Seventy-year record of changes in the composition of overstory species by elevation on the Bartlett Experimental Forest

Remeasurements over a 70-year period (1931-1932 to 2002-2003) on 404 cruise plots on the Bartlett Experimental Forest in New Hampshire provided a record of landscape-level changes in the composition of overstory species over time by elevation and d.b.h. (diameter at breast height) classes. Typically, early to mid-successional species declined while late successional species, especially hemlock, increased. The exception was at upper elevations (2,000 feet and higher), where natural wind disturbance maintained a variable component of paper and yellow birch. There is no evidence of species decline or migration that is inconsistent with natural succession or natural disturbance.