A spring plant community survey was also conducted between
April 21 and May 6, 2015. We established two 50 m transects along
the edge of the 500 m2 circular plots. We established 0.5 m2 sample
plots every 5 m along each transect for a total of 20 sampling
plots. All plant species within the sampling plots were assessed
for total % cover by species. We used the criteria of Keddy and
Drummond (1996) to assess spring ephemerals considered significant
indicators of mature growth forests. To summarize 0–2
species of select spring ephemerals are considered a low quality
site, 2–5 are considered a medium quality site, and >5 are
considered high quality sites; see Table 4)