Fire Learning Network Central Appalachians FLN Notes from the Field 2015 Year in Review

Over the last decade, the Central Appalachians FLN has built strong, Landscapes of the Central Appalachians FLN diverse partnerships and demon- Heart of the Appalachians Virginia / West Virginia strated the synergistic effect this level of collaboration can have in Keystone Appalachians Pennsylvania restoring the role of fire to an eco- Cumberland River Kentucky logically significant scale. Potomac Headwaters Maryland / West Virginia Good Fire Despite a wet start to the 2015 collaboration in Pennsylvania’s The success of this crew led prescribed fire season in many parts Keystone Appalachians landscape the chapter to again contract with of the region, landscape partners also allowed for burning across WRI, this time through a participat- were able to burn nearly 8,700 acres Pennsylvania Game Commission, ing agreement funded by a Forest in the Heart of the Appalachians, Fort Indiantown Gap, PADCNR and Service Supplemental Wildland Fire 12,900 acres in the Keystone Ap- Conservancy lands. Hazardous Fuels (WFHF) project, to palachians and 6,200 acres in the provide a four-person module for the Cumberland River landscapes this spring of 2016. With additional fund- year. Achieving 28,000 acres of ing from the Forest Service Region good fire across the network can be 8, two more modules will be sup- attributed to the increased coordi- ported in the Southern Blue Ridge nation among partners making the FLN. The three modules—based in most of small burn windows. Virginia, North Carolina/Tennessee Among the highlights was the 400- and Georgia/South Carolina—will be acre Summers Mountain burn in the available for three months, for work Highland Wildlife Management Area. spanning state, federal, local and Thanks to the FLN’s role in helping private lands. develop a new prescribed fire policy Partners burning in the Cumberland River landscape. Photo: Chris Minor/TNC for the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries (DGIF) and MOUs between all partners, this was Tackling Capacity Barriers both the largest burn in DGIF history A frequently identified barrier to and the first in Virginia where U.S. prescribed fire implementation is in- Forest Service staff have burned on sufficient capacity. To help mitigate DGIF lands. that challenge, the Conservancy’s Excellent cross-boundary co- Virginia chapter, funded through a ordination was also evidenced by Scaling-up to Promote Ecosystem The Nature Conservancy staff from Resiliency (SPER II) grant, con- Maryland assisting the U.S. Fish & tracted with Wildland Restoration Wildlife Service and Pennsylvania International (WRI) to provide a Department of Conservation and four-person fire module in the spring Natural Resources (PADCNR) with of 2015. The module helped prep The leader of the Wildland Restoration Inter- national module conducting ignitions at the Bear the Underwood Trail Burn near State and implement controlled burns on Loop burn unit on Warm Springs Mountain Pre- College, while Conservancy staff 2,942 acres in the Heart of the Ap- serve in April 2015. Also pictured is one of the from Pennsylvania were assisting palachians landscape and prepped interpretive signs developed by the FLN, which carries information about the role of fire—includ- the Pennsylvania Game Commis- another 1,344 acres for upcoming ing prescribed fire—in the landscape. sion with another burn. Successful burns. Photo: Marek Smith/TNC Continuous Collaboration Natural Lands Trust, National Park Service, Pennsylvania Bureau of In western Maryland, development Forestry, Pennsylvania Department of a new FLN landscape—the of Military and Veterans Affairs, Potomac Headwaters FLN landscape Pennsylvania Game Commission, —was initiated in early November. Sustainable Solutions (a natural Staff from the Maryland Department resource consulting company) and of Forestry, Maryland Department the Conservancy’s Pennsylvania of Natural Resources, National Park chapter. Service and the Conservancy’s Maryland and Virginia chapters The Virginia Wildland Fire Acad- emy, coordinated by the Virginia spent two days discussing project Ben Jones addressed participants at one of the goals and touring prospective burn stops on the Dry Oak and Fire Workshop field Department of Forestry, held its first tour. Photo: Patrick McElhenny/TNC units in Catoctin Mountain Park and NWCG Prescribed Fire Course, Green Ridge State Forest. While Rx310 Fire Effects, in 2015. The partners from Maryland have long course was co-hosted by the Vir- participated in the Central Appala- Training Modules ginia Prescribed Fire Council. This chians FLN, they had not yet devel- significant milestone was met with An S-219 Fire Operations course enthusiasm: a sold out classroom, oped a large landscape upon which was held in July in State College they could collaboratively implement and tremendous participation by (PA) under the sponsorship of the essentially every land manage- cross-boundary projects. With this Pennsylvania Game Commission. now underway, partners in the new ment agency in the state as well as There were 28 participants, includ- from many private landowners and landscape are planning for a work- ing students and instructors from the shop later in 2016. contractors. In the coming year, the Pennsylvania Department of Military Academy will continue its support of In Kentucky this fall, a Cumberland and Veterans Affairs, Pennsylvania prescribed fire training by offering River FLN landscape workshop Game Commission and the Conser- Rx341 Prescribed Fire Plan Prepa- was attended by 12 people from the vancy’s Pennsylvania chapter. ration. Kentucky Department of Fish and An RX-310 Fire Effects course was Wildlife Resources, Kentucky Heart- sponsored by the Pennsylvania Pre- Outreach Efforts wood, The Nature Conservancy scribed Fire Council in July as well. Educational outreach targeting and the U.S. Forest Service. Three The 26 participants in the week- visitors to areas where prescribed subcommittees were formed—to long course included students and fire is part of the landscape continues focus on funding, research and out- instructors from Arcadia University, to be a focus of the network. reach—to better manage upcoming opportunities. Plans for the next six months include hosting a local FLN Shared-Learning Field Day where key people in FLN partner agencies will have the opportunity to hear about recent research, see treat- ment sites, and address concerns or fire adapted landscape is an area created and maintained by fire. Some trees Combined with PRAIRIE SAVANNA and other plants benefit from fire, as it reduces excess woody debris from Photo by Photo by controlled burning, Chris Minor Julian the forest floor, promotes seed germination, and reduces competition. Campbell mechanical thinning issues around controlled burning in Many areas within Kentucky’s forests used to be much more open than they are now. can speed up the rairie, savanna, woodland, and forest are general terms used to describe restoration process. the area. different habitat types defined by the density of trees in a given area. A mixture of different habitat types across a landscape add to plant and wildlife diversity. In Pennsylvania, the Prescribed Fire

