Southern Piedmont
(Area - 13,033,900 ha)
Description - The Southern Piedmont extends through central North Carolina,
South Carolina, and Georgia and into eastern Alabama. The area is characterized by
irregular plains and open hills with occasional tablelands. Elevations generally range
from about 30 meters to 100 meters, but rise to about 400 meters at the interface with the
Southern Blue Ridge. Numerous and diverse rivers comprise a major feature of the
landscape. Although the Piedmont is geologically part of Southern Appalachia, the types of
vegetation that characterize the region encompass a broad transition from upland forest
types to the coastal plain. By most accounts, Piedmont forests were dominated by hardwoods
at the time of early European settlement, and the extent far exceeded what exists today.
However, the Piedmont was by no means entirely forested prior to European settlement.
Eastern grasslands and savannas were extensive and present as late as the 1700’s.
Because Native American settlements were apparently common in the Piedmont, agricultural
fields and other larger openings were historically part of the landscape. Potential natural forest vegetation in the Southern Piedmont is oak-hickory-pine and Southern mixed forests. Southern red, northern red, chestnut, white, post and black are the most prevalent oaks. Shagbark, pignut, and mockernut are common hickory species. Shortleaf and loblolly are dominant pine species, with scattered longleaf stands along the Fall Line with the Coastal Plain. Pines are most prevalent on disturbed sites and due to the widespread historical disturbance factor, pines have replaced oaks and hickories in many cases.
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Conservation recommendations and needs - The two largest challenges facing the conservation of habitat in the Piedmont today are unchecked urbanization and intensification of agriculture and forest management. Of these, the former is of much greater concern because its effects are essentially permanent. The effects of the latter are relatively easily ameliorated with slight modifications of existing practices. Urban sprawl is an increasingly important issue nationwide and human population growth in the Southern Piedmont is growing rapidly. However, no comprehensive planning for growth is in place. Agriculture and forestry are significant land uses in the Southern Piedmont. Although overall increasing forest acreage and maturity in the Piedmont would suggest greater security for vulnerable bird species, many species’ populations have shown declines within patches of protected mature forests embedded in the Piedmont suburban settings where they were once common. The general decline in abundance of early successional species is mostly related to changing land use patterns from agriculture to forest. Remaining agricultural lands are intensively managed, which contributes to declines. The result is a loss of stable, early successional habitats.
Conservation opportunities to manage and maintain bird habitats will require significant involvement from public land managers, public agencies, private industrial landowners, and private non-industrial landowners. Public lands are an important component of the Southern Piedmont and may serve as core areas from which to manage or expand habitat. Timber companies are the largest private landowner in the Piedmont, creating tremendous opportunity for increased cooperative management strategies to accomplish bird conservation objectives. Private, non-industrial landowner incentive programs can be increased in key areas as well, further adding to core habitat acreage.
The general approach in the Piedmont is to develop plans for three critical habitats (forest interior, early successional, riparian), develop decision rules for spatially representing these plans on GIS, resolve conflicts in priority habitats and land use at priority sites, and implement site specific plans using whatever means available. One such program, the Georgia Piedmont Natural Resources Partnership, is designed to implement Partners in Flight objectives by providing an array of incentive programs to private landowners with critical bird populations and habitats.
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