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Santa Fe River ________________________________________________________________________ Pinyon-Juniper Woodlands of the Wild Rivers Recreation Area Vegetation Composition, Structure, and Bird Diversity Monitoring Report I ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ Natural Heritage New Mexico and Hawks Aloft, Inc. 2011 Pinyon-Juniper Woodlands of the Wild Rivers Recreation Area Vegetation Composition, Structure, and Bird Diversity Monitoring Report I1 Esteban Muldavin,2 Trevor Fetz3, Yvonne Chauvin2, and Kristin Madden2 Natural Heritage New Mexico and Hawks Aloft, Inc. September, 2011 SUMMARY In support of effective management of ecosystems within the Wild Rivers Recreation Area, and in particular the pinyon-juniper woodlands that cloak the mountain areas, a monitoring system was installed in 2010 to track changes in vegetation composition and structure along with bird diversity. Four macro-plots 750 x 1,250 m (2,460 x 4,000 ft) in size were established on sites dominated by two-needled pinyon (Pinus edulis), oneseed juniper (Juniperus monosperma), and Rocky Mountain juniper (J. scopulorum). Sites were uniform in terrain and representative of the range of aspects and slopes that occur within the Guadalupe Mountains. Within each macro- plot, 15 permanent sampling points were equally spaced 250 m (820 ft) apart on a 3 x 5 grid. At each sample point, vegetation composition was measured along a transect in ten, 0.1-m2 quadrats, and tree stand structure measured using the point-centered quarter method. At the same positions, bird point counts were conducted on three separate sampling campaigns from mid-May to mid-July of 2010. Tree density was significantly different across sites and ranged from 1,009 to 1,643 trees/ha, with a mean of 1,078/ha. The densest stands occurred on northerly aspects while more open stands faced either west or south. Basal area followed a similar pattern and ranged from 5.79 to 9.61 m2/ha, with a mean of 8.16 m2/ha. The two north-facing sites tended to have sparse understories dominated by cool-season grasses and, following the national classification system, belonged to the Two-needle Pinyon - Juniper species / Muttongrass Woodland Association. In contrast, the westerly and southerly sites had more grass abundance in the inter-tree spaces and were dominated by warm-season species. They were classified as part of the Two-needle Pinyon - (One-seed Juniper, Alligator Juniper) / Blue Grama Woodland Association. Overall, tree densities fell within the range of other measured stands in the Southwest, and sites represented multi-aged stand structures consistent with low-frequency fire regimes. The results suggest that further dendro-ecological work is warranted to specify the historic fire regime on these sites in support of any prescriptive treatments directed towards habitat improvement or fire hazard reduction. With respect to birds, 55 species were detected during the 2010 breeding season, but abundance and composition varied significantly among sites. Bird density ranged from 184 to 324 birds per 100 acres (40 ha) with Spotted Towhee (Pipilo maculatus), Mountain Chickadee (Poecile gambeli), and Black-throated Gray Warbler (Dendroica nigrescens) the most frequently recorded species, accounting for 26% of all observations. Species richness ranged from 31 to 41 species across sites, with the sites containing the highest density of trees having the fewest and the most open stands the most. Understanding the causes of these differences will require additional years of monitoring and more detailed habitat analysis. While no federal or state listed endangered or threatened species were recorded, the following species of conservation concern were detected: Juniper Titmouse (Baeolophus ridgewayi) , Pinyon Jay (Gymnorhinus cyanocephalus), Brewer's Sparrow (Spizella breweri), Black-throated Gray Warbler, Mourning Dove (Zenaida macroura), and Sage Thrasher (Oreoscoptes montanus). While initial richness and abundance patterns were comparable to other studies in pinyon-juniper woodlands, few long-term monitoring studies have been implemented in this major ecosystem of the Southwest. Accordingly, the monitoring system installed here was designed to consistently re-measure seasonal-to-decadal dynamics of vegetation and avian communities in support of adaptive management to preserve the ecological values of the Wild Rivers Recreation Area. Cover: A typical vegetation transect layout on macro-plot 10RW007, sampling point 7K. 1 Final report submitted in partial fulfillment of BLM Assistance Agreement L09AC15871, effective Sept. 15, 2009. 2 Natural Heritage New Mexico, Museum of Southwestern Biology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM. 3 Hawks Aloft, Inc., Albuquerque, NM. i Table of Contents Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 2 Acknowledgements ..................................................................................................................... 2 Methods .......................................................................................................................................... 2 Study area ................................................................................................................................... 2 Sampling design .......................................................................................................................... 3 Vegetation sampling protocols and analysis .............................................................................. 6 Bird sampling protocols and analysis .......................................................................................... 8 Results and Discussion .................................................................................................................... 9 Vegetation ................................................................................................................................... 9 Birds .......................................................................................................................................... 18 Summary ....................................................................................................................................... 24 References .................................................................................................................................... 24 Tables Table 1. Total tree density and basal area at root crown per site (plot) among PJ woodlands at WRRA in 2010. ........................................................................................................................ 9 Table 2. Mean canopy cover by life form per plot with ANOVA F ratio and probability of a significant difference across PJ woodland sites at WRRA in 2010. ...................................... 12 Table 3. Mean species absolute canopy cover by plot and overall average among PJ woodland sites. ...................................................................................................................................... 13 Table 4. Comparison of breeding season avian density and species richness at four plots in the Wild Rivers Recreation Area, Taos County, New Mexico in 2010. ....................................... 18 Table 5. Alphabetical list of 55 avian species observed during breeding season point-count surveys in the Wild Rivers Recreation Area, Taos County, New Mexico in 2010. ................ 19 Figures Figure 1. The Wild Rivers Recreation Area is located in north-central New Mexico, near the town of Questa. ...................................................................................................................... 4 Figure 2. The four macro-plots for the Wild Rivers Recreation Area PJ woodland monitoring project were centered on the pinyon-juniper woodlands that cloak the Guadalupe Mountains. .............................................................................................................................. 5 Figure 3. WRRA PJ woodland transect monitoring design implemented at each of the 15 points within a macro-plot. ................................................................................................................ 7 Figure 4. Tree density and basal area mean and standard error by species among the four WRRA PJ woodland monitoring sites in 2010. ...................................................................... 10 Figure 5. Stand structures based on diameter root crown (DRC) size classes for all trees sampled on the WRRA PJ woodland monitoring plots in 2010. ........................................... 11 Figure 6. Examples of stands with moderate tree densities at or near the mean value for each site at WRRA in 2010. ........................................................................................................... 17 i Introduction The study area lies within a proposed Special Recreation Management Area (SRMA) unit of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) known as the the Guadalupe Mountain Zone. It is in turn, within the greater proposed Taos Plateau ACEC (Area of Critical Environmental Concern), Wild Rivers Zone. Management objectives for the Guadalupe Mountain Zone include “opportunities for visitors to engage in exercise and escape in a back country setting.” Currently, the study area is managed under the Rio Grande Corridor Final Plan (2000) as The Wild Rivers Recreation
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