Timber and Wildlife Ecology Research Update from the Jones

Center

Kevin McIntyreEducation Coordinator

&Steve Jack

Conservation Ecologist

Forest Landowner’s Association 2014 Southeast Regional Forest Resource Owner and Manager Conference

Valdosta, GA October 28, 2014

Joseph W. Jones Ecological Research Center at Ichauway

Supported by the Robert W. Woodruff Foundation

Ichauway, circa 1929

Robert Woodruff

Joseph W. Jones

Joseph W. Jones Ecological Research Center at Ichauway

Long-Term Research

Longleaf Pine Ecosystems1) Productivity and biodiversity patterns of a

longleaf pine ecosystem.2) Ecological forestry and restoration of longleaf

pine ecosystems.3) Ecological role of mesopredators, effects of

control, and habitat approaches.

Aquatic Ecology and Water Resources4) Hydrologic variation and human development in

the lower Flint River Basin5) Depressional wetlands on the coastal plain

landscape: maintenance of regional biodiversity

Joseph W. Jones Ecological Research Center at Ichauway

Conservation & Natural ResourceManagement

• Stewardship of Ichauway & its natural resources

• Management of forests, wildlife & wetlands, including prescribed fire

• Monitoring of key environmental variables, plant & animal populations

• New approaches for restoration & adaptive management

• Key role in participation with education & research programs

Education and Outreach

• Natural Resource Professionals

• Policymakers

• Land Owners/Managers

• Undergraduate University Classes

• Graduate Students

• Overall goal of doubling acreage of LLP

from 4m to 8m by 2025

• Supported by diverse coalition of

Federal, State, NGO and private sector

• Identified Significant Geographic Areas

for longleaf restoration focus

• Significantly increased funding for LLP

• Decline of LLP reversed from low of

3.84m to 4.28m as of 2010

• 157,000 acres LLP established in 2013

• 50% incentive funded

• 50% funded by private landowners

Regional Longleaf Pine Conservation

and Restoration

8

Forest Management Limitations

Timber

Forest Management Limitations Tradeoffs

Timber

Timber

Wildlife Research

Quail

Is Hard Mast a Limiting Factor?

Ichauway Turkey Track Count Data

Ichauway WTD Track Counts

Ichauway WTD Spotlight Data

Season of Burn & Wildlife Impacts

Growing-Season Fire Impacts

Nest Success:

• Growing-season fires had an effect (p-value=0.03)– 11% of nests burned

– Majority burned in April

– 80% of hens renested

Poult Survival:

• One newly hatched brood lost to fire

Poult Survival Data

Year Site n

Day 0-9

(%lost)

Day 10-16

(%lost)

Day 17-30

(%lost)

Day 30+

(%lost)

2011 JC 6 67 17 17 N/A

SL 3 33 0 33 0

Pooled 9 56 11 22 0

2012 JC 9 78 11

SL 5 40 0 20 40

Pooled 14 64 7 7 21

Both Years/Sites 23 61 17 26 22

• Average # of poults per hen at hatch: 8.6

• 5 of the 23 brood hens killed by predators

Management Implications

Predation much stronger driver of turkey population dynamics than season of burn

Use rotating small-scale growing-season burns

More to Wild Turkey Population Dynamics than Burns…

Manage for habitat quality and population vs. individual nests

Predator Exclusion Experiment

Do Exclosures Exclude?

Annual Coyote Diet

Indirect Effects?

Photo credit: Austin Baggarley

Deer use of predator exclosures

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

Gestation Fawning Breeding

Wh

ite-

tail

ed d

eer

det

ecti

on

s

Control

Exclosure

22 fawns/year0.41 vs. 0.77 fawns/doe

Longleaf Management and Restoration Research

Timber Research

Timber

Conventional Wisdom

USDA Silvics Manual – Volume 1: Conifers (Agriculture Handbook 654, 1990)

Pinus palustris (Mill.)(from chapter by Boyer)

“Reaction to Competition-Longleaf pine is intolerant of competition, whether for light or for moisture and nutrients. The species will grow best in the complete absence of all competition, including that from other members of the species.”

