In press, TNC
ICE MOUNTAIN: AN ICE AGE
REMNANT
Dr. Larry
E. Morse
Chief Botanist, The Nature Conservancy
The chill of Ice Mountain must date from the Ice Age, twelve thousand or more years ago. West Virginia was not covered by continental glaciers then, but did have a severely cold and windy climate when the edge of the ice was nearby in central Pennsylvania.
The ground and the rocks were cold then, and ice must have been common everywhere. While most of Appalachia has by now warmed up to modern temperatures, Ice Mountain, with its thick talus blanket of steeply piled Oriskany sandstone fragments, is still slowly recovering from glacial times.
Located along the North River in
Hampshire County in easternmost West Virginia, Ice Mountain isn’t even in the
high mountain country. This is no sub alpine summit; elevation does not cause
the cold temperatures here. Furthermore,
Early visitors wondered about the midsummer ice, but may not have noticed the rare flowers and ferns, the tiny snails, and the strange mixture of species which make Ice Mountain not merely a geological curiosity but furthermore one of the ecologically and biogeographically most important sites in the central Appalachians.
Scientists also wondered first about the mountain’s peculiar chill. In his 1843 paper entitled 0n the Ice Mountain of Hampshire County, Virginia, with a proposed explanation of its low temperature,” geologist C.
B. Hayden described Ice Mountain’s spectacular setting and proposed the still—accepted theory on the preservation of ice under the thick layers of insulating sandstone boulders.
Places like Ice Mountain are now called algific talus slopes ——“algific” from a term for cold—producing. Most algific slopes, such as those in the American Midwest, developed over limestone, a soluble rock in which ice—retaining cracks and crevices readily form. Few algific slopes are formed of sandstone or other acidic substrates.
West Virginia’s Ice Mountain is the finest example of the algific talus slope ecosystem in eastern North America. It compares favorably with any Midwestern algific site, and is one of the best sandstone—talus algific habitats in the world.
It’s still unknown whether or not there’s a permanent core of ice inside Ice Mountain. In either case, the midsummer microclimate of these cracks and crevices features air as cool as 38—45 degrees Fahrenheit, giving a narrow zone at the base of the mountain slope a decidedly Canadian climate.
Ice Mountain’s algific zone is too small for mammoths and mastodons, giant beavers and saber-toothed tigers, but the site still holds many plants and smaller animals (such as the snail Hendersonia occult.) widespread during glacial times.
Many of these species have now spread north as the land has warmed, reaching central Canada and Alaska. Others moved uphill from the valley floors to the cooler climates of such high—elevation places as Dolly Sods, Spruce Knob, Panther Knob, and the Canaan Valley.
The plants of Ice Mountain’s algific zone form a unique community combining Appalachian, Canadian, and Arctic species that are found growing together 1~owhere else on Earth. Being a relict of the Ice Age, this strange assemblage hints at the common vegetation of the Mountain State ten thousand years ago.
A midsummer visitor to central Alaska could not miss the prickly wild rose (Rosa acicularis) flowering abundantly-under the poplar trees. The dwarf dogwood (Cornus canadensis) is often common beneath the Alaskan roses, with sprouts of the northern bedstraw (Galiunz boreale) occasional as well. The sme3.ly foliage of the skunk currant (Ribes glandulosum) may also appear nearby, while the delicate twinf lower (Lij2naea borealis) ranges throughout the Arctic. All five of these familiar Alaskan plants, rare in our region, are conspicuous at Ice Mountain!
The Alaskan tourist to Ice Mountain might pass these species by, but would be fascinated by Ice Mountain’s towering old-growth trunks of white pine and yellow birch rising from the rocky slope. Hemlock in the moister areas adds its soft texture to this overstory.
Of even greater interest are Ice
Mountain’s Appalachian endemics, plants familiar in the High Alleghenies but
scare anywhere at low elevations. The menziesia (Bfenziesia pilosa), a small—flowered azalea relative, and the! bush honeysuckle (Diervilla lonicera) are such montane species. -
Unlike the menenziesia,
some of Ice Mountain’s other plants range not only upslope in the mountains but
northward well into Canada. Among these are the mountain maple (Acer spicatum), the
velvet—leaf blueberry (Vaccinium myrtilloidea), and
the star flower (Trienealis
borealis).
The interest and concern of its several owners and managers over the past century and more have maintained Ice Mountain’s rare flora in its present high-quality condition. Desj4te its centuries of visitation and use, Ice Mountain still retains a refreshing naturalness. Few weedy exotic plants survive here, and every rare plant ever recorded at Ice Mountain has been seen extant in recent years.
After a decade of negotiations, The Nature Conservancy’s purchase offer for 241 acres, including the entire algific talus slope ecosytem, has been accepted, and the Conservancy is now raising the funds necessary to assure protection for this remnant of the Appalachia of the Ice Age.