Residents of western Virginia are blessed to be surrounded by mountains, the majority of which are public and accessible to all. In fact, Virginia has well in excess of one million acres of public forestland with some counties in western Virginia having more public forestlands than private property. Given the reality of so much forestland accessible to everyone, one may assume that there is an overabundance of habitat for wildlife, but unfortunately, there is a growing crisis of declining habitat in our beloved mountains.
Historically, almost all forestlands were in private ownership and large areas were subject to periodic disturbance, whether caused by human activities such as logging, farming, mining and land clearing or more natural events such as fire, storm or disease. However, this tradition changed significantly in the early part of the last century when the U.S. Forest Service came into possession of thousands upon thousands of acres of Virginia forestlands. After being transferred to the Forest Service, many of these areas have been largely untouched and undisturbed for the last 100 years or more.
Over time, without management, any forested area will grow into a monoculture of trees. Whether dominated by large, mature trees or an overpopulation of closely spaced smaller trees, the tree canopy will eventually act as an umbrella, blocking almost all sunlight from reaching the ground. Without sunlight, there will be very little plant-life at or near the forest floor. While forests of trees with a largely open understory may be pleasing to the human eye, most wildlife species require food and cover, i.e., habitat, at the ground level. Thus, the reality is that if left undisturbed, many forestland areas become the equivalent of deserts for wildlife, providing little suitable habitat to sustain most species. Unfortunately, this condition has become common in many areas of Virginia’s Western Appalachian Mountains and thousands upon thousands of acres of forests now provide minimal habitat for the many species of wildlife that have historically called these areas home.
As this crisis of habitat decline has been developing, some well-meaning individuals have continued to advocate for a “hands off” approach to our forestlands, asserting that forests naturally manage themselves. However, this approach does not consider the beneficial impacts of proper, planned forest management to create diversity. Moreover, preventative measures also prevent many regenerative natural forces from functioning as they would have historically. For example, wildfires are more effectively contained and extinguished as quickly as possible for safety reasons. Natural disease occurrences are curtailed or limited as much as possible. While these actions are understandable and well-meaning, they also prevent large scale natural disturbances that traditionally impacted our forestlands to create diversity even before humans played any role in the process.
Formed in 2018, the Appalachian Habitat Association understands the critical role of periodic disturbance, whether caused by man or nature, in breaking up the forest monoculture to create diversity. Forest diversity exists when there are different age classes of trees interspersed with areas dominated not by trees but by grasses, shrubs and other types of plant-life. Diversity creates an ideal habitat for most wildlife species in the natural world, including larger animals and small animals, birds, and insect life. Unfortunately, as diversity has declined, many wildlife species, birds, and insects have also become threatened or even disappeared. Therefore, it is our mission to encourage diversity of habitat on private and public lands, reverse the loss of habitat and promote management practices that will ensure that our beloved wildlife has a home for generations to come.
When managed with beneficial periodic disturbances, forests are enabled to offer the maximum food, cover, and protection, sustaining a healthy and diverse population of animals, birds, and insects. AHA strives to encourage that our forestlands are being conscientiously maintained to engender and protect this diversity to ensure that the wildlife population will be healthy and thriving for generations to come. While AHA encourages all landowners to evaluate their land management practices, our organization especially focuses on supporting and directly assisting the state and federal government agencies in undertaking projects on public land to address habitat decline by creating and maintaining areas of forest diversity and improved wildlife habitat.
For more information on habitat decline and other organizations involved in land and wildlife management, please visit appalachianhabitat.org.