[tn-bird] forests and birds of the Cumberland Plateau
- From: David Haskell <dhaskell@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 20 Mar 2002 17:33:59 -0600
Dear Fellow birders,
I thought some of you might be interested in the results of a study my
colleagues and I have recently completed on the changes in the forests of
the Cumberland Plateau in southern Tennessee. The study used aerial and
satellite photography to track changes in forest cover over the past twenty
years. I also conducted more than 500 point counts gathering data on bird
communities in different habitat types. The web site to download the full
report (or a summary) is at http://lal.sewanee.edu/saa/intro.html. I have
also pasted the press release about the report at the end of this message.
The bottom line from the forest cover part of the study is that we have
lost about 15 percent of the intact native forest in our region, mostly due
to large clearcuts that get converted to pine plantations. Our field
surveys of breeding birds found that pine plantations had the lowest bird
diversity and had the lowest conservation value, as measured by
independently-derived Partners in Flight (PIF) priority scores. The intact
native forests had the next highest diversity and PIF conservation value.
These intact native forests had some of the highest levels of bird
diversity found anywhere in the forests of the south-eastern U.S.,
indicating that this region offers high quality habitat for forest-dwelling
birds. Residential/rural areas (including suburban areas and rural areas
with low housing density) and thinned native forests had the highest
diversity of breeding birds and the highest PIF conservation value.
Neither pine plantations nor residential areas can support the bird
communities found in the native forests of the Cumberland Plateau.
However, residential areas provide habitat for several species that are
found in no other habitat types on the Plateau. In addition, residential
areas, young pine plantations, and thinned native forests all provide
habitat for a few specialist bird species that require a more open or
grassy habitat. Some of these specialists are also present in patches of
natural disturbance in native forests.
There is evidence that the species-rich bird communities of the Cumberland
Plateau are more vulnerable to loss of bird diversity when subjected to
intensive timber management than are bird communities with relatively low
species richness in other regions such as boreal and sub-boreal forests.
Yours, David H.
David G. Haskell, Ph.D.
Department of Biology
University of the South
Sewanee, TN 37383
dhaskell@xxxxxxxxxxx
(931) 598 1918
FAX (931) 598 1145
Press release: Sewanee Study Tracks Plateau Forest Decline
Nearly 15 percent of the intact native forest on Tennessee's Cumberland
Plateau has disappeared since 1981, according to a new report by the
University of the South's Landscape Analysis Laboratory. The Sewanee study
examined a seven-county, 620,000-acre portion of the Cumberland Plateau in
southern Tennessee. The primary purpose of the study was to examine changes
in land cover and land use over time and the environmental effects
associated with those changes. The University of the South team used aerial
photography, satellite images, and on-the-ground assessment to measure
changes in forest cover over the twenty-year period examined in the study.
Jon Evans, director of the Landscape Analysis Lab at the University of the
South and lead investigator for the project will present the findings to
Tennessee legislators in Nashville on March 13.
Native forests on the Cumberland Plateau consist predominately of a mixture
of oak and hickory species, along with other hardwood species. The Sewanee
study found that 66,000 acres of native forest has been lost since 1981 and
that most (74%) of this loss was caused by conversion of native forests to
plantations consisting of non-native loblolly pine. The rate of conversion
from native forest to pine plantation has doubled during the last three
years of the study period (1997-2000). Pine conversion activity was highly
clustered, causing a concentration of impact in certain counties and
watersheds. All counties showed a net loss of native forest, with Van Buren
County being the highest at 18% (15,870 acres).
From 1997 to 2000, 70% of forest removal on the Cumberland Plateau resulted
from clearcuts that were greater than 120 acres in size, which is a core
indicator of sustainable forestry practices under the Sustainable Forestry
Initiative (SFI) program.
The study found that of all land use types on the Plateau,
rural-residential areas exhibited the highest diversity of bird species, as
measured by the number and distribution of bird species and Partners in
Flight (PIF) conservation scores for each habitat type, followed by native
forests. Native forests in the study area had some of the highest levels of
bird diversity recorded in Southern forests. Pine plantations had
substantially lower bird diversity and conservation value habitats as
measured by PIF scores. In addition, water quality in streams, as measured
by salamander density and abundance of critical macroinvertebrates, was
significantly lower in disturbed sites (areas that had been recently
logged) than in undisturbed sites (native forest). However, the index of
water quality generally improved as streamside management zone width
increased, highlighting the importance of wide vegetated buffers in
maintaining water quality. With the recent trends in increased forest
management intensity on the Plateau, these findings are important because
this area contains some of the largest areas of high quality habitat for
forest-dwelling birds in the southeast U. S. and serves as the headwaters
to some of the most biologically diverse, freshwater stream systems in the
world.
The Sewanee study was funded, in part, by the U. S. Environmental
Protection Agency and the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service as a Small Area
Forestry Demonstration Project. The effort was initiated as part of these
agencies' overall involvement with the Southern Forest Resource Assessment
project, specifically to assist in analysis of the effects of land use
change at smaller, sub-regional focus areas. An important objective of the
study was to develop and identify technologically accessible,
cost-effective ways of generating landscape-level information that could be
used in future sub-regional focus area assessments across the South. In
support of this goal, this study has identified methodologies that
governmental and non-governmental organizations can access and afford in
their search to generate quantitative, accurate information about current
land-use changes occurring in their region.
Lead researcher Jon Evans said, "By developing cost-effective methodologies
that produce reliable, inexpensive data concerning land-use change, our
research should help Cumberland Plateau stakeholders understand the rate
and extent of forest change on the Plateau and the likely biological
effects of this change. This information should become important pieces of
the local, land-use decision-making process. In addition, technologies
developed for this project could easily be used to track certain indicators
of sustainable forestry operations."
David G. Haskell, Ph.D.
Department of Biology
University of the South
Sewanee, TN 37383
dhaskell@xxxxxxxxxxx
(931) 598 1918
FAX (931) 598 1145
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