1
Restoring Pine Savanna
And
Northern Bobwhites
Open canopy forests with diverse grass-forb-shrub groundcover characterize Pine Savanna. Prior
to European settlement this habitat type dominated as much as three fourths of the Southeastern
Coastal Plain landscape (Platt 1999). These forests were predominately two-layered with an
overstory of widely spaced pines and a diverse herbaceous ground cover that was maintained by
frequent fire (Frost 1998). It has been estimated that Pine Savanna covered as much as 17,000
square miles of Georgia’s Coastal Plain (Wharton 1978). Additionally, Pine and Oak-Pine
Savanna occurred on xeric ridges of the Ridge and Valley and Piedmont Physiographic
Provinces. Functional Pine Savanna now comprises less than 5% of the Southeastern Coastal
Plain (Platt 1999). Restoration of this habitat type, especially Longleaf Pine Savanna, is a high
priority in a variety of conservation plans developed by federal, state and non-governmental
conservation organizations. Examples include: Georgia Department of Natural Resources,
Wildlife Resources Division - State Wildlife Action Plan (SWAP) and Bobwhite Quail Initiative
(BQI), America’s Longleaf Initiative; National Bobwhite Conservation Initiative (NBCI);
Partners In Flight North American Landbird Conservation Plan, and Partners In Amphibian and
Reptile Conservation - Habitat Management Guidelines for Amphibians and Reptiles of the
Southeastern United States, Georgia Forestry Commission Forestry Action Plan – Biodiversity
Section and Georgia Natural Resources Conservation Service State Resource Concerns
Assessment.
The drastic loss of Pine Savanna, resulting primarily from conversion to other land uses and
forest types along with reduction in fire occurrence and frequency, has contributed to the severe
decline of numerous wildlife species that rely fully or in part on savanna habitats to meet their
life requisites. Georgia’s SWAP identifies 20 high conservation priority animals (Table 1) and 56
plants (Table 2) associated with Pine Savanna and in need of restoration.
The Northern Bobwhite (Colinus virginanus, Georgia’s State Gamebird) serves as one example
of a species in conservation need that is largely dependent on Pine Savanna. Georgia’s bobwhite
population has declined by - 4.9% per year since 1966 (Sauer et al. 2011) which equates to a
bobwhite population reduction of over an 85%. Research shows that closed canopy and/or
unburned pine stands provide poor quality habitat for bobwhites, and other grassland species,
and may also serve as ecological sinks (i.e. high predation rates) thereby negatively impacting
bobwhite populations, even on adjacent high quality grassland habitats.
When appropriately applied, frequent prescribed fire and forest thinning mimic the ecosystem
processes that once occurred naturally across landscapes to create and maintain woodland
savannas. Without thinning, tree canopies close and shade-out ground cover. Without frequent
prescribed fire, grasses and forbs are replaced by woody plants and forest litter. Functional Pine
Savanna systems, including the associated wildlife, can be restored in today’s existing pine
forests.
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Pine savanna management recommendations to optimize bobwhite habitat:
1) frequent forest thinning to maintain through time at least 60% of the ground in direct
sunlight; first thins may take stands to 70 ft2 basal area (BA) so as to maintain forest
health, reduce disease and wind throw risks, and increase future economic returns, but
second and subsequent thins should maintain a 40 to 70 ft2 BA range with 70 ft2 BA
being the trigger for thinning. Forest stands exceeding 70 ft2 BA often have sparse or
patchy ground cover which reduces food and cover, increases search efficiency of
predators and consequently reduces survival of bobwhites and other grassland obligates;
2) prescribed burning on a 2 year frequency in small units, 100 acres or less and ideally 20
to 50 acres, and in a mosaic or checkerboard pattern;
3) establishing 5% to 20% of the forest acreage in fallow managed openings that are 2 to 5
acres in size and are maintained with winter disking, fire and/or herbicides; and
4) chemical control of exotic grasses and invasive hardwoods as needed.
Managing pine savanna results in economic tradeoffs or opportunity costs for the landowner as
compared to management for maximum timber revenue. These costs are especially high when
stands are carried beyond the optimum economic rotation age. Cost share and incentive funding
is through private lands programs (e.g. Farm Bill) can offset these cost and enable and encourage
landowners to restore and maintain longleaf and other pine savanna systems. Funding to cost
share longleaf planting, prescribed burning, herbicide application and heavy thinning of existing
pine stands can increase landowner willingness to establish and maintain pine savanna.
Georgia’s Future Bobwhite Restoration Strategy
Georgia WRD’s bobwhite restoration efforts have centered since 1999 on the state’s Bobwhite
Quail Initiative (BQI), which began as a pilot program to restore habitat for bobwhites and other
grassland species on private farm and forest lands in 15 counties (Thackston and Tomberlin
2010). Overall, BQI showed that: 1)
bobwhite numbers can be increased on
working farm and forestlands through
judicious application of habitat practices
across suitable landscapes at the
appropriate scale; 2) landowner demand
for bobwhites is high, but adequate levels
of financial incentives and qualified
technical staff are essential for habitat
implementation success; and 3) habitat
enhancements must be focused into
spatially explicit landscapes (≥1,500 acres)
to produce and sustain a bobwhite
population response.
Georgia’s bobwhite restoration efforts are
currently expanding to portions of more
than 68-Upper Coastal Plain counties. This
transition is being guided by lessons
learned
from
11-years
of
BQI
implementation and a recent revision of
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the National Bobwhite Conservation Initiative (The National Bobwhite Technical Committee
2011), a 25-state bobwhite habitat and population restoration plan. These counties, which include
23 sub-county focal landscapes, were selected through a collaborative landscape analysis
workshop and GIS process conducted by Georgia WRD and Tall Timbers Research Station as
part of the NBCI revision. As of 2010, within these counties there were 378,965 acres of
longleaf, and 4,387,159 acres of loblolly/slash pine that might potentially be restored to, or
maintained as, functional pine savanna (U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service. 2008
Forest
Inventory
and
Analysis
Data.
