Habitat Restoration, Longleaf Pine Goals of Todays Talk Forests, - PDF document

Habitat Restoration, Longleaf Pine Goals of Today’s Talk Forests, and the Flatwoods Salamander • Introduce you to the science of Restoration Ecology. • Give you examples of the theory and processes behind this field here in our own back yard. Kenny Wray • Show you the reality of this work through a local example of restoration. • Take home message that this problem impacts all types of careers not just those in science (legal, political, economics). Habitat Restoration Habitat Restoration • Habitat alteration and restoration has • Habitat loss is the leading cause of been ongoing since humans first arrived species extinctions and ecosystem on the scene. declines. • However, in the last 300 years habitat • Habitat restoration has become a destruction has increased at a critical tool to stem the loss of catastrophic rate. biodiversity on our planet. • A relatively new scientific discipline has been created to address these issues. Restoration Ecology Restoration Ecology • Fairly new science. Any intentional activity that initiates or accelerates the recovery of an ecosystem • The foundations of Restoration Ecology with respect to its health, integrity, and were first laid out in the late 1980s by sustainability. John Aber and William Jordan. -Society for Ecological Restoration, 2004 • So what is Restoration Ecology?

Restoration Ecology Restoration Conservation Ecology Biology • Fairly new science. • Attempts to preserve • Attempts to reverse • The foundations and name were first and maintain the impact of human laid out in the late 1980s by John Aber existing habitat and habitat destruction and William Jordan. biodiversity. and alteration. • So what is Restoration Ecology? • Zoological bias. • Botanical bias. • Though a subdiscipline of Conservation • Focus on • Focus on ecosystems. Biology, some have tried to draw endangered species. contrasts between the two. Approaches to Habitat Restoration Conservation Restoration Ecology Biology • No action • Genetic/population • Landscape level • Replacement level dynamics. dynamics. • Tend to have studies • Tend to have • Rehabilitation descriptive, with repeatability • Enhancement comparative, and and more rigorous • Partial restoration hypothesis testing. unreplicated studies. • Full restoration Important Concepts in Restoration Ecology • Disturbance • Fragmentation/Edge Habitat • Succession • Ecosystem Function • Reference State • Ontogeny

Disturbance Fragmentation/Edge Habitat Disturbance: a change in the environmental Fragmentation: spatial discontinuities in a system. conditions that interferes with the biology of a system. • Can limit gene flow. • Drastically increases edge habitat. • Can be natural or manmade • Important to understand and minimize the difference between the two. • Often necessary to restore natural disturbance in ecosystem restoration. Fragmentation/Edge Habitat Fragmentation: spatial discontinuities in a system. • Can limit gene flow. • Drastically increases edge habitat. • Edge habitat has a different set of environmental conditions than interior habitat, which can be ripe for invasive species. Succession Ecosystem Function Succession: change in species composition Ecosystem Function: the underlying in a system over time. foundations of a system. • Succession is a natural process. • Includes things such as biomass, nutrient cycles, energy exchange, etc. • Natural disturbances limit the succession that occurs in some systems. • In cases of severely degraded habitat, these factors must be addressed first • Human disturbance can speed up or even before any successful project can be prevent succession. undertaken.

Reference State Ontogeny Reference State: an example that serves as Ontogeny: the idea that an organism’s the the goal for restoration. habitat needs change or shift as it grows and develops. • Very difficult in some instances. • A very real issue that has sometimes been • As a result, sometimes the best we can neglected in restoration projects. wish for is replacement or enhancement of a habitat. • Underscores the need for complexity in restoration projects (e.g. foraging grounds, breeding sites). Terrestrial Restoration Criticisms of Restoration Projects Ecology • Erosion control • We can’t recreate natural systems. • Reforestation/revegetation • Mitigation fallacy. • Removal of non-native species • Just to complex to do properly. • Control of invasive species • In order to restore something you need • Reintroduction to know what it was (reference state, modern bias, what processes for what • Soil rehabilitation functions)? • Fire management Erosion Control Reforestation/revegetation • Loss of riparian • Prevents erosion habitats • Helps restore soil • Siltation of rivers nutrients and other and streams ecosystem functions. • Beach and dune erosion • Should use native plants

Removal of Non-native Kudzu ( Pueraria lobata ) species • Perhaps the most difficult thing to do in habitat restoration • Florida is home to more than 100 established, exotic vertebrate species and countless exotic plants Control of Invasive Species Reintroduction • Invasive species are • Often requires the not necessarily habitat to be at least exotic, but those that partially restored thrive in new and before successful disturbed areas. • Serious issues • Rehabilitating a concerning disease damaged habitat and gene pools often serves to control or eliminate invasive species Soil Rehabilitation Fire Management • Often necessary first • Fire is a form of step in the natural disturbance restoration process • Some ecosystems to restore require fire to ecosystem function prevent succession • Common in mine • Longleaf Pine reclamation forests rely on fire in the southeastern U.S.

Prevent Drainage Aquatic Restoration Projects • Prevent drainage • Many wetlands have • Reverse channelization been drained for • Dam removal agricultural land • Removal of invasive species • Perhaps the most famous example is • Reintroduction the Everglades of • Fire management South Florida Reverse Channelization Dam Removal • Many waterways • Most major river systems have some have been widened level of damming and deepened for economic reasons • Damming prevents water from reaching • The Cross Florida other habitats Barge Canal project • Dammed water on the Ocklawaha ways can lead to River of central FL sediment buildup and eutrophication Removal of exotic/invasive Reintroduction species • Perhaps even more • Success depends difficult in aquatic on condition of environments habitat and species being reintroduced • Often requires herbicides, • Often difficult due to pesticides, or other introduced biological controls species • Sometimes political • Issues with fishery resistance hatched species

Fire Management Longleaf Pine System • Historically, the longleaf pine forest dominated the southeastern coastal • Fire can be just as plain. essential to wetland habitats as it is to some terrestrial systems Longleaf Pine System • Historically, the longleaf pine forest dominated the southeastern coastal plain. • However, intense logging, silviculture of other species, and fire suppression has relegated longleaf pine ecosystem to less than 5% of the original pre- settlement range. Longleaf Pine System • Historically, the longleaf pine forest dominated the southeastern coastal plain. • However, intense logging, silviculture of other species, and fire suppression has relegated longleaf pine ecosystem to less than 5% of the original pre- settlement range. • Fire is a natural disturbance that the system requires to exist.

Longleaf Pine Restoration • With better understanding of the importance of fire in ecosystem management and political acts (such as the Federal Endangered Species Act, 1978), efforts have been made to restore the longleaf pine ecosystem. • Problem: How exactly do we restore this long ago damaged system? Reference States • Old photos • Natural History notes (e.g. John Muir, William Bartram) • Small tracts that received fire management (e.g. Wade Tract, Thomas County, GA) Flatwoods Salamander Apalachicola National Forest ( Ambystoma cingulatum ) • The largest and best managed tract of longleaf pine forest in existence. • Primarily due to this being public land that has received a consistent burn regime.