A Guide for Managing Wildlife on Private Lands In North Carolina
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This webpage explains the importance of fire-maintained habitats and provides recommendations for how to manage these habitats. Information includes when to burn, how to burn, and considerations
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This list contains 147 species of birds observed by biologists with the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission on the Green River Game Land in Henderson and Polk counties.
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This list contains 153 species of birds observed by NCWRC biologists and Elisha Mitchel Audubon Society members on the Sandy Mush Game Land in Buncombe and Madison counties.
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ABSTRACT- Vegetative structure is an essential component of ecological diversity. It is often a primary concern for wildlife when determining the suitability of a site for breeding. Structural heterogeneity across a landscape is an important component for insuring a diversity of both habitats and wildlife. Because of the difficulty to adequately assess vegetative structure needs, traditional forest management has focused on the development of specific forest types and age classes with the structure of vegetation often being a secondary concern. Commonly, wildlife management has centered on single species approaches for determining vegetative structural needs, with little consideration of multiple species requirements and interactions at the landscape level. To estimate the various structural class requirements needed by wildlife, we developed a model which categorized multiple bird species by structural classes and elevations used for breeding in Western North Carolina. Using a two method approach, considering both the complete overlap of territories and no overlap of territories, we provide an overview of the proportion of various structural classes ranging from early seral herbaceous areas to closed-canopy forests needed to maximize evenness and promote diversity among multiple bird species. Although the results describe a theoretical forest where bird species evenness is maximized, we believe they allow forest managers to examine trade-offs and implications for various management decisions.
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