Bent Creek Experimental Forest

The earliest known inhabitants of the Bent Creek basin are from the early Archaic period 8,000 years ago. The Cherokee are thought to have occupied two large campsites near the creek starting about 500 B.C.. Around 1795, when European settlers began moving into the area, the creek was named for a horseshoe-shaped bend near the French Broad River. By 1900, the basin had been divided into 73 tracts. More than 100 homes and 20 businesses stood on locations ranging from 5 to 500 acres. By then, the entire area had been logged, and about a quarter of it was cultivated or had been turned into pasture.

Between 1900 and 1909, George Vanderbilt acquired the basin and adjacent lands, which would become the vast Biltmore Estate. Later, Bent Creek basin and much of Vanderbilt's other lands were sold to the U.S. Government for $5 per acre. Those lands would become much of what we know today as the Pisgah National Forest. In 1925 the Forest Service set aside 1,100 acres of the Bent Creek area for research by the Appalachian Forest Experiment Station, which Congress had established in 1921. In 1931, Congress authorized the Community Works Administration to construct small office buildings for research on forest management, entomology, pathology, and hydrology.

In 1935, about 5,200 acres were added and the Experimental Forest now includes most of the Bent Creek Watershed. Specific research plots are being developed to showcase proven forest management practices and demonstrate new research findings to land managers, landowners, researchers, students, and the general public. The Bent Creek headquarters office and the Resistance Screening Center for fusiform rust share the area, and the North Carolina Arboretum has been established on 424 acres to the southwest.

Early Research at Bent Creek

Beginning in 1927, work centered on rehabilitation of land that suffered from past abuses such as erosion from poor farming practices, overgrazing, exploitive logging (“high-grading”), and frequent burning. In 1930, one of the first clearcuts in the Southern Appalachians was designed to regenerate and study a site that had been high-graded. Known as the "Buell Plot," this is the oldest area at Bent Creek for which detailed data on hardwood regeneration and stand development are available. Other early research focused on white pines, which were used for erosion control and timber production on the Biltmore Estate and Bent Creek.

During World War II, most silvicultural research was suspended, and field studies were maintained on a custodial basis. Studies continued in wildfire detection, forest pathology, and forest products.

In 1946, research emphasis changed to large-scale tests of silvicultural systems for hardwoods. Compartments averaging 150 acres were established to compare uneven-aged and even-aged silvicultural systems, long and short rotations, and extensive and intensive stand improvements. Some work continued with white pine.

In the early 1960's, most large scale tests were abandoned in favor of intensive data collection on numerous small research plots. Large-scale plots did not provide the level of detail needed to understand site-specific ecological relationships. Long-term studies were started on growth and yield of yellow-poplar stands, regeneration of northern red oak on good quality sites, and the indirect estimation of site quality from soil-site relationships.

Related publication: Nesbitt, William A. 1941. History of early settlement and land use on the Bent Creek Experimental Forest Buncombe County, NC. Appalachian Forest Experiment Station Asheville, North Carolina

Trails

Hiking, biking, and horse back riding on designated trails is permitted within the boundaries of the experimental forest. A trail map is available to download here. Signs are located at trailheads stating designated trail usage. Please follow the rules and remember that the Bent Creek Experimental Forest is designated for research on forest ecology and management, and research study sites must not be disturbed.

Interpretive Hikes

Habitat Hike

Starting at the concrete bridge over Bent Creek in the Lake Powhatan Recreation Area, this 3.5-mile trail passes through several ecological communities--a stream bottom, laurel-rhododendron thickets, and stands of white pine, hemlock, and various hardwoods. Interpretive signs point out the value of the habitats to the area's wildlife and human populations. Follow the brown signs with yellow arrows around the Habitat Hike. Painted blazes are for recreation trails, and maps are available from the campground hosts at the gate.

Ledford Branch Demonstration Trail

Interpretive signs will guide you along this 4.6-mile tour into the Bent Creek Experimental Forest. From signs along this trail, you can learn about hardwood forest regeneration methods in the Southern Appalachians, including clearcuts, shelterwood harvests, group selection harvests, and single-tree selection. Some of the signs tell about wildlife habitats in the forest environment.

