarding forestry practices and the need for buffers on forested karst landscapes.

Pyrgus wyandot

As a species in extremely steep decline, habitat conservation consideration should be given regardless if occupancy is known. As such in areas of potential/suitable habitat:

• When occupancy is unknown, limited or no use of herbicide treatments in or near open to semi-open shale slopes and barrens that have the food host plant Potentilla canadensis.
• When occupancy is known, dust-suppression measures implemented for skid and existing dirt and gravel roads adjacent to open to semi-open shale slopes and barrens.
• Within a harvestable area that has 1) open to semi-open shale slopes and barrens, and 2) also have the food host plant Potentilla canadensis, consider setting aside up to 2km of suitable habitat within a known project area (or max of project area if < 2km) that has reduced ground disturbance activities within a 300 ft buffer of the suitable habitat.

Hansonoperla hokolesqua

• Small, intermittent streams with stone substrates within harvestable areas of Nicholas, Greenbrier, and Wayne counties within the Gauley and Twelvepole watersheds should follow WVDOP Logging Sediment Control Act guidelines: a minimum stream management zone (SMZ) width or distance between exposed or disturbed soil and an intermittent stream should be no less than 100 feet slope distance on either side of the stream from the top or edge of the channel.