Northeast Forests and Native Flora



Japanese barberry and Japanese stiltgrass
in central PA forest

 Came across this news release (see below) dated April 30, 2013 from the US Forest Service.  This one really hit home with me.  On Friday and Saturday I spent countless hours with a backpack sprayer on treating invasive shrubs (shrub honeysuckle, Japanese barberry, and multiflora rose), Japanese stiltgrass, mile-a-minute vine, and garlic mustard on my brother's property in western NY and on property I manage for the University in central PA.  I have to admit it was quite discouraging......especially since after applying more that 20 gallons of herbicide solution I really had only scratched the surface of approximately 200 acres.  The problem seems to be getting worse, not better.  The more management work we do to create habitat for wildlife, salvage timber dying from emerald ash borer and hemlock wooly adelgid (2 invasive exotic insects) the more the invasive plants seem to be able to take hold.

I have begun to accept the realization that these plants are here to stay and I have had to adjust my expectations.  No longer do I think they can be eradicated, in some cases I am not even sure they can be controlled.  You certainly have to pick your battles, draw a line in the sand so to speak.  My goal now has simply become trying to keep them from infesting new areas.  I have simply given up on some areas that are so severely overrun with invasives that I feel there is no way to get them under control without tremendous inputs of herbicide, hours of labor, and expense. 

On both properties we have recently performed timber sales, one to salvage dying hemlock (15 acres) and the other to perform a timber stand improvement project and create young forest habitat (20 acres).  I have set my goal on trying to ensure these newly harvested areas regenerate properly and do not get overrun with invasive plants......that is when I found the mile-a-minute vine.  I put down a pre-emergent herbicide but from conversations I have had with others this one may be a loosing battle, not good!

Invasive plants are here to stay and they are everywhere!  Read more about the Forest Service study results below.

New study is first to reveal abundance of nonnative plants across 24 states  
PORTLAND, Ore. April 30, 2013. Two-thirds of all forest inventory plots in the Northeast and Midwestern United States contain at least one non-native plant species, a new U.S. Forest Service study found. The study across two dozen states from North Dakota to Maine can help land managers pinpoint areas on the landscape where invasive plants might take root.

“We found two-thirds of more than 1,300 plots from our annual forest inventory had at least one introduced species, but this also means that one-third of the plots had no introduced species,” said Beth Schulz, a research ecologist at the Pacific Northwest Research Station who led the study, which is published in the current issue of the journal Environmental Monitoring and Assessment. “By describing forest stands with few or no introduced species, we help managers focus on areas where early detection and rapid response can be most effective to slow the spread of introduced and potentially invasive plant species.”

Nonnative, or introduced, plants are those species growing in areas where they are not normally found. Whether they were intentionally released or escaped cultivation, nonnative plants ultimately can become invasive, displacing native species, degrading habitat, and altering critical ecosystem functions.

Schulz and her colleague Andrew Gray, a research forester at the station, analyzed data gathered by the Northern Research Station’s Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) Program, which collects and reports statistics on the condition of forests in a 24-state region as part of its regular surveys. The data set, collected from 2001 to 2008, includes a sample of all trees, shrubs, vines, herbs, grasses, fern and fern-like plants conducted on a subset of the region’s FIA plots.

Among the study’s findings:
• There are 305 introduced plant species growing in the region’s forests, including some not currently found on regional monitoring lists;
• Multiflora rose (which was recorded on over one-quarter of all plots studied), Japanese honeysuckle, and garlic mustard are among the most prevalent nonnative species;
• The presence of nonnative species increases as the level of forest fragmentation increases; 
• Forests surveyed within the Eastern Broadleaf ecological province—which runs from the Atlantic coastal plains of Maine and New Hampshire to the southwest into Ohio and into the high hills and semi-mountainous areas of West Virginia—contain the greatest assortment of introduced plant species.

The study’s results can help focus research on individual species more widely distributed than previously thought or with yet-unexplored potential to become problematic.
Yasmeen Sands Public Affairs Specialist
U.S. Forest Service

Bat Population in Pennsylvania in Peril

Little brown bat infected with
white-nose syndrome

I wanted to share with you an article and an update concerning the bat population in Pennsylvania. Many of you may have heard of White-Nose Syndrome (WNS), I am not sure if many of you realize just how serious this disease is. It has literally decimated the cave dwelling bat population here in Pennsylvania and throughout the northeast and has now been detected as far south as Alabama.

WNS was first documented in New York in the winter of 2006-07 and first appeared in Pennsylvania in 2008.  It began killing cave bats in 2009. WNS refers to a white fungus on the muzzles and wing membranes of affected bats. This fungus is a cold-loving fungus affecting bats while they hibernate. While the fungus has been confirmed to be the causative agent of the disease, the specific mechanism on how it causes mortality is not fully understood. The Pennsylvania Game Commission web site has a lot of additional informaiton, including videos, fact sheets, and a range map. There is also a link to the US Fish and Wildlife Service's WNS site.

