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Northern New England
(Area - 5,053,071 ha)
Description - The Northern New England physiographic area extends from
southern Maine through southern New Hampshire and Vermont and western Massachusetts,
barely entering eastern New York in the Taconic Highlands. Landforms within the planning
unit include Vermont’s Killington Peak at 1,290 m ranging down to sea level along the
Maine coast. Most of the region consists of Rolling hills and small mountains with large
areas of farmland of the Connecticut, Merrimac, Androscoggin, and Kennebec river valleys.
The planning unit also contains a large portion of the Green Mountain National Forest in
southern Vermont. A majority of the planning unit is dominated by either sugar
maple-beech-birch forest, red spruce-balsam fir forest, mesic hardwood forests dominated
by northern red oak, or drier forests dominated by oak-hickory or pine-oak association.
Presettlement forests in much of the region consisted largely of white pine and hemlock,
with hardwood forests dominating after timber removal and other disturbance. Today,
agriculture remains an important land use, but forest harvesting too shapes the habitats
throughout Northern New England. Human populations have grown tremendously in this area
and development for single family housing especially in rural and suburban areas is
especially important.
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Conservation recommendations and needs - Although Northern New England has been inhabited by Europeans for almost as long as any physiographic area in the country, the economic base today is largely commercial forestry and recreation and, as a result, most priority birds are still abundant and widespread. Many of the relatively high priority birds breeding in northern hardwood forest are undergoing population declines in Northern New England, however, even though the habitat remains common. Declines may be due to landscape level deficiencies in forest-age distribution, structural characteristics, and tree-species composition. A comprehensive forest management plan for the entire region would be a positive step toward long-term maintenance of source populations of this avifauna. Populations of Chestnut-sided Warbler and other species associated with successional forests (including American Woodcock) are generally declining in this area, as well as in most of the Northeast. Any comprehensive forest plan for this area must include retention of a significant area of early successional habitat in a variety of conditions. The only mountaintop habitat in this area still occupied by Bicknell’s Thrush is in the Green Mountains of Vermont. All the dense, stunted balsam fir-dominated stands in which this bird breed must be maintained. Both Saltmarsh (?) and Nelson’s Sharp-tailed Sparrows breed in coastal saltmarsh along this area’s coastline. These birds are poorly known and require study and monitoring, and all used habitat should be maintained. Nesting beaches for Piping Plover and coastal wetlands are already high conservation priorities. Specific conservation recommendations for this physiographic area include:
• apply GIS-based spatial monitoring protocol to survey and monitor high-elevation habitats for Bicknell’s Thrush;
• complete inventory for both species of Sharp-tailed Sparrow, with particular attention to the northern range limit for Saltmarsh Sharp-tailed Sparrow; at 5 year intervals;
• maintain a “shifting mosaic” of forest-age structures, including adequate amounts of mid-successional as well as late-successional forest (both coniferous and northern hardwood);
• identify and designate Bird Conservation Areas (BCA), within which long-term sustainability of priority bird populations is a primary management objective;
• protect and restore wetland habitats to enhance breeding and wintering populations of American Black Duck.
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