WOODLAND FOREST This photo was taken here prior to treatment. Photo by Allison Coons. Photo by Photo by Council’s Dry Oak and Fire workshops Chris Minor Chris Minor hinning allows less desirable trees to be harvested and the understory to be opened up. †is provides more sunlight were well attended, drawing 128 to the forest floor and encourages more plants to grow. participants from 18 organizations and agencies, including state and he photos above provide a visual of the different habitat types federal agencies, traditional NGOs, represented in our forests. Many wildlife species are in decline due to lack of their associated habitat type. academia, forestry associations,

forestry products companies, con- Photo by Chris Minor. he right (east) side of 5010, and the south of KY 90 represent two treatment areas. Both areas will be mechanically thinned with one receiving onitoring plots are located throughout this area. Data is sulting foresters and hunters. They an early spring or late fall controlled burn while the other receives a late collected, including plant species, species occurrence, spring, summer, or late summer controlled burn. Pre- and post-burn data will be tree size, and fuel load. †is allows the impact of discussed prescribed fire and man- collected, and results will guide future management decisions. treatments to be better defined and documented. agement of dry oak and oak-pine communities, covering issues rang- ing from maintaining oak forests to Partners in the Cumberland River FLN landscape continued work on interpretive signs restoring woodlands, savannas and for the Stearns Ranger District of the Daniel Boone National Forest. The signs are part of driving tour being developed with support from the Consortium of Appalachian Fire Man- scrub oak-pitch pine barrens with agers and Scientists. The tour will have eight to ten stops and feature messages about combinations of fire, timber harvest the historic role of fire in the Appalachians; fire effects monitoring; plant, wildlife and fuel and other methods. reduction benefits of controlled burns; and fire teams and safety. Sharing Nationally overstory basal area. Preliminary results show a significant increase in Pat Sheridan (USFS) represented open canopy and increases in forb the Central Appalachians FLN at the cover one year post-burn. FLN and Fire Adapted Communities Learning Network national workshop In the Keystone Appalachians in Santa Fe (NM) in June. A poster landscape, monitoring collaborations featuring the Central Appalachians continue among the Arcadia Univer- FLN was presented at the work- sity, Pennsylvania Game Commis- shop; that poster, as well as those sion, Penn State University and the from other networks, can be found Conservancy. They are working to at http://www.conservationgateway. identify ways to move forward on the org/ConservationPractices/Fire- Two interpretive signs developed by part- pre/post-burn vegetation monitoring ners in the Heart of the Appalachians Landscapes/FireLearningNetwork/ initiative that was started in 2013. landscape were installed around the 2014 USFLNPublications/Pages/Posters- Monitoring during burns is also being Blue Suck burn unit in Douthat State Park. FLN-2015.aspx. This site was targeted for the opportunity integrated, through use of FEMO- to generate awareness of the value of qualified personnel. This collabora- prescribed fire in a large audience, with the tion led to a Fire Monitoring Work- park seeing more than 200,000 visitors a year. Photo: Al Cire/VADCR shop in the spring, sponsored by the Center for Landscape Dynamics at Penn State; this evolved to include Monitoring Progress several additional faculty (including social scientists) and staff from the The Heart of the Appalachians Natural Resources Conservation FLN Monitoring Working Group held Service, Western Pennsylvania Con- its third annual Plant Identification servancy and the Fort Indiantown and Protocol Refresher Workshop Gap military installation. this year, in a new two-day format. Pat Sheridan (right), District Ranger for the Warm Eighteen participants from the Springs and James River Districts of the George Conservancy’s Virginia chapter, U.S. Washington and Jefferson National Forests, re- Forest Service and Virginia Depart- tired at the end of December after 38 years with New Publications the USFS. Pat participated in the initial scoping ment of Conservation and Recre- meeting to form the Central Appalachians and ation spent the first day at Hungry Dr. Lauren Howard (Arcadia Southern Blue Ridge regional FLNs in 2006, and was responsible for much of Central Appalachians Mother State Park identifying plants, University) compared the results of FLN’s growth and accomplishments over the with a focus on ericaceous shrubs. his extensive observations of the last decade. FLN partners all thank Pat for his The second part of the workshop largest high-elevation pitch pine com- leadership and look forward to his continued participation as an AD or volunteer. consisted of a Forest Structure and munity in the Central Appalachians Photo: Laurel Schablein/TNC Composition Protocol review and the to a 1985 study by Gary Fleming in installment of four new monitoring the recent article “A Quarter-Century plots in the Huff Hollow burn unit on of Change Without Fire: The High- the Eastern Divide Ranger District of Elevation Pitch Pine Community on the Jefferson National Forest. The Panther Knob, Pendleton County, new workshop format allowed for West Virginia.” The study suggests plenty of identification practice and that the threatened variable sedge discussion and will better ensure (Carex polymorpha) has declined, consistency in data collection across ericaceous shrubs have become CASTANEA 80(3): 193–210. SEPTEMBER the landscape. more dense, and little pine regenera- Copyright 2015 Southern Appalachian Botanical Society A Quarter-Century of Change Without Fire: The new tion has occurred recently. Howard High-Elevation Pitch Pine Community on Panther The Working Group welcomed Knob, Pendleton County, West Virginia

