NPS Resilient Forest Initiative Restores Forest Ecosystems in Appalachian National Parks

In Appalachia, forests are crucial to the health of ecosystems and local communities in and around national parks. However, forest health monitoring in eastern national parks has shown that park forests are rapidly changing, and don’t have enough tree regeneration to replace canopy trees as they fall or die. Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funds are being used to support the Resilient Forest Initiative in the restoration efforts within these parks.

Actions to ensure healthy future forests

Forests provide ecosystem services such as clean water, clean air, soil stabilization, recreational and scenic opportunities, and habitat for countless species. “In a healthy forest, when a big tree falls or dies, seedlings and saplings in the forest understory grow to fill the gap in the canopy. This regeneration is how forests continue to be forests,” said Kate Miller, NPS Quantitative Ecologist and lead author of the recent study that revealed many NPS forests are one major disturbance away from forest loss. “We found most eastern National Park forests lack sufficient seedlings and saplings, so the forest can’t maintain itself. This is very concerning.”

The bi-regional Resilient Forest Initiative is a collaboration between eastern National Parks, Inventory and Monitoring scientists, regional biologists, and Invasive Plant Management Teams. This initiative focuses on implementing integrated forest management to combat deteriorating forest regeneration capacity and enhance park forest resiliency. Overabundant white-tailed deer and invasive plants are the leading causes of park forest regeneration failure and the first threats to address.

Addressing over-abundant deer

Eleven eastern National Parks are currently reducing deer populations, and nearly as many parks are beginning the planning process for future reduction efforts. “With abundant habitat, the absence of predators likes wolves and mountain lions, and land development that has reduced hunting opportunities, deer populations easily grow out of control,” said Stephanie Perles, NPS Plant Ecologist. Too many deer can empty park forests of most native plants besides mature trees; however, parks with long-term and consistent deer management have seen dramatic increases in tree seedlings, which is a first step in forest recovery.

Funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law will enable Flight 93 National Memorial, Friendship Hill National Historic Site, and Fort Necessity National Battlefield in Pennsylvania to plan and begin implementing deer management. “With BIL funding, these parks will start to bring deer densities to an ecologically sustainable level where forests can regenerate,” Perles said.

Bipartisian Infrastructure Law funds will allow the Natural Resource Manager at Fort Necessity National Battlefield to implement the park’s strategic invasive plant management plan, removing non-native plants that threaten the health and resilience of park forests.

NPS Photo

Tackling invasive plants

Invasive plants that quickly fill in canopy gaps, outcompeting native tree seedlings and other native plants, are a growing threat to parks forests. “We don’t have enough resources to manage invasive plants everywhere,” Perles said. “So, we focus on high-priority areas of the parks where invasive plant management can be successful.” The NPS uses a tool to prioritize how parks can efficiently and strategically address invasive plant management. By focusing on the most ecologically and culturally important areas in parks and prescribing treatments that are attainable, the process helps parks achieve wins that protect these special places.

“Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding will enable five western Pennsylvania parks to put into action five-year strategic invasive plant management plans that had been developed using the prioritization tool,” Perles said. With Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funds, the parks will deploy youth crews, supervised by local certified foresters, to remove invasive plants in high priority areas. “The goal of this project is to reduce invasive plants to a maintenance level – just a few invasive plants that park staff have the capacity to keep from spreading,” she said. This project also serves as important workforce development for over 25 youth who will be trained in invasive plant management techniques.

Protecting biodiverse oak forests

Oak forests cover tens of thousands of hectares across ridge tops in Appalachia, supporting regionally important biodiversity, including more than 100 animal species that rely on acorns as crucial food sources. In addition, oaks are home to more than 500 species of butterflies and moths which in turn provide food needed for nesting songbirds to feed their young. Over time, however, maple trees have been replacing oaks, due to decades of fire suppression, increasing regional precipitation, losses in keystone animal and plant species, and less flammable leaf litter on the forest floor. As a result, there aren’t enough oak saplings and seedlings to replace the mature oak trees as they die.

NPS fire ecologists track the growth of oak seedlings after a prescribed fire conducted to promote oak forest regeneration in New River Gorge National Park and Preserve.

NPS Photo

In West Virginia’s New River Gorge National Park and Preserve, Gauley River National Recreation Area, and Bluestone National Scenic River, young maple trees create dense shade in oak forests, preventing oak seedlings from thriving. “Oak seedlings can’t mature into saplings under dense shade,” Perles said. A Bipartisan Infrastructure Law project in these parks aims to thin subcanopy maples to promote oak forest regeneration. Thinning small-diameter maples will provide needed light to oak seedlings, as well as create snags and coarse woody debris for wildlife habitat.

Snags, which are standing dead trees, provide habitat for a wide variety of bats, woodpeckers, squirrels, and many more species. Coarse woody debris are large pieces of dead wood on the forest floor that support diverse communities of decomposers such as fungi, insects, arthropods, and microorganisms. “Snags and coarse woody debris help to enhance the forest structure by providing wildlife habitat and aid in the regeneration process,” Perles noted.

Integrated forest management, including deer management and strategic invasive plant removal, is critical to address and promote abundant and diverse forest regeneration. “Imminent forest loss sounds drastic and permanent, but it’s not,” Perles said. “We created the Resilient Forest Initiative to facilitate active forest restoration that will ensure park forests can be sustained.”

Bipartisan Infrastructure Law

This project was made possible by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law – Ecosystem Restoration, signed on November 15, 2021. It is a historic investment in the restoration and protection of the environment. Learn more here.