Forest
Inventory
Data
Online.
http://199.128.173.26/fido/index.html. Date accessed: November 2009). Additionally there are
over 3 million acres of harvested cropland, a portion of which might be restored to longleaf pine.
Within the sub-county focal landscapes the 5 year projected habitat needs include 58,325 acres
of pine thinning, 209,498 additional acres of prescribed burning and 62,861 acres of fallow
cropland habitats.
The Georgia NBCI step-down plan will serve as a framework for working intensively with
interested landowners, landowner cooperatives, and select public lands within these prioritized
sub-county landscapes to target available management programs, funding, technical assistance,
research and monitoring efforts. Future bobwhite restoration success is dependent on securing
adequate state and federal funding for landowner incentives and technical assistance, and
collaborating with conservation partners. In regard to the latter, Georgia’s NBCI implementation
is being augmented through a Memorandum of Agreement with the Georgia Forestry
Commission Georgia Soil and Water Conservation Commission, Georgia State Council Quail
Unlimited, Georgia Department of Natural Resources- Wildlife Resources Division, U.S. Army
Ft Benning and Ft Gordon, Georgia State Farm Service Agency, University of Georgia D.B.
Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources, Georgia Association of Conservation District
Supervisors, Georgia Natural Resources Conservation Service, Tall Timbers Research Station –
Albany Quail Project, Quail Forever, U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
(Author Reggie Thackston, Georgia WRD Private Lands Program Manager)
Frost, C.C. 1998. Presettlement fire frequency regimes of the United States: a first
approximation. Pages 70-81 in Theresa L. Pruden and Leonard A. Brennan (eds.). Fire in
ecosystem management: shifting the paradigm from suppression to prescription. Tall
Timbers Fire Ecology Conference Proceedings, No. 20, Tall Timbers Research Station,
Tallahassee FL.
National Bobwhite Technical Committee (NBTC). 2011. Palmer, W. E., T. M. Terhune, and D.
F. McKenzie, editors. The National Bobwhite Conservation Initiative: a range-wide plan
for re-covering bobwhites. National Bobwhite Technical Committee Technical
Publication Version 2.0. Knoxville, Tennessee, USA.
Platt, W.J. 1999. Southeastern pine savannas. In: Anderson, R.C., Fralish, J.S. & Baskin, J. (eds.)
The savanna, barren, and rock outcrop communities of North America, pp. 23–51.
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.
Sauer, J. R., J. E. Hines, J. E. Fallon, K. L. Pardieck, D. J. Ziolkowski Jr., and W. A. Link. 2011.
The North American Breeding Bird Survey, results and analysis 1966-2009. Version
3.23.2011. USGS, Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, Laurel, Maryland, USA.
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Thackston, R.E., and J. Tomberlin 2010. Georgia’s Bobwhite Quail Initiative; Accomplishments
2000-2010 and Future Restoration Strategy. Proc. Annu. Conf. Southeast Fish and
Wildlife Agencies. 64:18-23.
Wharton, C.H. 1978.The Natural Environments of Georgia. Bulletin 114. Geologic and Water
Resources Division and Resource Planning Section, Office of Planning and Research,
Georgia Department of Natural Resources, Atlanta, Georgia 227 p.
Table 1. Georgia SWAP High Priority Animals of Pine Savannas
Bachman’s Sparrow
Brown-headed nuthatch
Red-cockaded woodpecker
Northern Bobwhite
Southeastern American Kestrel
Loggerhead Shrike
Southeastern Pocket Gopher
Sherman’s fox squirrel
Northern Yellow Bat
Gopher Tortoise
Florida Worm Lizard
Mimic Glass Lizard
Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake
Southern Hognose Snake
Eastern Indigo Snake
Florida Pine Snake
Florida crowned snake
Flatwoods Salamander
Striped Newt
Gopher Frog
Table 2. Georgia SWAP High Priority Plants of Pine Woodlands and Savannas
Chapman Three-awn Grass
Georgia Aster
Sandhill Milkvetch
Purple Honeycomb Head
Hairy Rattleweed
Indian Grave Mountain Wild Basil
Many-flowered Grass-pink
Oklahoma grasspink
Catesby’s bindweed
Sandhill Awned Moss
Long-Awned Split Sedge
Lavendar Lady flatwoods
Florida Senna
Virginia Thistle
Florida Orange-grass
Florida Finger Grass
Creeping Morning-glory
Michaux Orchid
Blazing Star
Harper Grooved Flax
Carolina Birdfood-trefoil
Pineland Barbara Buttons
Trailing Milkvine
Savanna Cowbane
Inland Rugel’s Nailwort
Rugel’s Nailwort
Yellow Nailwort
Grit Beardtongue
Sandhill Golden-aster
Pineland Plantain
Southern White Fringed Orchid
Yellow Fringeless Orchid
Wild Coco
Georgia beakrush
Spotted beakrush
Yellow Flytrap
Whitetop Pitcherplant
Hooded Pitcherplant
Parrot Pitcherplant
Lowland Purple Pitcherplant
Sweet Pitcherplant
Creeping bluestem
White Sunnybell
Chaffseed
Ohoopee Bumelia
Florida Ladies-tresses
Giant Spiral Ladies-tresses
Pineland Dropseed
Wire-leaf Dropseed
Tallahassee Hedge-nettle
Pickerings Morning-glory
Dwarf Goats Rue
Carolina Redtop
Evergreen Low Bush Blueberry
Dixie Mountain Breadroot
Trailing Bean-vine