discusses further research needs Lauren F. Howard* members Adam Christie (DCR) and Department of Biology, Arcadia University, 450 S. Easton Road, Glenside, Pennsylvania 19038

and management implications of this ABSTRACT The Panther Knob Preserve is important in the Central Appalachians because it is the Jean Lorber (TNC) at a December region’s largest high-elevation pitch pine (Pinus rigida) community, containing numerous rare and threatened plants and animals. Plant community structure and evidence of fire in 2008 were quantified to (a) document successional changes since 1985, and (b) test the hypothesis of pitch pine for Panther Knob. regeneration failure without recent fire. Diameter at breast height (dbh) of trees and percent cover of meeting set to share new knowledge plants within 19 plots, each 20 3 20 m, were measured. Increment borings were used to estimate stand age, and evidence of fire, such as bark charring and soil charcoal, was recorded. Mineral soil from the top 10 cm was collected to evaluate the connection between soil characteristics and plant composition. Cluster analysis of percent cover values identified four plant community types. Diameter distributions, age structure, and the presence of only seven seedlings indicated little recent of the FFI software, uphold consis- Also published in 2015 were pine regeneration on the plateau. Comparisons with Fleming’s (1985) observations showed that pines are taller but declined in percent cover, that ericaceous shrubs are denser, and that the threatened variable sedge, Carex polymorpha, has declined. Charred woody debris, fire scars, or soil charcoal occurred at 16 of 19 sites. Plant community structure, represented by nonmetric multidimensional tency and accuracy in methods, and research papers by Wayne Tyndall scaling (NMS) ordination axes, was not correlated directly with the presence of fire evidence or soil mineral nutrients (principal components analysis [PCA] axes). A new conceptual model of pine dynamics on Panther Knob is introduced. Successional pathways with and without fire are discussed in the context of management. discuss future monitoring needs. The (Maryland Department of Natural Key words: Fire evidence, fire exclusion, Panther Knob, pine regeneration, Pinus rigida, soil characteristics, West Virginia. group decided to redesign the plot- Resources) and Melissa Thomas- INTRODUCTION The Panther Knob pla- species of organisms that either depend on teau, located at 1,300 m elevation in the specific host plants (as is the case with certain southernmost extension of the Smoke Hole- Lepidopteran larvae), or depend on the existence less basal area protocol to reduce Van Gundy (USDA Forest Service, North Fork Mountain ecosystem, is the largest of an open, thicket-like habitat type. Citing the single pitch pine-dominated ecosystem in West few ecological studies available in the mid- Virginia and in the larger Central Appalachian 1990s, Batcher drew parallels between the dwarf region. Panther Knob is thought to be of pine barrens of Sam’s Point, New York, and the user variability and ensure the same Northern Research Center and comparable ecological importance to the larger, pitch pine community on Panther Knob, West but lower (c. 600 m elevation) Shawangunk Virginia (Batcher et al. 1997b). In addition, plateau in southeastern New York (Batcher and Batcher mentioned that both plateaus were Hall 1994; Batcher et al. 1997a, 1997b). As large dominated by fire-adapted species such as Pinus overstory trees are measured each Monongahela National Forest). (See ‘‘islands’’ of pitch pine-heath woodland in a rigida Mill. (pitch pine), Vaccinium L. spp. region dominated at lower elevations by (blueberries), Gaylussacia baccata (Wangenh.) closed-canopy hardwoods, these plateaus pro- K. Koch (black huckleberry), Quercus ilicifolia vide unique niches for rare and threatened Wangenh. (bear oak), and Kalmia L. spp. (laurels; Batcher et al. 1997b), growing on sandy visit. Instead of using prisms, a fixed the summer FLN Notes from the *email address: [email protected] Received May 7, 2015; Accepted October 22, 2015. soils susceptible to drought stress (Fleming DOI: 10.2179/15-052 1985, Bernard and Seischab 1995, Thompson area plot will be used to determine Field for more on these papers.) 