Dry Longleaf Pine Communities
The 2015 North Carolina Wildlife Action Plan defines 41 priority habitats for the state. More information about this habitat can be found in Section 4.4.13.
Contents
Habitat Priorities
Surveys
- Conduct surveys to document the distribution, relative abundance, and status of priority wildlife species associated with dry Longleaf Pine habitats. (Surveys Priority)
Monitoring
- Develop monitoring for any North Carolina dry Longleaf Pine bird species that require specialized attention, since neither BBS nor standard point counts adequately sample for many species like Bachman's Sparrow, Nightjars, American Kestrel, Henslow's Sparrow, and Red-headed Woodpecker.
- Expand and/or target monitoring systems to be able to assess current population status and trend information for all wildlife species associated with dry Longleaf Pine habitats, in particular reptiles such as Northern Pinesnake, Southern Hognose Snake, and Coachwhip.
Research
- Develop long-term research studies to investigate various methods for restoring and maintaining Longleaf Pine ecosystems, including herbicides, fire, clearcutting, site preparation techniques, and management practices.
Management Practices
- Where possible, allow fire to burn through transition zones to maintain these sites instead of plowing fire lines through them.
- Suppress Fire Ant colonies—particularly where multi-queen colonies have developed—in all protected natural areas.
- Restore landscape integrity to protect insect populations associated with Longleaf Pine habitats.
- Evaluate sustainable forestry criteria established by European countries that use woody biomass for fuel to generate preliminary guidelines for biomass production in North Carolina (Buford and Neary 2010 in DeWan et al. 2010).
- Develop strategies for pine straw raking that minimizes impacts to understory habitat structure.
Conservation Programs and Partnerships
Description
Dry Longleaf Pine communities range from moist sites to excessively drained coarse sands which produce near-desert conditions for plants. Longleaf Pine communities are scattered throughout the Sandhills and Coastal Plain ecoregions and extend into the southern Piedmont ecoregion. They were once the most abundant communities in the Coastal Plain, occupying most of the land that was not swamp or pocosin, but now occur as scattered remnants. With frequent fire, Longleaf Pine strongly dominates the canopy, which may range from sparse to fairly dense but is seldom completely closed. A number of variants are recognized within the community types, determined by variation in moisture, soil, and location: Coastal Fringe Sandhill, Xeric Sandhill Scrub, and Pine/Scrub oak Sandhill types, Mesic Pine Flatwoods, and Piedmont Longleaf Pine Forest.
These communities have in common a regime of frequent natural fires which once crept across vast areas of the landscape. The ground cover is dominated by wiregrass and has a variety of other herbs and low shrubs. The structure and composition of these communities at present strongly depends on the extent to which these fires have continued or have been replaced by prescribed fire.
- In the three Sandhill community types a sparse midstory of scrub oaks is present, with the species varying with the types and variants. In the mesic pine flatwoods type, oaks are absent and the community has a distinctly two-layered structure of trees and grass. The herb layer is often very diverse. With removal of fire, scrub oaks in the Sandhills community types and shrubs and hardwood trees in the flatwoods community types become dense and out-compete the herbs.
- Piedmont Longleaf Pine forests are more poorly known. Most existing examples have a mixed canopy of longleaf, loblolly, and shortleaf pine, often mixed with Southern Red Oak and Post Oak. These communities probably once also had a grassy understory, but it is not known if wiregrass was once dominant.
The 2005 WAP identified dry Longleaf Pine as a priority habitat (see Chapter 5) (NCWRC 2005).
Location of Habitat
The best remaining examples of the dry Longleaf Pine habitat in the Coastal Plain are on the military bases of Fort Bragg, Camp Lejeune, Sunny Point, and Cherry Point, the Croatan National Forest, Holly Shelter Game Land, Goose Creek Game Land, and Sandhills Game Land. Most of the acreages on the above sites are in fair to good condition, due to regular prescribed burning. There are many other sites on both public and private lands where little to no burning has depleted the value of the habitat; these sites would thus be considered to be in poor condition. Piedmont Longleaf Pine forest examples are found mainly in Uwharrie National Forest.
