Save the Oaks - Episode 1 - Saving the Oaks at Fontenelle Forest скачать в хорошем качестве

Save the Oaks - Episode 1 - Saving the Oaks at Fontenelle Forest

Historically, there was about 30 million acres of Oak Savannah and Woodlands in the Great Plains So, it’s one of the rarest ecosystems and along the eastern border of Nebraska there really isn’t a lot of this type of habitat left. In the history of land use at Fontenelle Forest, the belief was that we let nature take its course but now we know that that isn’t healthy for the ecosystem or people. That allows invasive species to come into the forest and outcompete the native species. All the animals and insects and fungi were adapted to the species that were here, like the oaks, and with invasive species, our native species struggle. This used to be an Oak Savannah. This ecosystem was classified not so much as a forest but as an oak savannah and oak woodland. Over time, this landscape has adapted to fire and all the species that used to be here are fire-adapted species, the plants, and animals. About 150 years ago, fire was removed off the landscape and since then all the species that have been adapted to fire are struggling. All the species that have came in since the absence of fire have basically taken over the landscape. So fire is one of our best and most effective tools for management. Our goal, now with the new restoration initiative is to put fire back in the disturbance regime and restore some of the native biodiversity. So on this side of the boardwalk, we have not been burning yet and you’ll notice that theres a lot more bare ground, you can see the soil, theres not a high diversity of plants. It’s a lot of young hackberry trees and some stickseed. On this side, where we’ve been burning, and thinning pretty intensely, you’ll notice a high diversity of herbaceous cover, grasses, sedges, and wildflowers and not very much bare soil. This area is holding the soil in place better and this is basically our goal, is to have a high diverse, herbaceous layer of grass, flowers, and sedges and fungi. It’s a long term process and we don’t expect changes to happen overnight. We do expect changes to start happening and we will notice these changes on a small scale as we move over time. Some of the habitat restoration activities that you might notice if you’re hiking around Fontenelle Forest or Neale Woods are thinning. We are thinning the canopy and letting light back into the forest for baby oak trees to grow. We are implementing prescribed fire on all the upland at Fontenelle Forest and Neale Woods. We are doing a large scale invasive species removal so that the native plants have a better chance at competing. One of the other activities, management activities, that we’re doing is to help prevent soil erosion. So once the system ??? is restored (3:30) we will have better soil and more diverse native plants to hold the soil in place. So what we’ve noticed over the last couple of years when we’ve been thinning and opening up the canopy more sunlight reaches the oak trees. Over the last hundred years, these oak trees, the bottom branches have been dying because its too shady. Once we open up the canopy to let more sunlight into the oaks we’ve noticed that they’ve been sprouting these bottom branches off the trunk. Not all of them but some of them have been doing that so we think this is a really good indication that these oaks are sort of rejuvenated and what we call that is freeing the oak. So I think that the more we see of this, the better, the better the system will be. We have implemented some monitoring programs So we are monitoring changes in vegetation, changes in insect diversity, and changes in bird diversity over time. Those efforts are funded through the NET grant and we have researchers coming in on contract to do these surveys It’s all about adaptation and changing your management actions based on what you’re finding on the land.