Elizabeth's Woods at Tom’s Run Preserve

The 82 acre preserve is an excellent example of Appalachian ‘hardwood forest’ comprised of oak-hickory on the southern aspects and ridges, and mixed-mesophytic forest dominated by yellow poplar, sugar maple, and oak elsewhere. Twenty-five acres are ‘late successional’ and are developing a more complex structure. timber. White and Chestnut oaks are approximately about 120-130 years old.

Some fraction of the largest trees have fallen over past decades, and much course woody debris exists. The soils are loamy to clay-loam, not particularly light, but rich and mesic across the uplands but becoming drier at the bottom along Little Falls Road.

Many blowdown and wind-thrown mounds are found across the older forest, as are snags, gaps, and an increasingly complex structure. The area traversed by the upper half of the Elizabeth’s Loop Trail is the best example of mesic, Appalachian cove / mixed-mesophytic forest. The spring ephemerals are rich and abundant throughout the cove as well as on the upper half of the Hollenhorst Trail.