Problems Affecting Habitats
Severe wildfire in droughts or burning with excessive fuel loads may cause ecological damage. For particular species, especially insects, too frequent or too extensive burning (whether by wildfire or prescribed burns) can have major effects when coupled with loss of landscape integrity resulting from habitat loss. Effects may include some positive (longer growing season) and some negative (pest insect survival). Some of the insects most highly tied to dry longleaf habitats may be eliminated by increases in wildfires.
The most extreme Xeric Sandhill Scrub and Sand Barrens are dry enough that vegetation density is limited. Increased drought may possibly cause plant mortality and reduce vegetation density further. It may also cause sand barrens to develop in slightly less dry soils. These systems and their component species are well adapted to warm temperatures. Increased temperatures might increase the range of these systems in the northern Coastal Plain and in Virginia. However, the widespread conversion of uplands in this region, the fragmented distribution and lack of seed source for them, and their dependence on fire make natural expansion very unlikely. Warmer temperatures may allow some species of Longleaf Pine systems farther south to move into North Carolina. The limited tendency of most plants in these systems to invade new areas suggests that any such process would naturally be slow and limited.
Warmer temperatures may allow the invasion of Cogon Grass and Nine-banded Armadillos. Once established, they are likely to expand more rapidly with a warming climate. Fire Ants are already a serious invader in these systems.
General forecasts suggest an increase in severe storms. Increased drought conditions and increased thunderstorm intensity are likely to produce more wildfire. Increased wind storm damage could affect canopy structure. Longleaf Pines are among the least susceptible trees to wind destruction, and it is unclear how significant increased wind will be to them. Some young planted coastal longleaf stands have shown significant damage from hurricanes and other strong winds. This usually occurs within a few years after the longleaf have emerged from the grass stage. Because of their slow reproductive rate and long life span, increased wind mortality would reduce average age and might reduce natural canopy density. This would be detrimental to Red-cockaded Woodpeckers and other species that depend on older Longleaf Pine trees. Increased plant productivity with a longer growing season may partially offset the effect of reduced tree age on structure.
Climate Change Compared to Other Threats
Comparing climate change to other ecosystem threats can help define shortand long-term conservation actions and recommendations. The greatest threats to this system do not come from climate change. With their adaptation to dry conditions, fire, wind, and their range well to the south, these may be the most resilient systems to warming climate. Currently, the greatest threat comes from development pressure. Historically, conversion and exploitation destroyed most of this once extensive system, and these forces continue to consume the remnants.
Impacts to Wildlife
Habitat loss and lack of fire affects bird species that rely on a grass-dominant understory and open pine ecosystems (Red-cockaded Woodpecker, Bachman's Sparrow, Brown-headed Nuthatch, Henslow's Sparrow, and Northern Bobwhite). Old growth characteristics (canopy gaps, red-heart fungus, cavities, snags, hollow trees) are lacking throughout, except where Red-cockaded Woodpeckers are managed, impacting both primary (e.g., woodpeckers) and secondary (e.g., rodents, bats, and other birds) cavity users. High-grading of stands, lack of gap management, and overstocked stands are leading to a lack of structural diversity for many species. Roads cause particularly high mortality to reptiles and amphibians.
Microhabitat features such as large woody debris have been lost, impacting reptiles and small mammals (Loeb 1999). Localized and non-lethal infestations can be beneficial for wildlife by creating snags, a food source, and habitat diversity. Extensive lethal outbreaks of native and exotic pests can dramatically shift the composition of the tree community, with implications for conifer-specialists like the Brown-headed Nuthatch.
Wildfires in drought are more likely to be too intense or too extensive, and may harm some species. In small, isolated sites, an increase in wildfires may have catastrophic impacts on insects and other animals that depend on a metapopulation strategy for coping with environmental disturbances. For such species, lack of landscape connectivity can prevent restoration of populations through recolonization from unburned refuges. As a result, there may be a significant increase in local extirpations that may eventually lead to region-wide extirpations or even extinction of certain species. To protect sensitive insect populations, prescribed burns should include setting aside unburned refugias in every burn and preferably following a three year burn rotation among three different burn units.
Mild winters, with decreased cold damage, are likely to allow species from the south to move into North Carolina. In recent years, several Longleaf Pine-associated insects once thought to be restricted to Florida or the Gulf Coast have been found to be established in North Carolina. Although we lack the historic data to know for sure that these represent recent colonizations, this trend will undoubtedly accelerate with decreasingly cold winters. Fire Ant impacts are also a growing threat.