1

FOREST STEWARDSHIP

LIVING WITH WILDLIFE

The long-term health and productivity of forest vegetation has a direct effect on forest wildlife.

Plants and animals are dynamic and interdependent components of the forest community:

Plants provide food and cover, ….

…and in turn, animals provide pollination and seed dispersal.

Increased plant diversity leads to increased wildlife diversity.

The health and vigor of plant life is inseparable from the vitality of the animal community.

Wildlife acts as a bellwether – changes in wildlife populations alert us to parallel changes in forest plants.

Many forest landowners who like to hunt know the importance of providing habitat for various game species, and they manage their woodlands accordingly.

To manage the habitats, they:

Arrest or encourage plant succession (harvest, establish, thin).

Eliminate undesirable species.

Those of you who simply want to observe and enjoy wildlife, including non-game species, also need to know proper management practices.

You have a choice of management practices, depending on which species you want to accommodate or attract.

cover and breeding sites, ….

Considerations for any wildlife species include:

Food supplies,

…water sources,

and habitat continuity, including its size, extent and home-range requirements.

Topics to Cover

• Identification and Inventory

• Habitat Needs

• Wildlife Specialists

• Habitat and Urban

Development

• Backyard Habitats

• Living with Wildlife

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IDENTIFICATION AND INVENTORY

Some things to look for:

•Color,•Size and Shape,•Body markings,

• Location (habitat type – on the ground, in the treetops, etc.),

•Time of the year,

• Marks on trees (scratching, rubbing, freshly made hole),

• Tracks and scat (droppings),• Calls and songs.

Valuable Tool: A Naturalist’s Notebook – • Writing down observations helps you learn.• Provides current and future inventory information.

Sketchbook excerpt from Beth Glasser, PAFS

Field guides –•All types of animals.•Mammal tracks and scat.

Once species are identified, you can get information on all aspects of their behavior and needs:

•habitat requirements•seasonal behavior and changeso breeding and birthing times; o changes in food sources, o home range

Resources for this information include:•Books and websites•Wildlife specialists•TV (nature shows)•Nature centers

(programs, literature, personnel)

Electronic Resources: Apps and on-line databases

Web sites such as eBird offer searchable databases that allow you to both search for information on species as well as report sightings

Sample for Old Crow Wetland in Huntingdon County, PA

Apps can also help with ID as well as record-keeping

Understanding natural history and the life histories of birds and mammals helps us be better forest stewards.

Broad-Winged Hawk

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HABITAT NEEDS

Plan management activities within the context of the surrounding landscape.

Your land is just one piece in a larger puzzle.

For example, you can:

• Focus on rare habitat elements of the regional landscape

• Maintain wildlife travel corridors.

You can encourage food-producing plants (berries, fruits, nuts, seeds). This is preferable to directly feeing animals.

You can accomplish this by:

• Harvesting, establishing (by natural regeneration as well as planting), thinning.

• A variety accommodates seasonal food needs.

Let some dead trees stand. Tree cavities in living and dead trees support wildlife.

• Food for insect-eating species.• Cover and breeding for

cavity-dwelling species (in standing trees), and for small ground-dwelling animals (in fallen trees).

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Encourage conifers – they offer year-round cover and food for many species.

• Plant conifers where none exist.• Thin around existing conifers to encourage their

growth.

Protect wet areas (streams, ponds, spring seeps, permanent and seasonal wetlands).

Areas of water are the foundation of food web.

Stabilize and shade water with vegetation.

Minimize soil disturbance – protect water quality.You can control erosion with both natural and man-made means: rocks and plantings (below), or fencing (at right) to hold back soil (until planting becomes established).

Stewardship practices to encourage wildlife diversity:

Provide what’s missing in your area.

For example: Is your surrounding landscape mostly mature trees? Then create a wildlife corridor with a wide, brushy edge or hedgerow.

Wildlife diversity depends on continuous cover at all levels from the ground to the treetops.

In a mature forest with houses in it, the canopy may be continuous, but the forest floor is broken (discontinuous), especially for small animals (e.g., salamanders).

Some species (specialists) use only one stage of the forest.

The pileated woodpecker, for example, does best in mature forests.

And some species move from one successional stage to another over the seasons.

Chickadees inhabit deciduous or mixed woodlands for most of the year, but in the winter, they prefer coniferous cover.

Some species (generalists) use a wide range of habitat types year-round.

Once you have identified potential wildlife habitats, you can further protect and enhance them for wildlife and for your own enjoyment. Here are some ways to do that:

Have plants that offer food and cover throughout all seasons.

Build a brush pile and let it decay naturally.

Offer housing

..but not like this!

Rather, install nesting boxes in appropriate habitat sites (to augment natural sites, if necessary).

Bats use nesting boxes as well.

Though the design of these is quite different than that of bird houses.

Remember that artificial nesting sites require maintenance.

• Clean.• Observe, inventory.

