February 13, 2019 at 1:26 pm
Jeremy Clark – Resource Manager, Lands Program
MDIFW’s Lands Program foresters have started laying out areas for a harvest operation at the Frye Mountain Wildlife Management Area (WMA) in Knox. A Forest & Wildlife Management Operations Report, or harvest prescription, was developed in 2018 for a 643-acre compartment in the southeastern section of the 5,238-acre WMA. Compartment J has been cruised and wildlife habitat management goals and objectives have been identified based on current forest types, soils, and habitat features noted during the inventory, and in consultation with Wildlife Biologists from MDIFW.
The compartment features a variation of forest types including oak-beech and oak-pine uplands, northern hardwoods, hemlock, spruce-fir, along with several maintained fields, open water, scrub-shrub, and forested wetland habitats. The range of existing habitats provides numerous opportunities for enhancement using silvicultural harvest methods.
[caption id="attachment_3352" align="alignleft" width="204"]
View looking up into the tree canopy of an oak-beech forest. Note the large, dominant red oak tree on the right and the lack of crown on the left side due to competition from smaller oaks of the same age that have been suppressed. Removals of one, or several of the smaller oaks will release the larger oaks to permit more crown expansion and increase acorn production for wildlife.[/caption]
Much of the compartment is roughly of similar age and structure, about 80-100 years old and was previously cleared for agriculture. Thus, there is limited habitat diversity in the form of tree age class distributions. To enhance this disparity, management activities have been recommended to begin regenerating portions of the compartment to a younger age class through group selection, patch cut, and shelterwood treatments. These methods are used to establish a new generation of trees to increase structural habitat diversity throughout the compartment to benefit numerous wildlife species. Other management activities will remove the short-lived, pioneer tree species such as paper birch, aspen, and balsam fir which are generally in overall decline.
The upland areas will be managed for hard mast production, primarily for red oak acorns, as a wildlife food source. Portions of the uplands will be specifically managed for American beech to provide habitat for the Early Hairstreak butterfly, a rare, State Special Concern Lepidoptera species that requires mature beech and beech nuts for its lifecycle. This management will also provide hard mast for numerous other wildlife species during beech mast years. Other upland areas will be managed for oak and white pine retention and regeneration to maintain an oak component for their value to wildlife in the form of acorns, interspersed with pine softwood cover.
The mid-slope areas comprised of northern hardwoods forest types will generally be managed with single tree and small group selection methods to promote long-lived, shade-tolerant northern hardwoods species, such as sugar maple, and intermediately-tolerant species such as yellow birch, white ash, American basswood and northern red oak. This management will eventually create an uneven-aged forest condition that will support wildlife with a variation of structure ranging from newly regenerating areas with woody browse and herbaceous plants, to mature trees that provide cover, cavities and food from nuts, seed, and catkins. Other treatments include thinnings to continue growing healthy trees to larger size classes and patch cuts to regenerate areas to shade-intolerant species such as aspen and paper birch. Treatments have been identified to link up existing habitats to create additional wildlife value. An example is placing a 2-acre patch cut in maturing aspen between two alder-dominated lowlands to create a dense, sapling-sized stand that will benefit ruffed grouse, American woodcock and snowshoe hare, while providing hardwood browse for deer, and potential nesting/brood rearing habitat for various shrubland-dependent songbirds and wildlife species.
[caption id="attachment_3353" align="aligncenter" width="407"]
View of the edge of a 0.3-acre group selection treatment. Orange-flagged trees designate the edge of the group area and will be retained. The hemlock trees in the left side of the photo, along with a red oak and smooth-barked beech, will be retained within the group to provide a desired seed source and enhance the structure within the group when all other trees are cut. Songbirds, owls and raptors will utilize these retention trees within the groups while the remaining area regenerates to younger trees. This group was placed in the transition zone between an area of spruce-fir-hemlock softwood cover and an oak-beech dominated area.[/caption]
Management in the lowland portions of the compartment will generally be geared towards promoting mixedwood and softwood stands by removing dying fir and intolerant hardwoods, releasing and retaining hemlock and red spruce, and regenerating softwoods. Red maple will also be targeted for removal to provide a source of browse for deer in winter months. This will benefit deer as potential deer wintering areas, as well as provide suitable habitat for ruffed grouse, snowshoe hare and a variety of songbirds.
[caption id="attachment_3354" align="aligncenter" width="400"]
View of an area with a red oak and intolerant hardwood overstory and an understory dominated by diseased American beech. To lessen the beech component and increase oak regeneration, this area will be treated with an irregular shelterwood treatment to begin removing intolerant hardwoods and the understory beech, while retaining healthy red oaks for seed to increase sunlight availability to the forest floor and allow new trees to germinate/sprout. This will temporarily create a two-aged stand condition, until acceptable oak regeneration is established and a good portion of the overstory oak will be removed to release the newly established trees in the understory.[/caption]
The Lands Program staff will be marking wood and laying out harvest trails throughout the 2019 winter and spring to put the harvest out to public bid in summer. The harvest is expected to be completed in roughly 2 years’ time to treat certain areas in the summer and winter seasons depending on ground conditions. The Lands Program is part of the Wildlife Management Section of the MDIFW that supports the work of Wildlife Biologists by planning and implementing various habitat enhancement and maintenance projects on State-owned Wildlife Management Areas.
