Posts tagged: forests
Posted by Julie MacSwain, Minnesota Public Affairs Specialist on July 05, 2016 at 07:54 AM
The golden-winged warbler breeds in the Great Lakes region and the Appalachian Mountains. Photo: DJ McNeil
Minnesota is a stronghold for the golden-winged warbler, a bird suffering a significant population decline. A new project brings together a nonprofit, a federal agency and private landowners to slow or even reverse this decline.
Golden-winged warblers depend on young forests for nesting. But across the country, including in Minnesota, forests have changed, and older forests have come to dominate huge areas. Both game and non-game species that rely on young forests are in decline. Read more >>
Related Links
Tags:
West Virginia,
Maryland,
Pennsylvania,
forests,
Working Lands for Wildlife,
golden-winged warbler,
Minnesota,
Regional Conservation Partnership Program,
Great Lakes region,
Appalachian region
Landscape Initiatives,
Conservation Programs,
Discover Conservation,
Environment,
Plants & Animals
Posted by Bridgett Estel Costanzo, NRCS Working Lands for Wildlife East Coordinator on July 01, 2016 at 09:03 AM
Like other wildlife that depend on young forests, the golden-winged warbler uses openings created by natural or human-induced disturbances. Photo by Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
As a nature lover and professional biologist, I like to brag that our daughters can identify trees, birds, insects, and even snakes. But one day I received a tiny stab to my prideful heart.
Our daughter, Natalie, had created a poster for her elementary school ecology class that had the message “Don’t kill trees!” When I saw it, I realized that in teaching her about trees, I hadn’t passed on to her an important lesson: that forests go through stages of life just like people do. Read more >>
Tags:
Working Lands for Wildlife,
habitat restoration,
forests
Landscape Initiatives,
Discover Conservation,
Environment,
Plants & Animals
Posted by Tracy Robillard, Oregon Public Affairs Officer on June 27, 2016 at 04:31 PM
Kevin Goodell (left), a member of the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians and tribal natural resources crew member, and Mike Kennedy, natural resources director for the Siletz Tribe.
“I love working in the forest. Feels good just to be out here,” says Kevin Goodell, a Siletz tribal member who serves on the tribe’s natural resources crew. “We log the trees, we go back in and plant them, we thin them. It’s a cycle that keeps the forest healthy and keeps it here for future generations―for my kids and grandkids.”
Healthy forests are an integral part of the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians’ way of life—spiritually, culturally, and economically.
“Forest health is our shared focus,” says Kate Danks, Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) district conservationist in Lincoln County. “Pre-commercial thinning is essential because it removes damaged and diseased trees, and it opens up the canopy, allowing more sunlight in. The open understory also provides better wildlife habitat.” Read more >>
Tags:
Oregon,
forests,
Tribal
Communities,
Environment,
Farmer & Rancher Stories,
Soil Health
Posted by Justin Fritscher on May 02, 2016 at 10:42 AM
The Louisiana black bear's current range is in Louisiana and Mississippi along the Mississippi and Atchafalaya rivers.
Louisiana black bears were in trouble. In the alluvial plain along the Mississippi River, highly fertile soil led to the historic conversion of bottomland hardwoods to cultivated cropland during the 1960s and 1970s when soybean prices reached record highs. By 1992, the bear had lost 80 percent of its habitat, and biologists estimated fewer than 200 remained.
But landowners who voluntarily restored wetland habitat on private lands reversed the bear’s downward trend, paving the way for its recovery.
May marks American Wetlands Month, a time to celebrate the importance of wetland ecosystems, including the bottomland hardwood forests that the Louisiana black bear needs. Read more >>
Tags:
Louisiana,
black bear,
Working Lands for Wildlife,
wetlands,
bottomland hardwood,
forests
Plants & Animals,
Conservation Programs,
Discover Conservation,
Environment,
Landscape Initiatives
Subscribe to NRCS Blogs