The first 3.6 miles of the trail follow gravel roads that are open to bicycles, horses, and hikers. The final mile is a foot path through a younger forest and is open only to hikers.

Centennial Trail

Learn about forestry research at Bent Creek Experimental Forest. Park at the Rice Pinnacle parking area. Locate the sign guiding you to the start of the trail located across Rice Pinnacle road. This short, 0.6 mile, self-guided tour takes you through current research plots in a variety of forest settings. The trail was established in 2005 to commemorate the Forest Service’s 100th birthday.

Hunting and Fishing

The experimental forest is designated as game land and a bear sanctuary. Hunting and fishing is allowed. Please visit the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission website for more information.

You can view hunting safety information at the National Forests of North Carolina website.

Camping and Swimming

The Lake Powhatan Recreation Area is located in the center of the Bent Creek Experimental Forest and is administered by the Pisgah Ranger District of the Pisgah National Forest.

The campground and swimming areas are maintained by the Cradle of Forestry in America Interpretive Association. Camping is only allowed at the Lake Powhatan Recreational Area.

North Carolina Arboretum

The North Carolina Arboretum is located within the boundaries of the Bent Creek Experimental Forest.

Educational Tours

A fun way to learn about forestry practices and research projects is to arrange for a personalized tour on Bent Creek Experimental Forest. On-site tours and programs are available to middle, high school and college students, interested adult groups, and professional forest managers and educators and non-profit organization. A tour can be customized according to your group’s knowledge and objectives. On a tour, a staff member will lead the group to locations on the forest to show and describe results of research work. A demonstration forest which shows side-by-side silvicultural treatments is located on the forest and is a favorite tour site. To arrange a tour or to receive additional materials, contact our Science Delivery Specialist at 828-667-5261 x104.

A wide range of interested groups ranging from Scout troops to college students to international scientists have visited. Groups come from as close as Asheville and as far away as China. Some groups come back each year.

The mission of our training sessions is to provide training that focuses on the principles and practices of silviculture and closely related disciplines, for managing hardwood dominated, upland forests in the Appalachian Mountains and Interior Uplands.

On-site educational tours and programs are available to middle, high school and college students, interested adult groups, and professional forest managers and educators are available with a reservation.

Over 85 years of research and hundreds of studies have been conducted at Bent Creek Experimental Forest. Research topics have evolved over the years to reflect the shifting values of the American public and a heightened awareness of the role that forests play in the local, regional, and global environment and economy. Managers of Southern Appalachian Forested ecosystems are being challenged to produce an increasingly complex set of benefits expected from these ecosystems whether in public or private ownership. Developing management strategies to meet these challenges, and continuing to provide historically important values, such as timber, game species, clean water and recreational opportunities, requires a level of knowledge, based on both long- and short-term research that Bent Creek Experimental Forest is helping to provide.

Through experimental field studies and modeling, our research program focuses on understanding and predicting how upland hardwood-dominated forests and wildlife communities are affected by natural disturbances and shaped by silvicultural activities. Scientists at the Bent Creek Experimental Forest currently study oak ecosystem restoration, hardwood regeneration, fire ecology, growth and yield, forest stand dynamics, acorn and native forest fruit production, invasive plant species, American chestnut restoration, wildlife response to forest management practices, and ecosystem classification. We also study how forest composition, regeneration, and productivity differ across changing environmental conditions such as moisture and fertility gradients associated with the varied topography and geology of the southern Appalachians and the greater upland hardwood forest region.

Long-term studies, some established more than 80 years ago, are still yielding valuable information on forest stand development, stand dynamics, and timber growth and yield. Today some of those studies are being used to address current issues such as climate change mitigation through carbon sequestration.

Our applied research has important implications for sustainable forest management, wildlife and habitat quality, and forest restoration, and for emerging issues such as invasive species, effects of prescribed fire on upland hardwood ecosystems, forest restoration, and climate change mitigation through carbon sequestration.