Longleaf Pine Ecosystems Productivity and biodiversity patterns of a longleaf pine ecosystem. Ecological forestry and restoration of longleaf pine ecosystems. Ecological role of mesopredators, effects of control, and habitat approaches. Aquatic Ecology and Water Resources Hydrologic variation and human development in the lower Flint River Basin Depressional wetlands on the coastal plain landscape: maintenance of regional biodiversity

1. Timber and Wildlife Ecology
Research Update from the Jones
Center
Forest Landowner’s Association 2014 Southeast Regional
Forest Resource Owner and Manager Conference
Valdosta, GA October 28, 2014
Kevin McIntyre
Education Coordinator
&
Steve Jack
Conservation Ecologist

2. Joseph W. Jones Ecological Research Center
at Ichauway
Supported by the Robert W. Woodruff Foundation

3. Joseph W. Jones Ecological Research
Ichauway, circa 1929
Robert Woodruff
Joseph W. Jones
Center at Ichauway

5. Long-Term Research
Longleaf Pine Ecosystems
1) Productivity and biodiversity patterns of a
longleaf pine ecosystem.
2) Ecological forestry and restoration of longleaf
pine ecosystems.
Joseph W. Jones Ecological Research Center
at Ichauway
3) Ecological role of mesopredators, effects of
control, and habitat approaches.
Aquatic Ecology and Water Resources
4) Hydrologic variation and human development in
the lower Flint River Basin
5) Depressional wetlands on the coastal plain
landscape: maintenance of regional biodiversity

6. Conservation & Natural Resource
Management
• 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

7. Education and Outreach
• Natural Resource
Professionals
• Policymakers
• Land Owners/Managers
• Undergraduate University
Classes
• Graduate Students

8. Regional Longleaf Pine Conservation
and Restoration
• 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
8

9. Forest Management Limitations
Timber

10. Forest Management Limitations Tradeoffs
Timber
Timber

11. Wildlife Research
Quail

12. Is Hard Mast a Limiting Factor?

13. Ichauway Turkey Track Count Data

14. Ichauway WTD Track Counts

15. Ichauway WTD Spotlight Data

17. Season of Burn & Wildlife Impacts

18. 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

19. 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

20. Management Implications
Predation much stronger driver of turkey population
dynamics than season of burn
Manage for habitat quality and population vs. individual nests
Use rotating small-scale growing-season burns
More to Wild Turkey Population Dynamics than Burns…

21. Predator Exclusion Experiment

22. Do Exclosures Exclude?

23. Annual Coyote Diet

24. Indirect Effects?
Photo credit: Austin Baggarley

25. Deer use of predator exclosures
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Gestation Fawning Breeding
White-tailed deer detections
Control
Exclosure

26. 22 fawns/year
0.41 vs. 0.77 fawns/doe

27. Longleaf Management and
Restoration Research

28. Timber Research
Timber

29. 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)

30. Natural Stands – Multi-aged

31. Regeneration Dynamics Questions
• Below-canopy light
environment
• Competition (both inter-and
intra-specific)
• Role of fire
• Management implications

32. Competition
Pine Seedling Response
to Canopy Gap Size
Seedling growth
Total biomass (g)
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
Seedling survival
Large group
Overstory treatment
Uncut
Single-tree
Small group
Mean survival (%)
85
80
75
70
65
60
a
ab
c
bc
a
a a
b
Pecot et al. 2007. CJFR

33. Three Stage
Model for
Seedling Survival
and Growth

34. Canopy Gap Size & Advanced
Regeneration
Think in terms of releasing
advanced regeneration rather
than creating opening to
secure regeneration

35. Canopy Gap Size & Advanced
Regeneration
O’Brien et al. 2008. Ambio

36. Diverse Ground Cover Community

37. Functionally important ground cover species
Lower decomposition rate of elevated fine fuels
(wiregrass & pine needles)
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200
Days in Field
Mass Remaining (%)
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Hendricks et al. 2002
Wiregrass (soil)
Wiregrass (elevated)
Longleaf pine (soil)
Longleaf pine (elevated)

38. Functionally important species:
Legume Species
Foliar Ndfa (%)
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Legumes
No. of species identified: 43
Average density: 115,000
stems/ha
Wet-Mesic Site
Intermediate Site
Cassia
nictitans
Crotalaria
rotundifolia
Centrosema
virginiana
Lespedeza
virginiana
Potential N2-fixation by legumes
Hainds et al. 1999
Hiers et al. 2001
Cathey et al. 2010

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

40. 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

41. Managing Longleaf Forests
Using natural disturbance regime as guide to
management  uneven-aged approaches

42. 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

43. Long-Term Management and
Restoration Experiments

44. Fuels, Fire & Silviculture
Attentuation of Needle Cast with Distance from Gap Edge
-2 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16
Distance from Gap Edge
Needle Cast (grams per 1/4 m2 trap)
40
30
20
10
0
grams of needles/ trap

45. Regeneration Dynamics

46. Ground Cover Recovery

47. Harvest Treatments
Uncut Control
Single-tree Selection
Group Selection
Group Selection
with Retention

48. Stem Maps

49. Skidder Traffic – Operational Example
* Also have “experimental” skidder treatments

50. Soil and Ground Cover Disturbance
1 Pass 2 Passes
4 Passes 8 Passes

51. Soil Compaction
Operational Skid
Trails

52. Ground Cover Changes
Wiregrass Dominated
Pre-harvest, 2009 Post-harvest, 2010

53. Ground Cover Changes
Old-Field Dominated
Pre-harvest, 2009 Post-harvest, 2010

54. Planted
Seedling
Biomass

55. 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

56. Restoration Research
Restoration – timing and pathways
– Species conversion
– When to introduce ground cover
– Wildlife habitat and which species present at
different stages of development

57. Plantations to “Natural” Stands

58. Plantation Species Conversion
Underplanting longleaf seedlings in gaps
Thinning planted slash pine with gap creation
Reintroduction of ground cover?
- when and what species

59. Old Field Conversion

60. Ground Cover Restoration

61. Hardwood Encroachment in Uplands
Legacy of past management
How to reconnect the landscape?

62. Hardwood Encroachment in Uplands
• Silvicultural treatment is species conversion – removal
followed by planting
• Focused on trees, other things not immediately restored

63. • 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”

64. 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