‘Nestwatch’ is a citizen-science project that you can join, adding your observations of the nesting sites around where you live. (nestwatch.org)

You can also plan and create foot trails.

• Trails facilitate access to various wildlife habitat areas.

• Creating turns and bends in trails increases the opportunity for observation.

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WILDLIFE SPECIALISTSEndangered and Threatened Species

(such as Neotropical Birds)

Issues affecting migratory birds include:

• Loss of forested habitat (tropical and temperate forests).

• Breaking up (fragmentation) of habitat, especially in developing areas.

The numbers of Neotropical birds numbers are declining.

Blue-headed vireo

Habitat requirements:

• Mid-canopy (woody shrubs, advanced tree regeneration).

• Continuous (as opposed to fragmented) habitat.

Too many deer create a problem by over-browsing on seedlings and other vegetation that would otherwise grow into the mid-canopy. This means

that vegetation favored for food and shelter by many birds is less abundant.

Loss of habitat:

• Permanent deforestation (more in the tropics – their wintering ground – than here), but loss of large, continuous tracts of habitat is a problem everywhere.

Forest fragmentation (encroachment on forest by urbanization, development) means that birds and other animals lose areas that they have depended on for shelter and breeding grounds, as well as support during their biannual migrations.

Stewardship practices to maintain or restore migratory bird habitat.

Thin, harvest, and encourage shrub growth, tree regeneration.

Allow at least limited hunting to control the deer population.

Maintain continuous habitat – edge or deep woods, depending on the species.

Plan harvesting carefully (types and locations of trees harvested).

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HABITAT& URBAN

DEVELOPMENT

We are beginning to find ways to accommodate wildlife even in urbanized areas.

This has led to increased interest in “urban forestry” – incorporating wildlife needs into urban development plans.

Cluster development (vs. traditional single-family lots) is one example. Open space is a critical part of the overall plan.

Another initiative of “urban forestry” is re-introducing tress into the urban and suburban streetscape.

In fact, two of our PAFS head up such a project in suburban Philadelphia(the Abington Shade Tree Commission, shown at left).

Efforts such as these help establish and maintain wildlife corridors.

It is important to avoid developing sensitive or highly productive areas.

Creating and maintaining open space guards “sensitive” areas:

• habitat for threatened or endangered species (specialized habitat types).

• habitat valuable to wide diversity of species (lots of food, cover, water).

You can help maintain and enhance the natural landscape:

• Plant native plant species instead of ornamental plantings.

• allow natural growth patterns instead of park-like lawns and gardens (minimize cleaning, mowing).

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BACKYARD HABITATS

Backyard habitats must meet the same wildlife needs as forest:

• Food and cover,

• Breeding sites and water

(depending on location, backyard habitats can also serve as corridors between forest lands).

Your Garden has a Function*

As explained by Doug Tallamy, author of Bringing Nature Home, planting native species supports the ‘food web’ by supporting insects and fruits that are, in turn, consumed by birds and other animals.

* From bringingnaturehome.net)

By planting non-native dogwood from Asia (Kousa), for example, you are not supporting any native herbivores. By contrast, the native dogwood (cornus florida) supports over 117 different kinds of moths and butterflies!

As Tallamy notes, although gardeners might believe that when they plant a butterfly bush, native to China, they are helping butterflies, they are merely attracting the adults who sip the nectar. The plant cannot be eaten by the butterfly larvae.

Food: You can plant food-producing vegetation in your yard.

• Oak and hickory trees, fruit trees, conifers.

• Flowering trees and plants that offer nectar and host insects

…berry bushes, grapevines, wildflowers.

Much of this vegetation, as well as undisturbed covers and leaf litter…

… also serves as Cover and Breeding sites.

Water can be provided in shallow pans, ….

or small ponds or wet areas, ….

Or in vernal ponds.

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LIVING WITH

WILDLIFE

Whether you live on multiple acres of forest or a small suburban lot, you must be prepared to live with wildlife.

Turning wild creatures into pets is not good for them or you.

Wildlife’s instinctual wariness of humans helps protect them from injury or harm.

Wild creatures overly acclimated to humans may:

• Become a nuisance,

• Do damage to property,

• Or injure pets or people

A well-managed forest land or backyard can provide endless hours

of pleasure for you, and enhance the wildlife around us.

Consider your land an opportunity for you to:

• Identify and inventory wildlife species.

• Learn about their habitat needs and life histories

• Create favorable wildlife habitats.

• Learn to live in harmony with wildlife.

For More Information…

Your County Forester can assist you in developing a plan for your land that includes wildlife management, and can put you in touch with wildlife specialists.

The Pennsylvania Game Commission has six Regional Wildlife Diversity Biologists whose primary job is to work with private landowners to enhance wildlife habitat on their land. They, along with biologists from DCNR, can help in developing your management plan.

Funding & Support Provided by:

NE Regional Center for Rural Development

and the

Cooperative Extensions at:• Penn State University• University of Massachusetts• University of Connecticut