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Open Habitats: A Complex and Emerging Field of Study

 While many of us may be familiar with the deciduous hardwood and pine forests of the Eastern United States, our awareness of historic prairies, savannahs, and woodlands are often lacking. This is understandable- while the Great Plains of the West are well-known, open habitats in the East are less so, with some having largely disappeared in the 19th century.  Ecologists are only beginning to understand the location and extent of places like the Pennyroyal Plain of Kentucky and Tennessee, the Black Belt of Mississippi and Alabama, or smaller habitats that were created in forest communities by large fauna like beaver, elk, and bison, as well as other drivers like fire, soil conditions, and hydrology.

 As these open habitats were often converted to agriculture, there are some parts of the country where few  examples of these communities remain as examples.  As a result, restoration of these habitats is complicated, with many questions remaining as to their historic composition,  as well as where these habitats most likely occurred and how to best approach restoring them.  Some of these restoration attempts have been very productive and helped bring back rare and conservative species.  Important work at places like Austin Peay State University is helping bring awareness of open habitat.  However, other attempts have been less successful due to improper site selection or a still-incomplete understanding of the historic community itself. 

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There are some places where a mosaic of savannah and open-canopy woodlands have a historic association.  However, restoring such habitats require careful site selection, resources, knowledge, and a long term commitment.  When these factors aren't in play, the results can be disappointing, as we sometimes see in public lands in the region.

 Then there is  the current plan by the agency to clear 2000 acres of the Bridgestone Firestone Wilderness for the promotion of a quail habitat savannah.   The rugged tops of the Cumberland Plateau are quite different from the lowlands of the Ridge and Valley.  While ecologists may differ somewhat on the exact composition of the many forest types of the plateau historically, it is well understood that it was (and remains) a forested landscape, with intermittent openings that occur in the complex structure of Eastern forests- and thus not the best candidate for the site of a "quail habitat savannah".

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Picture
Large scale clearcutting on a mountaintop at Bridgestone Firestone Wilderness:  a controversial site for " savannah restoration"
Some open habitats restoration projects are finding success in Tennessee. For example, Kyker Bottoms is one of the areas that the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA) is focusing on for promoting quail management where ecological justifications are compelling.  Located near Maryville, Kyker is a 648 acre refuge that mixes wetland, managed prairie and oak woodland/savannah and lies in the Ridge and Valley physiographic province, a greatly altered landscape that historically had a range of forested communities mixed with open habitats mixed.   ​
Video of Kyker Bottoms panning from the upper slope of an open post oak barren to the lower slope being maintained as a savannah by TWRA.  Kyker Bottoms is in the Ridge and Valley province, which historically had some communities like this.  The agency is managing for a number of game species, including quail.
Indeed, places like Kyker are not only found in areas where there is a more generally acknowledged history of open habitats, but there is also the contributing factor of Kyker being surrounded by small farms that contribute to the resource base.

While it is best to think of managing public lands in terms of an "all species" approach for general biodiversity, clear differences between a place like Kyker Bottoms and Bridgestone are evident in terms of quail management.  Kyker is a mosaic of grasses and open woodland, promoting the "edge effect" that quail are known to prefer, rather than huge clearcuts that have already happened at Bridgestone and are planned for expansion.  There is also the benefit of the the surrounding area compounding the edge effect mosaic in nearby small farms- it is highly likely that the patchwork of farmlands, woodlots, and property borders contributed to the ample quail populations that were present in much of the 20th century.  Bridgestone, on the other hand, is  a relatively large public forest on a mountaintop bounded on much of its perimeter by the deep hollows of Virgin Falls and the Caney Creek Gorge- places that  most would agree have remained constant forest for millennia.  The contrast, in terms of ecological history, topography, and land ownership is significant.
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