Plural of bald; areas of land with no trees, or bald mountains/peaks, especially in Appalachia.
From Middle English 'bald,' meaning bare or naked, applied to geographic features. In American English, especially in the South, 'balds' refers to treeless mountain summits of unclear ecological origin.
Great Smoky Mountain 'balds' are ecological mysteries—no one is completely sure why these mountaintops stay treeless while surrounding peaks are forested, and they're shrinking as trees gradually reclaim them!
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