Plant Community Monitoring in Manley Woods at Wilson's Creek National Battlefield

Plant community monitoring in Manley Woods at Wilson's Creek National Battlefield.

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Manley Woods

Natural resource management at Wilson's Creek National Battlefield is focused on restoring the woodlands and prairies to the way they were at the time of the Civil War battle in 1861. The Manley Woods unit of the park is an oak-hickory woodland. Missouri oak woodlands are highly variable and can be savanna (an open area with sparse trees), open woodland, or closed woodland. In 1861, Manley Woods was likely a savanna community. Changes in land use over the years, including the exclusion of fire, have caused the savannas and open woodlands to transition to closed canopy woodlands. A goal of the park is to return these thick woodlands to savanna and open woodland ecosystems. Fire was reintroduced to the park in 1988 to reduce the tree canopy. Intense disturbances in recent years have also affected plant communities at the park.

What Do We Monitor?

The Heartland Inventory and Monitoring Network has monitored four permanent monitoring sites in Manley Woods since 1997. We collect information on climate, fire history and severity, fire fuel loads, what plants and materials are covering the ground, tree density by species, how closed the tree canopy is, and how many tree seedlings and saplings there are. These measurements allow us to assess the current condition of Manley Woods and to track the plant community over time.

Wilson's Creek National Battlefield on the right and a magnification of Manley Woods unit with the plant monitoring sites on the left. The four monitoring sites are labeled 4, 5, 6, and 7 because they are part of a larger vegetation monitoring program at the park.

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The tree canopy has become more closed in Manley Woods. Less light filters through the trees to the ground in a closed canopy woodland or forest.

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Manley Woods 1998–2020

Wilson's Creek National Battlefield had mostly normal to above normal rainfall during the monitoring period. Predicted changes in climate have the potential to have large effects on Manley Woods. Promoting oak and hickory species in the woodlands could increase ecosystem resilience because these species may be less vulnerable to expected changes in climate.

Manley Woods has undergone substantial changes in canopy cover and the density of midstory trees since 1998. While some measurements point to this area as open woodland, the closed canopy of both the midstory and overstory trees show that it is moving towards a closed woodland or forest structure. Prescribed fire was resumed recently after a long break, but regular prescribed fires at about 3-year intervals and mechanical and chemical treatments to reduce undesirable tree species will be needed to restore Manley Woods to a functioning savanna or open woodland plant community.

Monitoring site 6 in Manley Woods after a 2019 prescribed burn.

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Tornado, Ice Storm, and Fires!

The Manley Woods unit at Wilson's Creek National Battlefield has been subjected to intense disturbances in the last two decades. In 2003, a tornado hit this area and created concern about wildfire risk due to an increase in dead trees and other fuels. To reduce fuel loads, the park initiated a harvest of salvageable timber in 2005 and completed a prescribed burn in 2006. In 2007, an ice storm further stressed the natural communities in Manley Woods. After a second prescribed fire in 2009 to further reduce fuels, the park decided to rest the area to allow regeneration of oaks and hickories so they could grow to a more fire-resistant stage. The park used a prescribed burn again in 2019 to open the canopy in Manley Woods, but it was patchy and relatively mild. We monitor the trees, fuel loads, and ground cover in Manley Woods to help the park make decisions about management actions that will promote an open canopy oak-hickory woodland plant community.

For More Information

View the Full Report. Visit the Heartland Inventory & Monitoring Network website.