Thus, general recommendation was to manage using even-aged systems (Boyer and Peterson, 1983, Agriculture Handbook 445)

Natural Stands – Multi-aged

Regeneration Dynamics Questions

• Below-canopy light environment

• Competition (both inter-and intra-specific)

• Role of fire

• Management implications

CompetitionPine Seedling Response

to Canopy Gap Size

Seedling growthT

ota

l b

iom

as

s (

g)

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

Seedling survival

Overstory treatment

Uncut

Single

-tree

Small

group

Large g

roup

Me

an

su

rviv

al

(%)

60

65

70

75

80

85

a

ab

cbc

a

a a

b

Pecot et al. 2007. CJFR

Three Stage Model for

Seedling Survival and Growth

Canopy Gap Size & Advanced Regeneration

Think in terms of releasing advanced regeneration rather than creating opening to secure regeneration

Canopy Gap Size & Advanced Regeneration

O’Brien et al. 2008. Ambio

Diverse Ground Cover Community

Functionally important ground cover species

Hendricks et al. 2002

Days in Field

0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200

Ma

ss R

em

ain

ing

(%

)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

Wiregrass (soil)

Wiregrass (elevated)

Longleaf pine (soil)

Longleaf pine (elevated)

Lower decomposition rate of elevated fine fuels(wiregrass & pine needles)

Legume Species

Fo

liar

Nd

fa (

%)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

Wet-Mesic Site

Intermediate Site

Cassianictitans

Crotalariarotundifolia

Centrosemavirginiana

Lespedezavirginiana

Legumes

No. of species identified: 43

Average density: 115,000stems/ha

Potential N2-fixation by legumes

Functionally important species:

Hainds et al. 1999

Hiers et al. 2001

Cathey et al. 2010

How Do We Best Manage to Maintain and Restore This Forest Type While Utilizing Resources?

Financial Comparison

Harvest Scenario Low Medium High

20-year IRR w/ land value (%) 3.21 3.29 3.48

Total accumulated net cash flow ($) 1,796,027 3,732,401 4,986,258

Ending Total Value (Cash flow + ending value) ($) 6,703,877 7,445,119 8,104,815

Conversion Scenario Moderate Rapid

20-year IRR w/ land value (%) 4.21 5.77

Total accumulated net cash flow ($) 5,171,745 4,928,824

Ending Total Value (Cash flow + ending value) ($) 6,612,212 6,569,429

Managing Longleaf Forests

Using natural disturbance regime as guide to management uneven-aged approaches

Which Silvicultural System?

• Disturbance regime and regeneration dynamics point toward uneven-aged systems to meet objectives

• Group or individual tree selection are feasible approaches for restoring toward reference objective

Long-Term Management and Restoration Experiments

Fuels, Fire & Silviculture

Attentuation of Needle Cast with Distance from Gap Edge

Distance from Gap Edge

-2 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16

Needle

Cast

(gra

ms p

er

1/4

m2 t

rap)

0

10

20

30

40

grams of needles/ trap

Regeneration Dynamics

Ground Cover Recovery

Harvest Treatments

Uncut Control

Group Selection

Single-tree Selection

Group Selection

with Retention

Stem Maps

Skidder Traffic – Operational Example

* Also have “experimental” skidder treatments

Soil and Ground Cover Disturbance

4 Passes 8 Passes

1 Pass 2 Passes

Soil Compaction Operational Skid

Trails

Ground Cover ChangesWiregrass Dominated

Pre-harvest, 2009 Post-harvest, 2010

Ground Cover ChangesOld-Field Dominated

Pre-harvest, 2009 Post-harvest, 2010

Planted Seedling Biomass

Management Project Summary

• Still preliminary results, early in study

• Short-term weather patterns can affect results

• Few statistically significant results due to high variability, though are some evident trends

• Harvesting operations have impacts but do not appear severe, recovery occurs over long time span

Restoration Research

Restoration – timing and pathways

– Species conversion

– When to introduce ground cover

– Wildlife habitat and which species present at different stages of development

Plantations to “Natural” Stands

Plantation Species Conversion

Underplanting longleaf seedlings in gaps

Thinning planted slash pine with gap creation

Reintroduction of ground cover?- when and what species

Old Field Conversion

Ground Cover Restoration

Hardwood Encroachment in Uplands

Legacy of past management

How to reconnect the landscape?

Hardwood Encroachment in Uplands

• Silvicultural treatment is species conversion – removal followed by planting

• Focused on trees, other things not immediately restored

• Explicitly factor time into considerations –thinking of time as an ecological factor that cannot be purchased or replaced

• In restoration, make use results of time already “invested”

Summary

• Integration between research and operational management and between research subject areas

• Research is focused on long-term projects with operational scale

• Attempting to examine multiple resource responses to manipulations – trade-offs from maintaining all ecosystem characteristics