Canaan Valley, West Virginia, contains one of the largest inland freshwater wetland ecosystems of bogs, marshes, wet meadows, and shrub and forested wetlands in the eastern United States. This study uses aerial photography and ground truthing activities to produce GIS-based vegetation maps for 1945, 1975, and 1997, in order to track changes in plant community types and to construct plant successional models. Between 1945 and 1997, there was an increase in the area covered by northern hardwood forests and Spiraea alba and Hypericum densiflorum shrub thickets, but only a limited increase of Picea rubens dominated forests. Beaver activity along waterways became an important factor in determining successional trends, causing shrub swamps to be converted to wet meadows and marshes. The least successional change occurred in bogs and old fields located at the base of surrounding slopes. Overall, successional trends appear to follow rather predictable patterns for uplands and lowland habitats. However, there is little evidence to suggest that P. rubens will replace hardwood species on the uplands.