FW 404: Managing Urban Landscapes, 11/11-11/13

Managing Urban Landscapes

• Urban development of NC 1940-2030

• Piemont crescent

Generalists and Specialists

• Changes with urbanization

  • generalists favored, specialists lose habitat

  • loss of vegetation structure, simpler in structure

  • increase in impervious structure (human created, water not able to perculate)

• Great-crested flycatcher less likely to nest in suburbs because they are cavity nesters

• Indigo buntings associated with early successional communities, not urban

Habitat for Specialists

• Wetlands and riparian communitise

• Large (>100 acres) patches of habitat

• Connected landscapes

• Dead wood

• Early-succession vegetation

• Managed forests/woodlands

• Meadows/prairies provide habitat for specialized wildlife

Urban Streams

• No habitat in urban streams like the above image

• Very little opportunities for animals

• Second image, stream loses riparian buffer

Stream Buffers

• Sediment and nutrients filtered from uplands

• Vegetation shades water

• Vegetation provides food and cover

• Roots will hold the streambank together!

Small Wetlands

• Altered hydrology

  • permanent water bodies in urban landscapes

  • Increase in fish predators

• Isolated from other wetlands

  • no immigration

  • lower richness

• polluted by upland inputs or acid deposition

• loss of surrounding uplands—use buffers

Choosing Green Space

• Not mowed ball fields!

• Remember larger is better

• More connected is better

• Areas with rare species

• Unique elements

• Ephemeral pools and wetlands

Habitat Fragmentation

• create wildlife corridors to connect fragmented habitat

  • how to do in urban landscapes?

    • urban planning, forethought

    • plan NOW for the next generation

• greenways often put along stream since you can’t build anything else around it

  • plus sewage easements

Greenways

• connective corridors

• riparian buffers

• provides habitat

• recreation

Wide, mowed areas deter birds

• Develop-sensitive birds enjoy lots of herbaceous growth and canopy cover

• Humans in open areas, fragmented greenspace

Wider forest corridor equals more development-sensitive birds

But even wide corridors don’t protect salamander habitat

• Watershed-scale changes override local buffer effects

Roads as Barriers

• 17000 Deer vehicle collisions/year in NC

• >1 million vertebrates killed a day in U.S.

Crossing Structures

Urban Structure Kill

• Windows

  • non reflective material

  • Away from vegetation

• Communication towers

  • construct <200 ft tall

  • flashing white lights

  • few guy wires

Competing Approaches in Design

• low density development

  • dispersed habitat

  • sprawl

  • habitat fragmentation

• high density city centered development

  • limited habitat

  • concentrated development

  • less pressure for exurban development

Conservation Developments

• conventional low density

  • 

• cluster development

  • 

Early-Succession Vegetation

• Limited in the urban matrix

• Backyard hedgerows low quality

• Late-seral species use these areas, too

• Management on public lands at interface

  • timber harvest and prescribed fire

  • signs and demonstrations

• Wildland Urban Interface 2000 (WUI)

Home Landscapes Principles

• no trees

• lawns :(

Promote Vertical Structure

Increase Structural Complexity

• looks messy in yards but good

Avoid Specimen Plantings

• any animal that wants resources has to move a lot

• not much wildlife

• no continuity in structure

Make it Messy

• Rubus sp., pokeweed, poison-ivy

  • great wildlife value

Rethink the Lawn

• 1/3 of water use

• Nutrient source roosted in fossil fuels

• non native grasses

• 50 million acres in US, half as home lawns

• low plant diversity by design

• poor vegetation structure by design

Avoid Invasive Plants

• spread into natural areas

Implications for Wildlife

• lowered native plant diversity

• fewer food choices

• altered plant structure

  • lower bird nest survival

  • fewer native wildlife

Promote Native Plant Diversity

Food Across Seasons-Fruit

• mulberry in spring

• viburnum in fall

• holly in winter

Food Across Seasons-Nectar

• redbud in spring

• maypop in summer

• goldenrod in fall

Diversity of Flower Types

• hairstreak

• spotted skipper

• tiger swallowtail

Dead Wood is Good

• leave dead wood for habitat for birds

• nest sites for great crested flycatcher

• red-headed woodpecker

• eastern bluebird secondary cavity nesters

• gray squirrel

• southern flying squirrel

Nest Boxes = Artificial Snags

• songbirds

Create Brush Piles/Down Logs

• cottontail rabbits

• rats

• white throated sparrow

• 5 lined skink, eastern fence lizard

• american toad, slimy salamander

“Nuisance Animals”

• coyote, gray fox, geese, raccoon…

• true nuisance = canada geese abundant near airport

• gray foxes are NOT a nuisance

Keep Cats Indoors

• cats kill wildlife

• number of free ranging cats has reduced as coyotes increase

Issues of Environmental Justice

• Distribution of tree/plant cover

  • richness greatest in luxury neighborhoods

  • tree canopy greater in white neighborhoods

  • high density has smaller lots/less vegetation

  • low SES (socioeconomic status) near lower quality greenspace

  • individual and ethnic variation in preferences

• Some parks/greenways spur gentrification

  • raises property prices, push out OG homeowners

Summary Recommendations

• Conserve habitat for specialists

• Maintain connectivity

• Retain large patches of green space

• buffer streams(>75 feet/side for birds)

• encourage creative neighborhood design

• encourage native plant landscapes

• educate the public about wildlife

TOPHAT

Which is true about wildlife habitat in urban landscapes?

A

there is low abundance of snags and downed logs

B

late-succession vegetation is more limiting than early-succession vegetation

C

invasive plants generally are less abundant than in rural areas

D

all answers are correct

E

no answers are correct