Town Forests are for the Birds
Our corner of the Northern Forest here in the Cold Hollows is not only home to charismatic mammal species such as black bear, moose, bobcat, and lynx, but also plays host to the greatest diversity of breeding bird species in the continental United States. Species like the Black-throated Blue Warbler, Canada Warbler, Wood Thrush, Bicknell's Thrush, and others, have in some cases 90% of their global population breeding in this region.
This fall, Cold Hollow to Canada and Audubon Vermont teamed up with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology to work with the town’s of Montgomery and Enosburgh to give our feathered neighbors a helping hand. Through financial support from Cornell, both towns are seeking to implement habitat development work aimed at increasing structural diversity while increasing specific habitat features which benefit birds.
With the assistance of the Franklin and Grand Isle County Forester with the Department of Forests, Parks & Recreation (FPR), the Towns are utilizing practices from the ‘Foresters for the Birds Toolkit’ (developed in 2011 by FPR and Audubon Vermont). This guide, available to landowners across the region, provides options for integrating both timber and songbird habitat management in our forests. In most cases, implementing the management schemes in the guide involve changes which are more subtle than sweeping, targeted specifically at creating structural diversity and amplifying specific features associated with bird habitat. This includes creating more complex horizontal and vertical structure by creating variable sized gaps (or openings generally less than ¼ acre in size) to promote development of all vegetative layers, including dense native shrub and understory growth (0-5 ft. in height) which are of particular importance to species such as black-throated blue warbler. Work also retains, or creates new snag and cavity trees, and recruits downed woody material—important for foraging habitat, singing perches, and cover for a variety of bird species. Lastly, work targets specific tree species with habitat benefits for release, such as black cherry, red oak, and yellow birch, to increase mast (food, such as nuts and berries) production and growth. In the case of the work on the town forests, local contractors are using a ‘cut-and-drop’ system, retaining all material within the forest. Because the stems being removed are exclusively smaller diameter and of lower quality, a ‘cut-and-drop’ system negates the need for any large equipment in the woods, reduces any impact to residual stems or trails, and protects advanced regeneration from deer browse without giving up any significant income potential which might otherwise be generated through removal (the work being at a significantly smaller scale than your average commercial timber sale).
Since 2002, citizen monitoring efforts through eBird (a program of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology) at the Enosburg Town Forest have documented over 100 individual species in and around the property. With a little luck, the work being implemented now will ensure that these forests remain prime habitat for our feathered friends, while also enhancing the ability of our forests to be resilient and adaptable to climate change. Work at the Montgomery Town Forest wrapped up in early September, with work at the Enosburgh Town Forest slated to begin in October.