Why You Should Visit The Panther Knob Preserve straddles a high
elevation plateau at the junction of North Fork Mountain and
Ruleman Mountain and includes the 4508-foot summit. The preserve
stretches for more than four miles along the ridges. Bare,
rocky, sandstone summits, West Virginia's largest native stands
of paper birch, and the Central Appalachian's largest fire-
maintained pine barrens can be found here. Other high Allegheny
ridges to the west intercept weather systems, causing storms to
drop much of their rainfall and snowfall on those mountains. As
a result, North Fork Mountain is one of the driest mountains in
the East. Red spruce, which usually dominates at these high
elevations, is very local on North Fork Mountain, with a virgin
stand of spruce occurring on the preserve. Red oak forests and
pine barrens clothe the ridgetops. Recurring fires have been a
major ecological process defining these forests and barrens. The
barrens consist of stunted 60 to 100 year old pitch and table
mountain pines, wit