Can land degraded by centuries of agriculture be restored to something approaching its original productivity and diversity? This book tells the story of fifty years of restoration and management of the forested landscape of the Savannah River Site, a 310-square-mile tract of land in the coastal plain of South Carolina that has been closed to the public for more than five decades. Ecology and Management of a Forested Landscape presents for the first time a complete synthesis and summary of information on the Savannah River Site, providing a detailed portrait of the plant and animal populations and communities on the site and the effects on them of fifty years of management practices. Contributors offer thirty-two chapters that describe the site's history, land management, physical environment, plant and animal communities, endangered species, and game species. Extensively illustrated with photos, maps, charts, and tables, the book provides a comprehensive overview of the forest management practices that can support long-term forest recovery and restoration of native habitats. It represents for natural resource managers a detailed case study in long-term land management, and provides scientists with an in-depth analysis of the natural history and physical and biological characteristics of a southeastern forested landscape.
CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES iv LIST OF TABLES xi FOREWORD xvii PREFACE xxi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xxiii CHAPTER 1: THE SAVANNAH RIVER SITE, PAST AND PRESENT 1 Land Use History 3 Industrial Operations and Current Land Use 14 CHAPTER 2: THE PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT 23 Climate and Air Quality 25 Soils and Geology 35 Water Resources 46 CHAPTER 3: SRS FOREST MANAGEMENT 59 Silviculture and Harvesting Activities 62 Prescribed Fire Management 78 Ecological Restoration 86 CHAPTER 4: BIOTIC COMMUNITIES 97 Plant Communities 101 Aquatic Invertebrates 152 Butterflies 163 Fishes 166 Amphibians and Reptiles 183 Nongame Birds 197 Nongame Mammals 214 CHAPTER 5: THREATENED AND ENDANGERED SPECIES 222 Smooth Purple Coneflower 225 Sensitive Plants 233 Shortnose Sturgeon 239 American Alligator 242 Wood Stork 247 Bald Eagle 251 Red-cockaded Woodpecker 257 Sensitive Animals 265 CHAPTER 6: HARVESTABLE NATURAL RESOURCES 276 Minerals 280 Commercial Forest Products 284 Fishery of the Savannah River 290 Small Game 293 Waterfowl 300 Wild Turkey 309 Furbearers 315 Wild Hog 323 White-tailed Deer 329 CHAPTER 7: CONCLUSION 340 APPENDIX 354 LITERATURE CITED 355 LIST OF REVIEWERS 430 ABOUT THE AUTHORS 433 FOREWORD In 1539, Hernando de Soto and his band of 600 soldiers, gold seekers, and Indian guides set out to explore the interior of what is now the southeastern United States. De Soto and his men traveled north and east from Florida and across the upper coastal plain of Georgia before crossing the middle Savannah River into South Carolina. Although their exact route is unknown, they passed through a heavily forested landscape, perhaps following Indian trails and sticking, as much as possible, to the open, sandhill scrub forest and longleaf pinedominated uplands and avoiding the more difficult terrain of the tupelocypress swamps and bay forests of the bottomland floodplains. Though, no doubt, grand by modern day standards and magnificent to behold, the forests encountered by De Soto had already been modified for centuries by Indians seeking to improve their hunting grounds and to increase the abundance of edible berries and other wild foods. But the changes wrought by native Americans were relatively minor compared to what was to come. Four hundred years after De Soto's travels, the uplands of the upper coastal plain had been almost entirely cleared for intensive agriculture and even much of the swampy lowlands had been drained and cleared. These dry, infertile lands, however, provided a farmer little yield and a difficult life so by the midtwentieth century, many of the farms had been abandoned, leaving the patchwork of abandoned farms and second growth forests still seen throughout most of the upper coastal plain today.
Can land degraded by centuries of poor agricultural practices be restored to something approaching its original productivity and diversity? This book tells the remarkable story of fifty years of natural resource management and restoration of the forested landscape of the Savannah River Site. In 1950, the Atomic Energy Commission began purchasing land and relocating thousands of descendants of the original European settlers who had cleared the land and tried to eek out a living from it. Shortly afterward, researchers from the Universities of Georgia and South Carolina and the Philadelphia Academy of Sciences were invited to work on the site and the USDA Forest Service began an aggressive program to replant and restore the forests. As a result of these efforts, the Savannah River Site is one of the best studied ecological research sites in North America, and an amazing diversity of native flora and fauna exist in what was once corn and cotton fields, pastures, and degraded and poorly managed forests. Kilgo and Blake have assembled a very talented group of authors, all of whom are intimately familiar with the subject matter of their chapters. Some authors are university faculty who have traveled for years from schools across the country to work at the Savannah River Site because of the unique research environment the site offers. Others are permanent residents working on site at Westinghouse, the U.S. Forest Service, or the University of Georgia's Savannah River Ecology Laboratory. Their collective knowledge of the history, ecology and management of the Savannah River Site is itself a unique resource and this book serves to make their knowledge and experience available to others.
Today, most of the original forest traversed by De Soto are gone. Noss (1989) estimates that less than 30% of bottomland and riparian forests and only 14% of the longleaf forests remain in the Southeast, and only 3% of the longleaf habitat survives as oldgrowth. Some of the unique species (eg., Carolina parakeet, ivorybilled woodpecker, and Bachman's warbler) of the southeastern forests are gone forever, but much of the original diversity of the region has survived, although many of the remaining species are currently threatened or endangered. Our ability to ensure the long term viability of the region's biological diversity depends on three critical steps: 1) inventorying the existing diversity of native species, 2) determining the habitat requirements of the threatened species, and 3) restoring habitats and managing them to provide for the habitat requirements of the native flora and fauna. This book, Ecology and Management of a Forested Landscape, summarizes fifty years of research into the biotic communities and native species of the Savannah River Site and provides a comprehensive overview of the forest management practices that can support longterm forest recovery and restoration of native habitats. The success of the management efforts at SRS over the past fifty years is attested to by the 101 species of reptiles and amphibians, 87 fish species, 69 species of dragonflies and damselflies, 99 species of butterflies, 64 rotifer species, and literally thousands of other species that still exist on the site. Not only the presence of species but also their habitat requirements have been documented in detail, even for often ignored groups such as aquatic invertebrates. As a result of reintroducing or regenerating appropriate native species, restoring natural hydrological cycles in the lowlands and regular burning in the uplands, controlling nonnative invasive species, and carefully regulating hunting and fishing, the native flora and fauna of the Savannah River Site is flourishing.
Our ability to preserve the native biological diversity of the southeastern United States, or any other region of the world, over the next 1,000, or even next 100 years, is still uncertain. There are those who feel we have done too little, too late, and the loss of habitat and poor management practices of the past combined with our ignorance and greed in the future will inevitably lead to massive losses of biological diversity. This book stands as a counterargument to this bleak and gloomy view of the future and provides a concrete example of the role that good science combined with good management can play ensuring that our descendants will be able to enjoy the splendors of nature that have delighted our own generation. H. Ronald Pulliam Regents Professor of Ecology University of Georgia August 12, 2004
