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| Alabama Takes a Stand for Wildlife (The Alabama Wildlife Magazine Archives, Fall 1999) www.alawild.org/ |
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| "The Value of a
Wildlife Habitat Consultant" By Ted DeVos Over 70% of land in Alabama is owned by private landowners. Fifty percent (50%) of that number is in tracts of 500 acres or less. One of the most wonderful things about these landowners is that they usually have a strong interest in "stewardship" of the land; to manage it in a way that is friendly to the environment. This wish, however, often creates a dilemma in that many landowners are not sure what habitat management entails, or what tradeoffs (timber income, wildlife populations, etc.,) are associated with management over and above the base level of sound stewardship. Many landowners think that they must devote particular stands to wildlife and are reluctant to manage these stands for both timber and wildlife. Variety of stands, tree species/age classes, and understory condition is the key to having good wildlife habitat in a well-managed income producing timber property. Most landowners with timberland are familiar with consulting foresters and the benefits of utilizing their services when it comes to managing and selling timber, timber and timberland valuation, and estate and tax implications. In the current market, timber and timberland have impressively high values and the need to take advantage of a professional to assist in managing this asset cannot be overstated. The wildlife and environmental value of timberland and farmland has increased, and hunting lease prices have gone sky high, often enough to modify timber and farming practices to attract high paying tenants. In today’s market, managing timberland for maximum wood production may not be the wisest way to go. It is also getting harder and harder to make money from rowcrops or raising livestock. With more and more emphasis being placed on timber and farm land to produce high quality wildlife populations and healthy animals, the assistance of a land management professional who knows how to make the property wildlife productive and not just timber or crop productive is becoming increasingly important. Wildlife management is more than managing timber in large stands and planting 1% of the acreage in winter greenfields then accepting the deer and turkey populations which exist. Devoting some openland acreage to summer forage management and producing abundant understory forage are highly important to quality deer and turkey management. Multi-species plantings in both summer and winter fields, various fruit and shrub plantings for hard and soft mast, and seasonal discing and native plant management are all techniques which can be used far more effectively than currently practiced. For those landowners who have an interest in bobwhite quail management, it must be accepted that many of the current problems we have with quail populations in the southeast can be attributed to changes in farm and timber management practices. Therefore, to reclaim acceptable quail populations we must modify some timber and farming techniques. Professional habitat consultants wear a variety of hats. Most foresters have an extensive knowledge of the benefits or drawbacks of particular forest management practices on wildlife. For instance, the benefits of a clearcut is that plenty of browse is available to deer for the first few years. Cover conditions in the first 7-8 years are good for deer and turkey nesting habitat, and quail habitat is fair in the first 3 years. The negatives, however, are that with large expanses of clearcut habitat (50 acre blocks or more) only the perimeters are fully utilized (edge effect) and large portions of the interior are underutilized compared to smaller clearcut areas. During the period when a pine stand is fully shaded, with little understory vegetation, there are virtually no good years for wildlife. Timber management advice is often geared toward even-aged monocultures, thus there is a need for diversity of timber types, ages, stand sizes, species composition, and wildlife species for good environmental stewardship. Intensive monoculture pine management is often done at the expense of the property’s other natural resources. These differences may not matter to a landowner who’s only objective is maximum timber income, but to landowners who have a strong wildlife or stewardship interest, management techniques available to mitigate the negatives and diversify the property may be needed. Input from a biologist, or habitat specialist, in regards to forest and farm management practices on selected wildlife species is helpful in understanding the impacts of these practices on the environment and ways to modify management to "soften" the negatives or boost the positives A biologist may come up with ideas not thought of before, but the drawback is often that biologists may not emphasize the monetary tradeoffs, or think that the benefits of additional wildlife habitat is worth it, whatever the cost. Timber and farmland managed with the assistance of professional biologists and foresters yield higher wildlife populations and therefore harvests, have healthier habitat and wildlife diversity, and yield better quality timber products creating higher income. Landowners |
interested in sound stewardship
of their property should not only seek assistance from a forester in regard to timber
management practices, but also from a biologist in regards to the wildlife impacts of
these practices. At the minimum, objectives of the landowner, current state of property,
and techniques to be utilized in reaching the goals or objectives should be documented in
a management plan. Management plans allow a holistic
view of where the property is from a timber and wildlife habitat standpoint, then define
and organize land use objectives, such as outlining what stands might need thinning or
burning and what the wildlife impacts of the activity will be. Plans can be a fairly
simple outline of what exists and what might be done, to a detailed management plan
outlining each stand and habitat type, timber inventory, current conditions of each stand
(especially understory conditions), how/when/where burning can be done, wildlife openings
and those to be created, what plants to be planted in each individual opening,
how/when/where discing should be performed, woodland plantings and where to be placed,
herbicides to be used and when/where, an associated budget, and a monthly/seasonal
calendar of what to do during each time frame throughout the life of the management plan. On properties where wildlife is a primary objective, some practices, such as thinning a pulp or "chip and saw" stand followed by burning may not require any modifications. However, most standard timber management practices will be modified and some practices might be avoided. Pine stands containing a substantial hardwood component might be thinned, removing many of the hardwoods and some pine, then burned in winter to promote understory vegetation growth. This stand might be left without a regeneration cut for an additional 7-10 years, creating excellent wildlife habitat (deer, turkey, quail, songbirds, etc.) in the process while losing very little income from a timber standpoint. Once regeneration cuts have been performed, replanted acreage oriented towards wildlife might incorporate openings for deer and turkeys; winding, wide, linear openings with a few plantings might be incorporated for quail and songbirds with much just left in a fallow, grassy condition. Other tree species, such as longleaf pine might be planted for wildlife with an understanding that income and financial return may be delayed although not necessarily reduced. Wider tree spacing in pine plantations might be utilized to delay crown closure. On farmland, opportunities abound to manage wildlife while only reducing crop harvest minimally. Idle areas and "root encroached" field edges can be successfully managed to produce quail, songbirds and other wildlife, while hardly loosing any valuable crop acreage. Often the only technique needed is to leave the field edge alone. So where can a landowner access habitat management assistance? There are a variety of resources. As with forest management assistance, state, federal, and private organizations are available to assist landowners. There are, undoubtedly, many more forestry oriented assistance programs. However, the Game and Fish Division of ADCNR, Alabama Cooperative Extension System, and most recently, the Alabama Wildlife Federation have landowner assistance biologists available. Most of these folks must respond to broad public demands and are only able to offer limited services. There are also consulting firms, which either employ a wildlife biologist or have professionals with dual degrees of both wildlife and forestry. The Forestry Commission will often have a list of wildlife biologists available and the Alabama Wildlife Federation is compiling a list of biologists and resource materials. These consultants are directly employed by the landowner,
and will spend the necessary time with each landowner to get the job done. As with
foresters, who must be registered in Alabama, wildlife biologists have a professional
association which acknowledges them if they fill the requirements as a Certified Wildlife
Biologist. |
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