Avian Diversity and Productivity on an Intensively Managed, Industrial Forest in South Carolina: The

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Avian Diversity and Productivity on an
Intensively Managed, Industrial Forestin South
CarolinaThe Westvaco Example
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Authors

• Richard A. Lancia, North Carolina State
  University
• John A. Gerwin, NC Museum of Natural Sciences
• Michael S. Mitchell, Alabama Coop. Wildlife
  Research Unit, Auburn University
• William M. Baughman, Westvaco Corporation
• T. Bently Wigley, NCASI

Cooperators
Westvaco Corporation - Southern Forests
Division National Council of the Paper Industry
for Air and Stream Improvement National Fish and
Wildlife Foundation NC State University, Auburn
University NC State Museum of Natural
Sciences National Science Foundation US Fish and
Wildlife Service
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Introduction

• Forest Fragmentation
• Permanent
• Habitat loss and isolation
• Habitat discontinuity
• Harvest or thinning
• Temporary
• Serious threats to biological diversity

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Introduction
Forest industry lands (Southeast) 40 million
acres 20 of commercial forest land Coastal
Plain Heterogeneity in forest types and ages 1/3
softwood 1/2 oak-pine, oak-hickory,
oak-gum-cypress Tend to be large, contiguous
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Introduction

• Manage fragmentation at large and small scales
• Regional
• Florida black bear in south Georgia, north
  Florida
• Local
• Harvest schedulers and wildlife habitat
  relationships models
• Spatial and temporal
• Corridors
• Source habitats and connectivity

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Introduction
Corridors Positives movement, sources, genetic
flow, metapopulation Negatives edge effects,
disease, exotics
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Introduction

• Intuitively, birds assess habitat on at some
  spatial scale
• At microscale, how much is enough?
• What landscape configurations define suitable
  habitat?
• Corridors
• How large? How positioned?

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Objectives

• Contribution of managed timberlands on breeding
  birds
• Breeding bird presence, abundance, productivity
• Evaluate efficacy of 100-m corridors as breeding
  bird habitat
• Model habitat to examine scale at which birds
  responded to spatial patterns of habitats in a
  managed forest landscape

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Questions

• What bird species do managed forests support and
  how does that address regional fragmentation
  concerns?
• Do managed forests show symptoms of fragmentation
  at local scale?
• What role to corridors play?

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Westvaco Example
Ecosystem-Based Multiple Use Management
System Objectives Sustainable supply of fiber
for mills Adhere to regulations, BMPs, SFI Land
stewardship to maintain productivity
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Westvaco ExampleManagement Zones
Water quality - SMZ (330-660 ft) Habitat
diversity Enhance biodiversity, 330 ft wide, gum
ponds Timber management (pine) lt500 ac,
even-aged, clearcuts lt100ac,
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Methods
Extensive survey of all habitats 50-m radius
point counts (350/yr) Intensive manipulation of
corridors (1,000 ac each) 3 experimental 3
controls 2 years before, 3 years after Point
counts Territory mapping Nest searching
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Methods - Modeling

• At each point count
• Bird presence/absence data
• Landscape variables
• Forest age and type
• Measured at multiple scales in concentric circles

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A B C
At what scales do birds perceive a landscape?
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Scale
Sampling point
250m interval
250m
. . . 3 km
Mean, standard deviation, and continuity
measured for each landscape variable at scales
2-2872 ha for each point
80m interval
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Gnatcatcher Red-eyed vireo Acadian
flycatcher White-eyed vireo No.
Parula Grt-crested flycatcher Yellowthroat Hooded
warbler
Cardinal Titmouse Towhee Car. Wren Chickadee Pine
warbler Red-bellied WP
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Results
hardwoods
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Occurrence
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Prairie Warbler in Pine Stands
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Worm-eating Warbler, detections
Loblolly Age groups
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No evidence cowbird brood parasitism was
discovered
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Acadian Flycatcher territories
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Results - Nest Success

• Corridors
• 40-60 acadian flycatchers (slightly higher in
  corridors than adjacent territories
  equallydense)
• 30 hooded warblers
• Control
• 14 acadian flycatchers
• 60 hooded warblers (shrub cover higher)

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Indigo Bunting C 88 D 0.76
Kentucky Warbler C 79 D 0.60
Yellow-breasted Chat C 79 D 0.60
- mean age, 2 ha homogeneity age, 315 ha - mean
age, 1964 ha
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Modeling Summary

• Landscape characteristics
• Residents -- insensitive
• Migrants -- sensitive
• Landscape models worked well across
  successional continuum
• Habitat specialization
• Generalists -- insensitive
• Specialists -- sensitive

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Discussion

• Regionally - rich avifauna
• Locally - successful breeding in corridors
• Stand structure seemed more important that
  corridor size or shape
• Shrub layer important

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Conclusions

• Industrial lands can design landscape in space
  and time to address fragmentation
• Corridors provide habitat
• Caution arbitrary decisions about scale
• Stand sizes, corridor widths, adjacency
  constraints
• Acadian flycatchers area sensitive

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Landscape Data, Westvaco
Age Species