I had the fortunate opportunity to help organize a workshop titled “Focus Species Forestry” which was held recently in Manchester Center, Vermont. The workshop was well attended with over 50 landowners, loggers, and natural resource professionals participating.
The featured speaker of the day was Robert Bryan of Forest Synthesis, LLC located in Harpswell, Maine. Mr. Bryan is a licensed forester and ecologist. His career has included work as a field forester on private woodlands in Vermont and New Hampshire, as an environmental consultant, and 13 years as forest and wetlands habitat ecologist at Maine Audubon. While working for Maine Audubon, Mr. Bryan developed a manual for foresters and other natural resource professionals, titled “Focus Species Forestry: A Guide to Integrating Timber and Biodiversity Management in Maine.”
The idea of focus species forestry is a simple concept. Basically, you identify one or a few “umbrella species” typical of your forest type and geographical location, and then manage your forest to meet their habitat needs. An “umbrella species” is one – often a mammal, bird, or amphibian – that has habitat requirements that also benefit a whole host of other organisms. By managing for one, a landowner can manage for many. You don’t need to individually manage each of the tens or hundreds of animal species that might exist in your forest or forest type to ensure biological diversity.
What is biological diversity? “Biodiversity is the variety of all forms of life – trees and other plants, invertebrate and vertebrate animals, and microorganisms – and includes the different levels on which life operates – from the level of genetic differences between individuals to the complex interactions between species.”(Maine Forest Biodiversity Project; Gawler et al. 1996).
Mr. Bryan provided some examples, all based on the premise that focus species management works because many species inhabit similar forest types. While no two species have exactly the same habitat requirements, there is often considerable overlap among species.
Here’s a case in point. The American marten, red squirrel, red-breasted nuthatch, spruce grouse, and hermit thrush have different requirements for food and cover, but they are all found in mid- to late-successional spruce-fir conifer and mixed conifer-hardwood forests. Because the marten has the largest home range of this group, it has been identified as a focus species for these forest types.
The goal of focus species forestry is to provide habitat for the vast majority of forest species and maintain biological diversity, while at the same time managing our forests for the wood products and multiple uses that we as humans enjoy.
Mr. Bryan plans to expand his publication to include all of New England’s forest types and habitat regimes. Bennington County forest landowners will find it a powerful management tool. For an electronic copy of his current publication, you can contact me by email at: .
Nate Fice is the Bennington County Forester, and a member of the Board of the Bennington County Conservation District (BCCD). You can learn about upcoming forest workshops and other natural resource initiatives on the BCCD website, www.bccdvt.org.
This column appeared in the Bennington Banner in May 2009, as one of the BCCD's Conservation Currents pieces, a bi-weekly feature written by BCCD board and staff members since August 2006.