Agenda - 09-29-1999 - 9e - Laserfiche WebLink

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NATIVE WILDLIFE AND HUMAN ACTIVITIES he previous report described characteris- tic species of native wildlife: Box Turtles, Spotted Salamanders, Scarlet Tanagers, Wild Turkeys, Red- shouldered Hawks, Bobcat, and others. These species and many others depend on forest and thus raise concerns about their future when forests are steadily converted to other uses. Only a few species of native wildlife have adjusted to environments created by human activities: Gray Squirrels, Raccoons, White - tailed Deer, and Carolina Chickadees, for instance. Several other species that did not orig- inally inhabit this area have moved in during the last century or so: House Sparrows, Starlings,. House Wrens, Brown - headed Cowbirds, ', most recently, douse Finches. n 1s their names uggest, these opportunists do well near humans. In contrast, most of our native wildlife disap- ,ears when the riginal forests disappear. Un- less we take action to protect species will ; reise. FOREST MATURITY IS IMPORTANT FOR NATIVE WILDLIFE Of the characteristics of forests important for native wildlife, maturity is among the most important. Mature forest is the primary habitat for most of the native wildlife in Orange County. It is the habitat that covered most of Orange County until two hundred years ago. Native wildlife and mature forests are inseparable: these species will disappear if these forests disappear and will prosper if these forests flourish. The first phase of this project produced a complete map of the forests of Orange County, now available in the County Planning Office and the new Department of Environment and Resource Conservation. All tracts of forest at least 40 acres in size were classified from aerial photographs by the composition of the canopy (more than 50% pine, 50 -90% hardwoods, more than 90% hardwoods) and by the degree of human disturbance by small roads and other openings (none, slight, moderate, heavy). The resulting maps of forests can be combined with other maps, such as those showing recent building permits or the natural areas described in the Inventory of Natural Areas in On nge Gounty (1988). The proportion of hardwoods in the canopy of a forest indicates the maturity of the forest. Abandoned fields develop through a predictable series of changes in vegetation, called succession. In abandoned fields of upland areas in Orange County, the first trees to grow are pines. In this stage, most of the trees are one species, the loblolly pine. Within twenty years or so, if the forest is left undisturbed, hardwoods like maples, sweetgum, oaks, and hickories, have begun to