Dry Sandy Plains

Description

The reference condition consists of a range of open grassy (sedgy) to open jack pine (Pinus banksiana) and red pine (Pinus resinosa) woodlands.

Characteristics and indicators

All taxa are naturally regenerating and adapted to reoccuring fire. Presence of invasive species or trees planted in rows are all signs of alternative states.

Resilience management

Larger patches are still subject to occasional wildfire despite attempts at fire suppression. Low fertility of the site results in slow plant growth and thereby slow rates of mesophication during longer fire intervals and slow spread of invasive species except where soil is disturbed.

Submodel

Description

Hayfields and Christmas tree farms have been observed on similar sites in adjacent LRUs and are likely to occur to some degree here on private land. Cultivation of annual crops is limited due to short growing season and low soil nutrients.

Characteristics and indicators

Composition is completely regulated by land manager. Natural reproduction is inhibited.

Resilience management

May require constant fertilization to maintain productivity, but excess nutrient may also change soil chemistry that affects the species composition if ever abandoned.

Submodel

Description

The seminatural state consists of novel or reference analogs which happen to have an excess of invasive species beyond a threshold that native species can reproduce.

Characteristics and indicators

Invasive species in excess of an easily controlled abundance indicates this state.

Resilience management

Some invasive plants release allelopathic chemicals which may inhibit the growth of native species. A long seed bank for some species may make eradication challenging.

Submodel

Description

The intensively managed state consists of clear cut logging activities and plantations of native tree species. It retains many of the functions of the reference state, but some community phases may be missing species or horizonal and vertical structure may differ in ways that have consequences to wildlife and at minimum "looks" artificial. Sometimes may be lacking in snags, due to harvest removing senescing older trees, but management interventions may mitigate this through girdling or other means.

Characteristics and indicators

Soil disturbance and trees planted in rows is an indicator of this state.

Resilience management

Periodic harvest removing nutrients on the site may reduce the productivity over time, but the species in this ecosystem are already tolerant to low nutrients. It is conceivable that repeated soil disturbance over a large area, without fire, may systematically change species composition over time (i.e. changes in meta-populations of species that have reproductive strategies favored by soil disturbance rather than fire).

Submodel