{"id":4915,"date":"2024-01-17T21:52:55","date_gmt":"2024-01-17T21:52:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.birds.cornell.edu\/landtrust\/?p=4915"},"modified":"2024-03-12T17:22:48","modified_gmt":"2024-03-12T17:22:48","slug":"southern-appalachian-highlands-conservancy-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.birds.cornell.edu\/landtrust\/southern-appalachian-highlands-conservancy-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Why Bird Conservation?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Name: <\/strong>Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy (SAHC) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Location: <\/strong>North Carolina<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Number of Staff:<\/strong> 19<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bird Conservation Resource: <\/strong>Collaborative Partnerships, IBA Designation, point counts\/eBird, Bird-focused Habitat Management<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Contact: <\/strong>Marquette Crockett, Roan Stewardship Director (marquette@appalachian.org)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Website:<\/strong> https:\/\/appalachian.org\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Small Grant Awardee 2019<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Degraded by logging in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Southern Appalachian red spruce-Fraser fir forests<\/a> are one of the top two most endangered ecosystems in the United States. Common in Canada, these boreal ecosystems are extremely limited in the U.S. Red spruce are slow growing trees that eventually got replaced by hardwoods after extensive logging in the 1900s, so they are now present only in very small pockets of Southern Appalachia that didn\u2019t get logged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of these pockets is owned and stewarded by the Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy<\/a> (SAHC), an organization that conserves over 80,000 acres of habitat in the mountains of North Carolina and Tennessee. Since 1974, SAHC has led an effort to protect about 19,000 acres of land in the Highlands of Roan, including 15 acres of red spruce forest adjacent to Pisgah National Forest<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bird species that live in this rare habitat are as unique in the U.S. as the red spruce forests themselves; in some cases, the populations have been isolated long enough that they may eventually become subspecies. Marquette Crockett, Roan Stewardship Director at SAHC, describes it like this: \u201cThese are microclimates that we\u2019re managing. If you look at a map, you\u2019ll see that they are common in Canada, and we have little teardrops of these ecosystems down the Appalachian range. If you look at bird species that depend on these forests, you\u2019ll see the same thing\u2014they\u2019re boreal, and they\u2019re in Canada, but they\u2019re only present in these little teardrops down the Appalachians in the U.S.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Northern Saw-whet Owl \u00a9 Chris Wood \/ Macaulay Library<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Bird species such as Northern Saw-whet Owl<\/a>, Red Crossbill<\/a>, Winter Wren<\/a>, and Brown Creeper<\/a> depend on these small patches of unique habitats. Protecting and managing these habitats also helps conserve the genetic diversity of the bird species that rely on them, which could someday be essential for the long-term survival of these species.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Crockett, a little management can make a huge difference in these limited habitats, but finding funds to support stewardship efforts can be challenging. In 2019, a $20,000 grant from the Cornell Land Trust Bird Conservation Initiative<\/a> helped SAHC implement bird-focused habitat management in their remote red spruce forest. Funding also supported management of 18 acres of shortleaf pine habitat on the SAHC Community Farm<\/a> near Asheville, NC, a popular and accessible property that serves as a demonstration site for SAHC\u2019s habitat management work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spotlight Resources: Collaborative Partnerships, IBA Designation, point counts\/eBird, Bird-focused Habitat Management<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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A prescribed fire at the shortleaf pine site. Image: SAHC<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDo not try to work in a bubble,\u201d advises Crockett. As the stewardship director of a 13,000-acre area, Crockett knows how critical partnerships are in accomplishing landscape-scale goals, with each organization contributing unique skills and knowledge. This project was made possible due to contributions from many partner organizations, including North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, Virginia Cooperative Research Unit at Virginia Tech University, Southern Appalachian Spruce Restoration Initiative, North Carolina State Forestry, and Canaan Valley National Wildlife Refuge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SAHC uses a GIS-based model that accounts for conservation value, rare habitats, adjacency, and connectivity, which results in strategic protection of highest value tracts, such as their red spruce forest in the Highlands of Roan, which is part of a designated Important Bird Area<\/a> (IBA), land vital to birds that has been prioritized for conservation by BirdLife International. The SAHC Community Farm, where the shortleaf pine habitat is located, was donated by a landowner who saw its potential as an outreach and educational tool because of its location.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Planning efforts for this project were conducted onsite, with partners contributing to preliminary surveys and management plans. There were no eBird records for the project properties, so Crockett and Sarah Sheeran, SAHC Stewardship Director, started by conducting standard point count surveys<\/a> to sample bird populations at the sites before initiating habitat management. The data from these point counts now serves as a baseline when assessing impacts of the practices over time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Low-cost, low-impact forestry practices were then implemented at both project sites. This included girdling and small canopy gap creation at the 15-acre red spruce forest, and prescribed fire and invasive plant control at the 18-acre shortleaf pine site on the SAHC Community Farm property.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Point count surveys were conducted for three years after the project, with results recorded in eBird<\/a>. As Crockett notes, the results of habitat management efforts are never instant, so patience is required. Having a long-term view is necessary to see the biological and ecological effects of this work, says Crockett.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Storing these years of bird data in eBird gives Crockett peace of mind, because it ensures longevity, consistency, and open access to the data. Many years from now, SAHC staff members will be able to download the data from this project and use it to evaluate the long-term success of the habitat management practices performed in 2020, and these data will also be accessible to people outside of SAHC to help inform future conservation work in these important habitats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Making the Connection<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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A contractor measuring a red spruce tree. Photo credit: SAHC<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This grant project provided funds for SAHC to educate the public, private landowners, and land managers. Since SAHC\u2019s red spruce forest is off the beaten trail, outreach efforts for that portion of the project were geared toward college students and people familiar with the remote habitat\u2014those already aware of the rare habitat and able to travel to it. The shortleaf pine forest serves as a well-visited demonstration and public engagement site, where community workshops are often held, due to its proximity to Asheville, NC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The red spruce site has also served as an example for the U.S. Forest Service, which is conducting a region-wide environmental analysis on red spruce across several National Forests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crockett gave several presentations about the project, including at the National Land Trust Alliance Rally in 2019 and the Southeast Land Conservation Conference in 2021. The project was featured on SAHC\u2019s blog<\/a>, and outreach videos were created for educational purposes. One of these videos focuses on the shortleaf pine restoration project at the SAHC Community Farm<\/a>. Another, titled Moments in Nature<\/a>, features sights and sounds from the initial bird point count at the red spruce site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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