193 The Central Appalachians FLN was represented at the Association for Fire Ecology’s 6th International Fire Ecology and Management Con- gress in San Antonio (TX) by Nikole Swaney (TNC), Beth Buchanan (USFS) and Lindsey Curtin (USFS). Their presentations detailed fire effects monitoring efforts and adap- tive management for the Southern Region of the Forest Service and the Central Appalachians. Nikole Swaney also presented a poster on the upcoming Women in Fire Train- ing Exchange that will be hosted by the Northern California Prescribed Fire Council in the fall of 2016. Part- ners from the Pennsylvania Game Commission also gave a presenta- tion based on initial results of the second year of a dendrochronology fire history study being undertaken with the University of Missouri Tree Ring Lab. Nikole Swaney with the Women in TREX poster at the AFE Congress. Photo: Wendy Fulks/TNC

Annual Workshop More than 60 participants from 20 Upcoming Meetings agencies attended the joint work- Pennsylvania Prescribed Fire shop held by the Consortium of Council Annual Conference Appalachian Fire Managers and February 16-17, 2016 Scientists (CAFMS) and the Central Speakers from across the country Appalachians FLN in October. will discuss fire and forest bats; CAFMS coordinated a fire history Pennsylvania’s fire history; public workshop that brought together perceptions of prescribed fire; canopy many of the pioneers of Central tree mortality after burns; fire’s role Appalachians dendrochronological, in snowshoe hare habitat; wildland soil and peat charcoal, witness tree fire GIS, mapping apps, and devices; and other techniques used to de- statewide prescribed fire updates, velop current understanding of the lessons learned and more! historic fire regime in the Central Online registration: http://www.paprescribedfire.org/ Appalachians. The FLN then hosted training/2016-annual-conference.html presentations on collaborative Top: The annual FLN Partnership Award was success stories, new technologi- presented to Virginia Department of Game and Central Appalachians FLN Inland Fisheries for their tenacity and commit- cal tools, northern long-eared bats ment to building fire management capacity within Annual Workshop and fire effects monitoring. The joint their agency, collaborative planning and imple- November 2-3, 2016 workshop helped reinforce the long- mentation across organizational boundaries. Wintergreen Resort, Virginia Bottom: Soil charcoal sampling during the work- Save the date and stay tuned for more. standing ties between science and shop field tour. management in the region. Photos: Laurel Schablein/TNC, Marek Smith/TNC

The FLN, Scaling-up to Promote Ecosystem Re- siliency and Prescribed Fire Training Exchanges For more information about the Central Appalachians FLN, contact: (TREX) are part of Promoting Ecosystem Resil- ience and Fire Adapted Communities Together, Sam Lindblom Marek Smith Laurel Schablein a cooperative agreement between The Nature [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Conservancy, USDA Forest Service and agencies of the Department of the Interior. Links to products of the Central Appalachians FLN, including reports, post- For more information, contact Lynn Decker ers, interpretive signs and brochure and other materials can be found on the [email protected] or (801) 320-0524. network’s Conservation Gateway page at: http://www.conservationgateway.org/ConservationPractices/FireLandscapes/ FireLearningNetwork/RegionalNetworks/Pages/CentralApps.aspx An equal opportunity provider v. 3 Feb 16/Laurel Schablein