AR-LA CDN RCPP Proposal – A substantial step forward for Conservation in the WGCP, or BCR25
The AR-LA Conservation Delivery Network (CDN) worked constantly from August through November 2020 to plan, prepare, and submit a substantial Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP) proposal. The submission was completed just before Thanksgiving through the American Bird Conservancy. The AR-LA partners had refined the proposal delivery area to 16 counties and parishes (see map below), with the intent to promote, restore, and enhance intermediate stand treatments in pine and mixed-pine hardwood forests. This proposal will focus on forest stand improvement – thinning, burning, and understory management. The total impact is anticipated to be 60,000 acres or more over a 5-year period.
AR-LA RCPP focal counties
RCPP is an innovative program, through USDA NRCS and partners, to collaborate and implement natural resource conservation activities. Key principles include Impact, Partner Contributions, Innovation, Partnerships, and Management.
The matching contributions generated for this proposal are substantial, with over $8mil contributed from 21 partners in the geography. One especially innovative approach engaged the private sector with partners such as Ouachita, Claiborne, and South Central Electric Cooperatives, and larger corporations like Enable Midstream, Entergy, and PotlatchDeltic. The corridors provided through rights-of-ways use a new “Integrated Vegetation Management,” or IVM system, which is a promising way to maintain corridors with herbaceous native vegetation that benefit both birds and pollinators. The concept of linking restored forest areas through these corridors has potential for connectivity that has received limited attention in conservation projects over the years.
Executive Summary
Our goal for the AR-LA Open Pine Landscape Restoration proposal is to greatly improve Forest Health for Wildlife Resources in the West Gulf Coastal Plain; this project will connect and build upon our successful programs in other landscapes. The Lower Mississippi Valley Joint Venture (LMVJV) Conservation Delivery Network (CDN) will deliver this project to advance the recovery of species of conservation concern through use of our Desired Forest Condition (DFC) management practices for Open Pine habitat. Implementation of integrated vegetation management (IVM) treatments on corridors connecting public and private lands will more than double our conservation impact, linking private lands conservation into a restored landscape for the next 10-20 years. The project will benefit State Action Plan species of greatest conservation need, including Northern Bobwhite, Eastern Wild Turkey, Brown-headed Nuthatch, Henslow’s and LeConte’s sparrows, and Federally listed or at-risk priorities such as Louisiana Pine Snake, Red-cockaded Woodpecker, and Frosted Elfin and Monarch Butterflies.
The proposal objectives are:
1. Implement priority forest species DFCs on 30,000 acres of private lands in AR-LA through RCPP technical and financial assistance programs by 2026. This 30,000-acre objective will be 100% funded, using RCPP FA and TA funding to address NRCS resource concerns.
2. Implement priority forest species DFCs on 30,000+ acres of public and private lands being connected by habitat corridors in AR-LA by 2026. This objective will be 100% funded from partner source contributions, using cash and in-kind leverage to implement DFCs on forest lands and connecting corridors using IVM practices.
3. Develop protocols for communication, social engagement, and effectiveness-based monitoring to extend the development of high-priority private lands habitat for many underserved forest landowners. Social outreach to over 3,000 people will identify, inform, cultivate, and collaborate with these HU communities: African-American, beginning, and Veteran forestland producers.
Overview
The West Gulf Coastal Plain (WGCP) region is the westernmost landscape for many SE pine forest plant and animal communities. Estimates show that more than 80% of open forest habitats, upon which many species depend, are now degraded or lost. Population declines of priority species in this project area are significant, declining 10% annually for 40 years. These priority species are in need of immediate management to improve desired forest conditions (DFC) on the landscape; both the size of available habitat patches and the connectivity of those patches are crucial to successful landscape restoration. With most of the WGCP privately owned, recovery of these habitats and the species depending on them hinges on successful delivery of targeted conservation practices on private lands.
Our RCPP Project, AR-LA CDN Open Pine Landscape Restoration, will engage and enroll private forest landowners in RCPP programs that support DFCs across the WGCP Bird Conservation Region (BCR25) landscape. Once common within the WGCP, “open” pine habitat is characterized by low canopy cover, low basal area, and a diverse herbaceous understory, all historically maintained by periodic fires. Open Pine Landscape Restoration involves strategically identifying priority landscapes and quality habitats (or conservation estate), and then building outward by expanding coverage, connecting habitat, and targeting adjacent private forests through voluntary habitat conservation. This strategy will also initiate new habitat hubs on private lands by connecting patches with corridors. Enhancement practices will thin pines, reduce hardwood canopy, reduce shrub mid-story, and reintroduce periodic fire to promote herbaceous understory species and control undesired hardwoods.
The 2011 WGCP/Ouachita Open Pine Landbird Plan is the foundational document for science-based habitat delivery of DFCs in BCR25. Based on continental plans like the 2004 and 2016 Partners in Flight Plans, NABCI, Northern Bobwhite Range-Wide Plan, and State Wildlife Action Plans, our approach is collaborative, species-focused, and outcome-based. Using a strategic habitat conservation (SHC) philosophy, the Lower Mississippi Valley Joint Venture (LMVJV) partnership, through the American Bird Conservancy (ABC), intends to use the BCR25 Plan in a strategic approach that collaboratively enhances DFCs for priority birds and other wildlife species.
By implementing science-based DFCs, this effort will vastly improve conservation to benefit many at-risk species and other Species of Greatest Conservation Need (SGCN), including Red-cockaded Woodpecker (RCWO), Northern Bobwhite, Brown-headed Nuthatch, Prairie Warbler, Henslow’s, Bachman’s, and Le Conte’s Sparrows, and many other associated wildlife. Another unique species, the federally threatened Louisiana Pine Snake (LPS), will also benefit from habitat restored by this project, especially in certain Louisiana parishes. Planned management and protection measures that are proposed during this project will align with established rules and assurances for recommended Conservation Measures.
In BCR2, these species depend on open pine forest habitats within relatively well-connected forest landscapes. RCWO, LPS, and pollinators like the Frosted Elfin and Monarch Butterfly, are listed as SGCN in the AR and LA State Wildlife Action Plans (SWAPs). Likewise, quail, turkey, and many other species are identified in the AR-LA SWAPs; these are the RCPP priority species for connecting open forest habitat through rights-of-ways (ROW) that are managed for both pollinator and bird-friendly integrated vegetation management (IVM) best management practices (BMP). The presence or absence of these species can be used as an indicator of the quality of the herbaceous component in open pine habitat, and provide feedback on management actions.