A number of bat species are now being considered for listing as either endangered or threatened. It is yet to be seen what that will mean for the forestry/timber harvesting community. We do know one thing for sure, the loss of bats will most certainly cause an increase in the insect population. Bats are insect eating machines, with a single bat having the ability to consume nearly a million insects per year. This is bad news for farmers and foresters as potential loss of crops could become increasing great. Risk of transmission of diseases like West Nile Virus may increase as well.

Ninety-eight percent of cave-hibernating bats have died in Pennsylvania, say biologists
Monday, April 15, 2013 by: Jonathan Benson, staff writer
Natural News.Com

They serve a critical role in pollinating crops, killing insects, and fertilizing soil, but their presence throughout the state of Pennsylvania is in a disastrously serious decline. According to a new report by PhillyBurbs.com, 99.99 percent of bats living in Pennsylvania's second largest bat habitat were recently discovered to be dead, and a cohort of biologists currently studying the issue estimates that a shocking 98 percent of bats living throughout the entire state of Pennsylvania are now dead as well.

For many generations, tens of thousands of bats have made their home at an old abandoned iron ore mine in the Upper Bucks area of Central Pennsylvania. At least six different bat species resided in the mine, which has long been a key hibernation spot for bats during the cold winter months. But a recent inspection of the mine revealed that a mere handful of the approximately 10,000 bats that were believed to have lived there previously are now gone, and most of the few remaining bats are ill with a disease that will likely kill them.

To read the complete story click here.

Value of Eastern Hemlock on the Landscape



eastern hemlock stands on the high Allegheny plateau
are threatened by hemlock wooly adelgid

 With Hemlock Wooly Adelgid (HWA) moving across Pennsylvania there is a real threat of it impacting hemlock on the high Allegheny plateau.  Recently, a group called the High Allegheny Hemlock Conservation Project has formed to look into hemlock conservation in the region.  The group is headed by The Nature Conservancy but numerous state, federal and private entities are involved.  One of their first tasks has been to develop an in-depth list of various attributes that make hemlock valuable, or what makes certain areas of hemlock valuable. 

The following is a list of the valuation aspects the Steering Committee feels are most important when considering the value of hemlock on the landscape:
Wildlife Habitat
Rare Habitats: Including old-growth, rare, threatened, and endangered species
Water Quality
Human “Use”:  Includes recreation, spiritual and aesthetic aspects, and can be used as a proxy for the amount of money gained from tourism, and amount of money that would be spent on removal of hazard trees

Other attributes that may make a stand of hemlock more valuable include: 
1. Access to the site - which directly relates to the ability to use treatments on the ground

2. Connectivity of hemlock stands or patches on the landscape

3. Diversity of hemlock age classes and associated species (may lead to increased resiliency following HWA infestation)

This list is not in any particular order and any feedback would be greatly appreciated.......it’s completeness or incompleteness, or suggestions on what data to use or where to look for data, would be appreciated.

The steering committee is currently gathering spatial data relevant to each of these aspects.  The attributes will be able to be viewed and used to prioritize stands where treatmenst can then be applied.

Lastly, I have provided a link to a bookhlet entitled Silvicultural Options for Managing Hemlock Forests Threatened by Hemlock Wooly Adelgid.  The booklet was written by David Orwig, Harvard forest, and David Kittredge, UMass Extension.  It was developed for landowners to learn about HWA and their options concerning management of hemlock.  With HWA so near the High Allegheny Plateau it is imperative to get the word out to as many as possible, so people can be looking for the insect and reporting what they are seeing.

For more information you can contact Sara Johnson (sejohnson@tnc.org) at The Nature Conservancy directly.

Young Forest Communications ToolKit

As a folIow-up to last weeks post on young forests, deer, and clearcutting, I wanted to let you know about a number of resources related to young forest habitat communications that a team of professionals across the Northeast have been put together. They should be beneficial resources to help explain to different audiences the importance of this habitat to wildlife.

The Wildlife Management Institute has created a number of excellent websites: www.youngforest.org, www.timberdoodle.org, and www.newenglandcottontail.org.

The websites were designed and written to educate and appeal to the public and to provide ready-made text for conservation professionals when developing letters, articles, reports, and proposals. The text can be used verbatim or adapted to your needs. Be sure to share this informaion with landowners, other colleagues, and anyone interested in learning more about young forests.

When you click on "Resources" in the menu bar (top left), you'll find a substantial (and growing) list of articles, handbooks, brochures, PowerPoints, youtube clips, and websites. Take a look around; you can use the "Choose a Resource Type" filter to zero in on resources for landowners and the public, and those for conservation professionals.

Here is their latest resource for professionals:
Talking About Young Forests: A Communication Handbook
(A guidebook helping conservationists explain the importance of young forest to the public and other key audiences -- 3 MB.)