Summer study in British Columbia enlightens their research
OXFORD, Miss. – University of Mississippi biologists expect a forest
restoration project under way at Strawberry Plains Audubon Center in
Marshall County to grow following their three-week study excursion this
summer to the Kootenay National Forest in the Canadian Rocky Mountains.
Although the Kootenay National Forest near Vancouver, British
Columbia, is more than 2,500 miles away from the old plantation near
Holly Springs, the two sites are closer than ever before, thanks in
part to a USDA-funded research project at Ole Miss.
Over the
last five years, UM ecologist and biology professor Steve Brewer has
led efforts to examine upland forests at the 2,500-acre Strawberry
Plains. Assisting with the research, three Ole Miss biology graduate
students traveled to British Columbia over the summer to participate in
an intensive three-week internship in Canada’s Rocky Mountain Trench
Ecosystem Restoration project, one of the world’s largest forest
restoration programs.
“This is arguably the most large-scale, successful forest
habitat restoration program in the world,” said Jason Hoeksema, UM
biology professor and adviser. “The students traveled all over British
Columbia to learn the latest forest restoration techniques, monitoring
techniques for plants and animals, as well as interacting with the
various parties impacted by the project. It was a valuable, broadening
experience.”
While in Canada, UM graduate biology students Erynn Maynard of
Akron, N.Y., Jason Ryndock of Boiling Springs, Pa., and Anjel Craig of
Picayune were introduced to the nuts and bolts of on-the-ground
restoration by foresters, burn bosses, fire ecologists, wildlife
biologists, ranchers, range agrologists, naturalists and
ethnobotanists. The USDA research fellows learned to write restoration
logging prescriptions and conduct prescribed burns, listened to
stakeholders discuss economic challenges, helped measure restoration
efforts on plant life and heard how restoration contributes to native
cultural values.
Craig said the greatest lesson she learned in Canada was the cooperation required between the various interest groups.
“For restoration programs to be successful, all of the parties
involved must work toward a common goal,” Craig said. “There’re a lot
of different people with different goals, and everyone must work
together.”
Craig described the excursion as an incredible experience and
unprecedented opportunity, from hiking atop glaciers to examining
abandoned badger burrows. Highlights included a helicopter ride to a
remote site in the Kootenay National Forest, she said.
The UM graduate biology program is designed to give students a
broader perspective on ecosystem restoration. Although the Strawberry
Plains project is in its early stages and limited in terms of its
scope, Craig said a close look at the Rocky Mountain Trench project,
acknowledged by the United Nations as a world-class program, gives a
point of comparison for their efforts.
“We don’t have anything of that scale, but I’m definitely more
inspired now to really work hard,” Craig said. “I’ve seen the recipe
for success.
“I hope there’s a greater public appreciation for this type of
work in terms of the environment,” she continued. “We’re working to
help forests become more resistant to global warming and more resistant
to invasive species all the while continuing to perform important
ecosystem processes.”
According to preliminary findings from the UM study, upland
forests at Strawberry Plains have been overtaken by lowland trees such
as elm and sweet gum, smothering biodiversity at its roots, which
impacts wildlife and their habitats. The research aims to compare
current plant species in upland forest to the habitat found there in
the early 1800s, which can be used to help increase wildlife and
habitat quality and plant biodiversity, as well as increase the
aesthetic appeal of the landscape over time, Brewer said.
The restoration effort at Strawberry Plains, which consists of
three separate plots totaling about 30 acres, has already seen a 20
percent increase in plant diversity along with a huge increase in
savannah-type wildflowers, he said.
“In just two years, we’ve seen dramatic increases of species
important to wildlife, like legumes, specifically wild bean, trefoils
and native lespedezas,” Brewer said. “These are important to quail, and
over the last 20 years, we’ve seen quail populations drop.”
The Strawberry Plains forest restoration project is funded with
nearly $170,000 by the USDA through 2012. To learn more about the
Strawberry Plains research, visit http://www.olemiss.edu/depts/