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Discussion and Conclusions

Southern forests are productive, dynamic, and diverse, supporting a vast array of wildlife communities. They support resident wildlife communities, and play a vital role in the conservation of migratory bird populations.

Increased demand on southern forest resources has created complex situations for natural resource managers. Managers balance timber resource needs with habitat requirements for wildlife communities. These challenges must be faced at both the stand and the landscape level. Demand for forest products is increasing, placing greater demands on southern forests for wood production.

Ownership patterns complicate southern forest management. The majority of land in the South is held by a plethora of private owners with a wide variety of management objectives. To be effective, conservation efforts for many wildlife species must cover entire landscapes. Large-scale projects such as Partners in Flight and conservation efforts with Louisiana black bears require cooperation among forest industry, Federal and State government agencies, and nonindustrial private landowners.

At the stand level, practices for improving specific aspects of wildlife habitat in intensively managed forests can be highly beneficial. Retaining mature trees and snags in intensively managed stands provides structural complexity that many wildlife species require. Maintaining SMZs provides travel corridors for wildlife, increases structural and compositional complexity, and prevents detrimental impacts to streams.

Early successional habitat is critical for many wildlife species. Forest management practices geared toward establishing new stands provide abundant early successional habitat, but the wildlife benefits of these stands decreases after canopy closure.

Southern forests are created and maintained by natural and human-induced disturbances. These disturbances shape the structure and composition of forests and the wildlife communities that depend on them. Land use patterns are constantly changing. The changes are beneficial to some wildlife communities and detrimental to others.