Restoration

Wild South recognizes that ecological restoration is a new paradigm for the protection and management of southern landscapes. Ecological restoration is the process of assisting the recovery of an ecosystem that has been degraded, damaged, or destroyed. The goal of ecological restoration is to enhance ecological integrity by restoring natural processes and the resiliency of ecosystems.

Wild South believes that we will continue to reap the benefits of ecological services provided by forest ecosystems through protection and restoration. Ecological services include clean air, clean water, and healthy biodiversity. All of life and our human economies ultimately depend on healthy ecological functions and the services they provide.

Wild South takes a long view of ecological restoration that permits nature to heal itself over time without human intervention. In some circumstances, however, we think that active restoration is appropriate for reversing severe damage to ecosystems on southeastern public lands. Wild South will support active restoration projects on public lands that: 1) aim to restore natural processes as a primary objective; 2) use methods that are supported by sound science to achieve the stated objectives; 3) comply with all applicable environmental laws, regulations, and directives. Using these principles, we will develop guidelines to inform our decisions on individual projects.

Strategy & Guidelines
SER International Guidelines (pdf)
WS Restoration Strategy (pdf)

Wild South will use protection and restoration of native ecosystems as the primary tools for maintaining healthy ecosystems in our region. We believe that these tools will allow land managers to foster a culture of preservation that promotes a sustainable human relationship with the environment. This relationship will build the foundation of strong communities that are socially, economically, and ecologically healthy.

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Hardwood Restoration Workshop in Bankhead National Forest, Sept. 24, 2011

You are invited to the Bankhead Liaison Panel's Hardwood Restoration Workshop and Field Tour

Saturday, September 24, 2011

9:00 a.m.

Black Warrior Work Center (Central Lookout fire tower) Highway 33, Bankhead National Forest (AL)

RSVP Bankhead District Ranger office at 205-489-5111

We are entering the eighth year of the implementation of the restoration initiative in the Bankhead National Forest. The forest is beginning to exhibit changes resulting from silvicultural treatments associated with restoration objectives. The decision to alter the direction of management in the Bankhead to focus on ecological restoration was a collaborative one, involving input from numerous and diverse stakeholders from the local community. Some of these stakeholders have raised questions about what they are seeing in the forest, demonstrating the need to communicate with the local community regarding the restoration process, particularly as it relates to hardwood restoration.

The purpose of this workshop is to help people understand the changes in the Bankhead and to interpret these changes within the long-term restoration perspective. It is also an opportunity for forest managers to refresh their knowledge in regard to hardwood restoration goals and objectives both in the long and short term and to assess the effectiveness of strategies employed to this point.

We hope our panel of experts can provide us with fresh perspectives to help us evaluate restoration progress and understand the ecology of upland hardwood forest communities. Restoring Loblolly pine stands to native hardwood forest communities is still new, and there is a lot to learn.

These distinguished experts will be joining us to shed light on the Bankhead restoration efforts, past, present and future:

· Dr. Luben Dimov, Assistant Professor of Silviculture and Forest Management, Forestry, Ecology and Wildlife Program, Alabama A & M University

· Dr. Callie Schweitzer, Research Forester, USFS Southern Research Station

· Dr. Ed Loewenstein, Associate Professor of Silviculture, School of Forestry and Wildlife Sciences, Auburn University

. Ben Prater, Associate Executive Director, Wild South (former Conservation Director)

Details:

The workshop will begin promptly at 9:00 a.m. at the Black Warrior Work Center. After a welcome and a brief presentation by each of our independent experts, we will conduct a field tour, visiting 4 or 5 sites in the Bankhead where the desired future conditions are hardwood forest and hardwood woodland. There will be a short lunch break during the field tour, so bring your lunch, snacks and drinking water. Wear clothing appropriate for the forest environment and don't forget tick repellent. Following the field tour we will re-convene at the Work Center for Q and A and discussion, which will conclude by 5:00 p.m. If you plan on joining us for this informative and educational experience in the Bankhead, please RSVP the Bankhead National Forest District Office at (205) 489-5111. Please plan to arrive a little early to sign in, pick up your printed materials and meet your fellow Bankhead enthusiasts.

Lesson Learned: Restoration Requires Vigilance

On a warm spring day in 2010, Wild South's Mark Kolinski was returning from a canyon survey in the Thompson Creek watershed, Bankhead National Forest, when he happened upon a stretch of forest that had been destroyed by logging just north of the Sipsey Wilderness. It was supposed to be a thinning in 15-45 year old Loblolly pine stands to restore them to a native hardwood forest. The problem, though, was that there was hardly a pine in sight and lots of hardwood stumps.

Wild South has supported in principle ecological restoration designated in the Bankhead Forest Health and Restoration Plan and the 2004 Revised Land and Resource Management Plan (RLRMP) -- plans we helped craft. It was obvious that restoration goals and objectives were not being followed in this case and that the logging was not restoring the forest back to hardwoods. In fact, this forest was already dominantly upland hardwoods. Something was terribly wrong, and we pushed to suspend the sale pending an investigation.

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