Becky Gillette – Local residents who like to hike, ride mountain bikes, camp or go bird watching in the McIlroy Madison County Wildlife Management Area have concerns about a large number of mature trees marked for harvesting in the southern part of the 14,435-acre WMA, about 13 miles south of Eureka Springs off Hwy. 23. They would like to see more of the older trees conserved, and fear that heavy log trucks on the narrow, one-lane road will do a lot of damage.
Mark Hutchings, Northwest Region wildlife supervisor for Arkansas Game & Fish, said that harvesting the trees would benefit the environment by opening up the tree canopy to get more sunlight to increase herbaceous vegetation for wildlife. More sunlight can increase the diversity of plants on the ground.
“The process we are going through in the long term will promote wildflowers,” Hutchings said. “The whole idea of opening the canopy is to get more light in. When it is heavily shaded, there is real limited response from plants. The more sunlight you can get in there, the better it is for native forbs, a term that refers to broad-leafed plants that flower which benefits pollinators and produce seeds that can be used by a variety of songbirds. It will also provide browse for the deer and turkey, and allow more berry-producing plants used by black bears. A wide variety of plant growth will be promoted.”
The intention is for the selective timber cutting to mimic what would have been in the area before it was disturbed by human activities. Hutchings said traditionally much of that area would have been pine and oak woodlands, which usually results in a more open canopy type situation. A closed canopy shades plants below and trees remaining don’t grow as big because they are too crowded.
Most of the trees marked for harvested are mature pine trees, some of the largest trees in that area of the WMA. In some cases, there are several large trees clustered together marked with blue paint for harvesting.
Regarding concerns about heavy log trucks on the narrow road that provides the only access, Hutchings said any damage would be repaired.
“I can assure you anytime we do any type of contract work with loggers to do a thinning, it is a part of the contract that any damage incurred in getting logs out is repaired,” Hutchings said. “Weather can play a part of it. It can depend upon how wet it is.”
Hutchings also said that there will be some large trees left, and some buffers along the road where there won’t be as many trees cut as in the interior. Some of the trees harvested may be damaged and not expected to live much longer.
“That area has quite a lot of natural disaster issues from ice storms and wind damage,” Hutchings said. “There used to be some really nice timber on that area, but a lot of it has taken some hits. It is just part of nature. That kind of thing happens. We have had ice storms, insect damage, high winds, and hurricane-associated events. What we are looking at in some areas is removing some of those damaged trees. When you have physical damage, insects the have opportunity to get into trees, and fungus develops. Removing some of the storm damage and other harvesting will help with the long-term health of the stand.”
Pests such as pine borers and oak leaf caterpillars can also take a toll. Ash borers have shown up in the state causing a lot of concern. Hutchings said insect pests are monitored closely.
“We see damage from time-to-time, but not anything that will be an overwhelming economic loss as far as the timber products,” he said. “The forestry folks keep traps out to monitor insect populations. We have talked about this a lot. We are a very mobile society. We move things around. We have put in place regulations on the WMA asking people not to bring in their own firework as that is how ash borers have gotten moved around the country.”
WMAs have food plots, open areas where vegetation is planted for deer and turkey. Those disturbed areas can sometimes be ripe for being overtaken by unwanted non-native vegetation such as Sericea lespedeza, an introduced perennial legume that can grow three to six feet tall and take over native vegetation.
“Lespedeza is really prevalent all across Arkansas and Missouri,” Hutchings said. “When it was introduced, they thought it would be good as a wildlife cover. We do monitor those plant communities and use some herbicide application to prevent them from taking over where we don’t want them. We use a variety of management activities like prescribed fire, and mowing before they make seed. We do the best we can to stay on top of that. It is a very aggressive plant whose seed is viable in the soil a long time and it can begin to dominate the plant community in some vicinities. In glade communities where we are trying to manage for more lower species, it can invade and create a management dilemma. In glades, prescribed fire is the fire number one management technique used.”
Other problem invasive plants Hutchings identified include spotted knapweed, Japanese honeysuckle and privet. “Bradford pears are becoming quite invasive, as well,” he said.