Little River revisited - thirty-five years after Hack and Goodlett

In possibly the first detailed study to relate geomorphology, vegetation, and hydrology at a watershed scale, Hack and Goodlett (1960) documented variation in the eastern forest with topograhic positions of cove, side slope, and nose. Runoff identified as convergent, parallel, or divergent, supported forest types, respectively, of northern hardwood, oak, and yellow pine. The study, conducted in the Little River Basin of northwestern Virginia, also described effects on landforms and vegetation of a catastrophic flood that occurred in June, 1949.

Field investigations, conducted nearly 4 decades later, review selected parts of the study by Hack and Goodlett (1960). Replicate data provide a basis to evaluate interpretations of Hack and Goodlett, to document geomorphic change within the Little River Basin since the 1949 flood, and to identify vegetation change in uplands and bottomlands. Results suggest that change to hillslope landforms has been minor since 1949, but that changes have occurred to the Little River and its tributaries, seemingly during flow events of 1952, 1955, and 1985. Change in areal extent of forest types was not detected. Change in the relative abundances of dominant species may have resulted from 20th-century fire suppression.