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NATURE · PROTECTED AREA
Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest
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Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest is a 3,800-acre old-growth tract in Graham County, North Carolina, protected within Nantahala National Forest and incorporated into the Joyce Kilmer-Slickrock Wilderness in 1975. It survived logging that cut much of the surrounding area after 1915, preserving a rare Appalachian cove hardwood forest along Little Santeetlah Creek. Chosen in 1934 as a living memorial to poet Joyce Kilmer, who was killed in World War I, it was formally dedicated on July 30, 1936. The forest includes yellow-poplar, oak, basswood, beech, and sycamore, with some trees more than 400 years old, and it also reflects losses from chestnut blight and hemlock woolly adelgid.
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Lake Santeetlah, North Carolina
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