According to Kudish, Rusk boasts, in the upper reaches of Ox Hollow, one of the few virgin stands of Eastern Hemlock he has so far identified in the Catskills.
Above those elevations, those trees persist, albeit in smaller and more stunted forms as elevation increases, until finally they share the summit ridge with the red spruce and balsam fir of the boreal forest found on Catskill summits.