Natural Resource Management TipsApproaches and tips landowners can use to help effectively management their land. |
Natural Resource Management TipsApproaches and tips landowners can use to help effectively management their land. |
Forest Buffers in Pennsylvania
Not more than a year ago, a cornfield grew for decades right to the edge of the stream. The potential effects were clear as stream banks were mostly barren, with steep sides and undercut banks. Through a partnership with the Pennsylvania USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service, the landowner was able to acquire funding and technical assistance with Northeast Land Management, LLC through the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Initiative.
Benefits of Forest Buffers in Pennsylvania
Forest buffers can significantly improve stream health by reducing erosion, controlling sediment and nutrient runoff and stabilizing water temperatures. Not only does the forest buffer protect streams but it increases wildlife habitat. Wildlife use stream buffers as feeding areas, nesting locations and travel corridors.
Success with Forest Buffers
Successful forest buffers do not just happen. Planning the right species mix to plant, proper protection from deer browse and on-going maintenance all are part of establishing an effective forest buffer. Planting native trees and shrubs are only the first step in creating a buffer. Maintenance of the buffer for the first 5 years is the most critical and perhaps the main reason why stream protection projects fail. Far to often you drive through central Pennsylvania and see tree tubes on the ground within a weed infested strip of uncultivated land next to a stream. With proper planning and the right technical assistance, protecting streams can be a beautiful and sustainable addition to your agricultural operation and your overall property's wildlife habitat management in Pennsylvania.
Today our stream restoration project in Franklin County, Pennsylvania is showing success. Native trees and shrubs are peaking out from their tree tubes, already filtering nutrient runoff and capturing excess sediment. Soon these trees will be dropping fruit and mast for wildlife and given larger species a protective corridor to travel. Have a stream on your property or looking for a sustainable solution to increase wildlife habitat? Take the first steps to evaluate your property and plan for its future.
It All Starts With the Plan6/12/2014 Many landowners have objectives for their property. Some want to improve hunting opportunities by increasing wildlife habitat while others wish to manage their timberland for economic reasons. Few landowners, however, have a clear path developed to accomplish these objectives. Resource management planning, either for wildlife or forest resources, is a process that helps you identify the resources and opportunities available on your property. What do you want from your forest land? How do you see your property in the future? What is most important to you? These are a few of the questions where the planning tool can be used to identify what can be done to enhance and protect the values and aspects of your property that are most important to you. Whether it be wildlife, recreation, timber management or estate planning the first step in managing a property should be developing a plan. The first step in the planning process is determining and defining your objectives. Start with broad goals like long-term sustainability and then define more specific objectives such as increased deer habitat, more hunting opportunities or improved timber quality. Next, your property resources need to be accessed through comprehensive resource inventories and evaluations of habitat types and vegetation composition. Resource evaluations provide information on the quality, quantity and types of habitat components on your property. These evaluations include property and habitat mapping, species composition and management unit delineation. Complete assessments are desired as your objectives may change over time making the additional information necessary for future management of your property. The final stage in planning is identifying a list of recommended practices describing what to do and when to do it in order to meet your objectives. Recommendations are relayed as a schedule that lays out the practice, where it is to be implemented, the amount and details on how to install the practice.
The management plan should be a detailed written, living and breathing document. Changes over time are expected as objectives change and as the property grows. The key to successful management is to clearly define your objectives, determine your available resources and develop a clear outline of practices that will in time improve your property. |
​Pennsylvania forestry consultants, wildlife managers and agricultural conservationists managing and improving properties across the Keystone State and the Northeast since 2009. |
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