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Forest Structure Resulting from ‘Wildlife Forestry Silviculture’
Science Center Objects
The Challenge: Management of bottomland forests using wildlife forestry silviculture is being undertaken to achieve desired forest conditions for priority silvicolous wildlife, such as Louisiana black bear, migratory birds, and resident game species. Wildlife forestry management results in forests that have more open canopies and increased understory vegetation yet exhibit heterogeneous structure with retained dominant trees and cavities. Creating these conditions on recently reforested sites and maintaining these conditions in mature forests, without undesirable shifts shade-tolerant tree species composition are management concerns.
The Science: Changes in forest structure within reforested bottomland forests are being assessed and compared among differed management types and contrasted with unmanaged stands. Within mature forests, survival and accession to canopy of shade-intolerant trees are being assessed in response to wildlife forestry silviculture.
The Future: Assessments of changes in forest structure, rates of canopy gap closure, and survival of shade-intolerant tree species will provide a framework upon which to base the prognosis for perpetuation of desired forest conditions. Recommendations for forest management on reforested sites will target attainment and maintenance of enhanced forest habitat for priority wildlife.
Breeding birds in managed forests on public conservation lands in the Mississippi Alluvial Valley
Managers of public conservation lands in the Mississippi Alluvial Valley have implemented forest management strategies to improve bottomland hardwood habitat for target wildlife species. Through implementation of various silvicultural practices, forest managers have sought to attain forest structural conditions (e.g., canopy cover, basal area...
Twedt, Daniel J.; Wilson, R. Randy Object-based forest classification to facilitate landscape-scale conservation in the Mississippi Alluvial Valley
The Mississippi Alluvial Valley is a floodplain along the southern extent of the Mississippi River extending from southern Missouri to the Gulf of Mexico. This area once encompassed nearly 10 million ha of floodplain forests, most of which has been converted to agriculture over the past two centuries. Conservation programs in this region revolve...
Mitchell, Michael; Wilson, R. Randy; Twedt, Daniel J.; Mini, Anne E.; James, J. Dale Leaf-on canopy closure in broadleaf deciduous forests predicted during winter
Forest canopy influences light transmittance, which in turn affects tree regeneration and survival, thereby having an impact on forest composition and habitat conditions for wildlife. Because leaf area is the primary impediment to light penetration, quantitative estimates of canopy closure are normally made during summer. Studies of forest...
Twedt, Daniel J.; Ayala, Andrea J.; Shickel, Madeline R. Change in avian abundance predicted from regional forest inventory data
An inability to predict population response to future habitat projections is a shortcoming in bird conservation planning. We sought to predict avian response to projections of future forest conditions that were developed from nationwide forest surveys within the Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program. To accomplish this, we evaluated the...
Twedt, Daniel J.; Tirpak, John M.; Jones-Farrand, D. Todd; Thompson, Frank R.; Uihlein, William B.; Fitzgerald, Jane A. Effects of wildlife forestry on abundance of breeding birds in bottomland hardwood forests of Louisiana
Effects of silvicultural activities on birds are of increasing interest because of documented national declines in breeding bird populations for some species and the potential that these declines are in part due to changes in forest habitat. Silviculturally induced disturbances have been advocated as a means to achieve suitable forest conditions...
Norris, Jennifer L.; Chamberlain, Michael J.; Twedt, Daniel J.
