Why was Norway spruce rather than red spruce planted in the spruce belt of the Mountain State?
At elevations of 3,200 feet and higher, red spruce was the predominant species in the original forests of this state. It is estimated that there were 440,000 acres of this conifer in West Virginia. Between 1880 and 1920, most of these trees were harvested for pulpwood and lumber. After the logging, most red spruce areas suffered blow-down of the few remaining spruce, and many areas burned repeatedly, producing sites dominated by wild grasses, ferns, and scattered fire cherry and aspen. The U.S. Forest Service started planting these denuded lands in the 1920s using seed collected from surviving native red spruce. Seedlings were grown in small tree nurseries, and local labor was used for planting crews. This work was later continued by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). Yet, from the beginning, it was obvious that red spruce seedlings could not fight the herbaceous competition on these vastly altered sites. After the first year, survival counts often showed that less than 10 percent
