US Army Corps
of Engineers
Construction Engineering
Research Laboratories USACERL Technical Report 98/21

December 1997

Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited.Management of Longleaf Pine Woodlands for Threatened and Endangered Species

by
Mary Harper, Ann-Marie Trame, Richard A. Fischer, and Chester O. Martin

Longleaf pine woodlands on military installations support multiple uses, including the Department of Defense (DoD) training and testing mission; threatened, endangered, and sensitive species (TES) conservation; and forest commodities (e.g., timber, pine straw) production. This report docu ments strategies to manage TES and their habitats on a plant community basis, using methods that apply to multiple species, and using methods that apply across the southeastern region of the United States.

This report combines the pine flatwoods and sandhills communities because they have several features that link them. Ecological descriptions are provided for each community, along with availableinformation about community occurrences on DoD installations throughout the southeast region. Known occurrences of plant and animal TES associated with longleaf pine woodlands on DoD lands are also reported. Known and potential impacts to the integrity of longleaf pine woodlands as TES habitat, and to associated species are reported. Impacts may be related to habitat fragmentation, or changes in community composition, structure and function due to altered fire regime, hydrologic patterns, soil stability and structure, groundcover integrity, or the invasion of exotic or pest species. Management recommendations are made within an ecosystem-based, adaptive management context.

SF 298