View looking up into the tree canopy of an oak-beech forest. Note the large, dominant red oak tree on the right and the lack of crown on the left side due to competition from smaller oaks of the same age that have been suppressed. Removals of one, or several of the smaller oaks will release the larger oaks to permit more crown expansion and increase acorn production for wildlife.[/caption]
Much of the compartment is roughly of similar age and structure, about 80-100 years old and was previously cleared for agriculture. Thus, there is limited habitat diversity in the form of tree age class distributions. To enhance this disparity, management activities have been recommended to begin regenerating portions of the compartment to a younger age class through group selection, patch cut, and shelterwood treatments. These methods are used to establish a new generation of trees to increase structural habitat diversity throughout the compartment to benefit numerous wildlife species. Other management activities will remove the short-lived, pioneer tree species such as paper birch, aspen, and balsam fir which are generally in overall decline.
The upland areas will be managed for hard mast production, primarily for red oak acorns, as a wildlife food source. Portions of the uplands will be specifically managed for American beech to provide habitat for the Early Hairstreak butterfly, a rare, State Special Concern Lepidoptera species that requires mature beech and beech nuts for its lifecycle. This management will also provide hard mast for numerous other wildlife species during beech mast years. Other upland areas will be managed for oak and white pine retention and regeneration to maintain an oak component for their value to wildlife in the form of acorns, interspersed with pine softwood cover.
The mid-slope areas comprised of northern hardwoods forest types will generally be managed with single tree and small group selection methods to promote long-lived, shade-tolerant northern hardwoods species, such as sugar maple, and intermediately-tolerant species such as yellow birch, white ash, American basswood and northern red oak. This management will eventually create an uneven-aged forest condition that will support wildlife with a variation of structure ranging from newly regenerating areas with woody browse and herbaceous plants, to mature trees that provide cover, cavities and food from nuts, seed, and catkins. Other treatments include thinnings to continue growing healthy trees to larger size classes and patch cuts to regenerate areas to shade-intolerant species such as aspen and paper birch. Treatments have been identified to link up existing habitats to create additional wildlife value. An example is placing a 2-acre patch cut in maturing aspen between two alder-dominated lowlands to create a dense, sapling-sized stand that will benefit ruffed grouse, American woodcock and snowshoe hare, while providing hardwood browse for deer, and potential nesting/brood rearing habitat for various shrubland-dependent songbirds and wildlife species.
[caption id="attachment_3353" align="aligncenter" width="407"] View of the edge of a 0.3-acre group selection treatment. Orange-flagged trees designate the edge of the group area and will be retained. The hemlock trees in the left side of the photo, along with a red oak and smooth-barked beech, will be retained within the group to provide a desired seed source and enhance the structure within the group when all other trees are cut. Songbirds, owls and raptors will utilize these retention trees within the groups while the remaining area regenerates to younger trees. This group was placed in the transition zone between an area of spruce-fir-hemlock softwood cover and an oak-beech dominated area.[/caption]
Management in the lowland portions of the compartment will generally be geared towards promoting mixedwood and softwood stands by removing dying fir and intolerant hardwoods, releasing and retaining hemlock and red spruce, and regenerating softwoods. Red maple will also be targeted for removal to provide a source of browse for deer in winter months. This will benefit deer as potential deer wintering areas, as well as provide suitable habitat for ruffed grouse, snowshoe hare and a variety of songbirds.
[caption id="attachment_3354" align="aligncenter" width="400"] View of an area with a red oak and intolerant hardwood overstory and an understory dominated by diseased American beech. To lessen the beech component and increase oak regeneration, this area will be treated with an irregular shelterwood treatment to begin removing intolerant hardwoods and the understory beech, while retaining healthy red oaks for seed to increase sunlight availability to the forest floor and allow new trees to germinate/sprout. This will temporarily create a two-aged stand condition, until acceptable oak regeneration is established and a good portion of the overstory oak will be removed to release the newly established trees in the understory.[/caption]
The Lands Program staff will be marking wood and laying out harvest trails throughout the 2019 winter and spring to put the harvest out to public bid in summer. The harvest is expected to be completed in roughly 2 years’ time to treat certain areas in the summer and winter seasons depending on ground conditions. The Lands Program is part of the Wildlife Management Section of the MDIFW that supports the work of Wildlife Biologists by planning and implementing various habitat enhancement and maintenance projects on State-owned Wildlife Management Areas.Categories