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Toward Consensus-Based Actions That Balance Invasive Plant Management and Conservation of At-Risk Fauna

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Toward Consensus-Based Actions That Balance Invasive Plant Management and Conservation of At-Risk Fauna Environmental Management DOI 10.1007/s00267-013-0157-y Toward Consensus-Based Actions that Balance Invasive Plant Management and Conservation of At-Risk Fauna John A. Litvaitis • Jeffrey L. Norment • Kelly Boland • Kate O’Brien • Rachel Stevens • Donald Keirstead • Thomas Lee • James D. Oehler • Jeffery M. Taylor • Susan Bickford • Matthew D. Tarr Received: 15 April 2013 / Accepted: 15 August 2013 Ó Springer Science+Business Media New York 2013 Abstract Limiting the spread of invasive plants has among various stakeholders involved with managing hab- become a high priority among natural resource managers. itats in the northeastern USA to benefit several at-risk taxa, Yet in some regions, invasive plants are providing impor- including New England cottontails (Sylvilagus transition- tant habitat components to native animals that are at risk of alis). Major components of this approach include recog- local or regional extirpation. In these situations, removing nition that expanding some invaded habitats may be invasive plants may decrease short-term survival of the at- essential to prevent extirpation of at-risk species, and the risk taxa. At the same time, there may be a reluctance to effective control of invasive plants is dependent on expand invaded habitats to benefit at-risk species because knowledge of the status of invasives on managed lands and such actions may increase the distribution of invasive within the surrounding landscape. By acknowledging that plants. Such a dilemma can result in ‘‘management paral- management of invasive plants is a complex issue without ysis,’’ where no action is taken either to reduce invasive a single solution, we may be successful in limiting their plants or to expand habitats for at-risk species. A pragmatic spread while still addressing critical habitat needs. solution to this dilemma may be to develop an approach that considers site-specific circumstances. We constructed Keywords Invasive shrubs Á Shrublands Á a ‘‘discussion tree’’ as a means of initiating conversations Sylvilagus transitionalis Á Thickets J. A. Litvaitis (&) Á T. Lee D. Keirstead Department of Natural Resources and the Environment, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Natural Resources University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH 03824, USA Conservation Service, Durham, NH 03824, USA e-mail: [email protected] J. D. Oehler J. L. Norment New Hampshire Fish and Game Department, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Natural Resources Concord, NH 03301, USA Conservation Service, Bangor, ME 04401, USA J. M. Taylor K. Boland Á K. O’Brien Vegetation Control Service, Athol, MA 01331, USA U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge, Wells, ME 04090, USA S. Bickford Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve, Wells, R. Stevens ME 04090, USA Great Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, Greenland, NH 03840, USA M. D. Tarr University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension, R. Stevens Durham, NH 03824, USA New Hampshire Fish and Game Department, Greenland, NH 03840, USA 123 Environmental Management Introduction shrublands (Litvaitis et al. 1999). Consequently, remaining thickets are often small and disjunct (Litvaitis 1993) and their Limiting the spread of invasive plants is a common goal of coverage continues to decline (Brooks 2003). In response to natural resource managers because invasives can have these changes in habitat availability, natural resource agencies substantial negative effects on native species and commu- in the region have made the expansion of early-successional nities (e.g., Lockwood et al. 2007). Among terrestrial hab- forests and shrublands a conservation priority (Litvaitis 2003; itats, invasive plants can physically dominate an area Oehler et al. 2006). (Mitich 2000), cause a reduction in available food/prey A variety of management actions that remove trees (e.g., (Tallamy and Shropshire 2009; Ortega et al. 2006), or alter timber harvests, mowing, or controlled fires) are known to habitat structure (Schmidt and Whelan 1999), ecological generate or perpetuate thickets (DeGraaf and Yamasaki processes (Dibble and Rees 2005), or phenology (Harring- 2003; Oehler 2003). However, the frequency and intensity ton et al. 1989). However, in some regions, invasive plants of these activities may increase the vulnerability of thickets have become important habitat components of native ani- to encroachment or invasion by undesirable non-native mals, including species that are at risk of local or regional plants (Hobbs and Huenneke 1992; Johnson et al. 2006). extirpation. For example, in New Zealand, the non-indige- Additionally, some invasives [e.g., autumn olive (Eleagnus nous weed gorse (Ulex europaeus) provides protection, umbellata), multiflora rose (Rosa multiflora), and honey- food, and a refuge for oviposition for the endangered giant suckles (Lonicera spp.)] were intentionally planted in these weta (Deinacrida spp., Orthoptera: Stenopelmatidae) where habitats to enhance food and cover for game animals (Gill the original habitat has been destroyed by feral goats and Healy 1974), conserve soil, or for esthetics (Silander (Sherley and Hayes 1993; Stronge et al. 1997). In portions of and Klepeis 1999; Kurylo and Endress 2012). As a result, the southwestern USA, endangered willow flycatchers invasive plants are often disproportionately more abundant (Empidonax traillii) often nests in extensive stands of in thickets as compared to other terrestrial habitats. Such invasive salt cedars (Tamarix spp.; Sogge et al. 2006). In parcels can act as ‘‘invasive hotspots’’ from which sur- these situations, removing the invasive plants might reduce rounding habitats are colonized. the short-term survival of the at-risk species; yet expanding Thicket habitats composed exclusively of native plant invaded habitats also seems undesirable because such species are rare in portions of the northeastern USA and are efforts could increase the distribution and abundance of also difficult to maintain in the long term. Consequently, invasive plants. Such a dilemma, where success of one goal invasive shrubs can be an important habitat element of sev- (increase habitat for at-risk species) may lead to failure of eral species of conservation concern by providing suitable the other (decrease abundance of invasive plants) can result food and cover unavailable in other habitats. This is espe- in ‘‘management paralysis,’’ causing no action to be taken cially relevant for such thicket obligates as New England either to reduce invasive plants or to expand habitats for at- cottontails (Sylvilagus transitionalis), a lagomorph that is risk populations. currently restricted to a small portion of its historic range in In the northeastern USA, a wide variety of animals utilize the northeastern USA (Tash and Litvaitis 2007) and is a food and cover found in early-successional forests and candidate for listing under the federal Endangered Species shrublands (Litvaitis et al. 1999; DeGraaf and Yamasaki Act (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 2006). In some areas, 2000). The abundance of such habitats (collectively referred invasive shrubs dominate thickets occupied by this cottontail to as thickets) prior to European settlement has been debated (Litvaitis et al. 2003; Hanley Unpublished report). Removing (e.g., Litvaitis et al. 1999; Motzkin and Foster 2002). Land use these plants in small, isolated sites or sites with few rabbits by European colonists increased thickets as a consequence of would likely put cottontails at immediate risk to higher rates wide-spread clearing of forests for agriculture and subsequent of predation as a consequence of reduced cover (Barbour and abandonment of many farms during the late nineteenth and Litvaitis 1993) or cause them to abandon the site. Manage- early twentieth centuries (Litvaitis 1993;Foster1995). This ment activities at two sites in coastal Maine occupied by New resulted in large areas reverting to thickets that subsequently England cottontails support this speculation. Dense patches matured into mid-successional forests (Litvaitis 1993; Foster of invasive barberry (Berberis thunbergii), honeysuckle, and 1995). Although the abundance of young forests has returned bittersweet (Celastrus orbiculatus) were cleared and rabbits to levels more consistent with natural-disturbance regimes have not been detected in the immediate vicinity of cleared (Trani et al. 2001; Lorimer and White 2003), development of habitat since the removal of invasives. coastal areas and pine barrens (Noss et al. 1995), loss of Recently, Skurka Darin et al. (2011) proposed a system wetlands (Dahl 1990), construction of dams that subsequently for prioritizing control efforts of invasive plants that reduced riparian habitats (Hall et al. 2011), and local extir- incorporated plant and site characteristics. This approach pation of beavers (Castor canadensis;GotieandJenks1982) avoids blanket prescriptions in favor of a targeted approach have decreased the abundance of naturally occurring toward populations of invasives that are most problematic 123 Environmental Management and likely to degrade new habitats. Additionally, such for habitat restoration for the New England cottontails actions could foster a more pragmatic campaign against (Fuller and Tur 2012). In this region, habitat needs of New invasive shrubs by acknowledging that in some situations a England cottontails are deemed critical and invasive plants tolerance of invasives may be the most appropriate are pervasive (Litvaitis et al. 2003; Tash and Litvaitis response (at least short term), especially
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