2019 Potomac-Garrett Sustainable Forest Management Plan
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Sustainable Forest Management Plan FOR Potomac – Garrett State Forest Sustainable Forests for People, the Bay and Appalachia FOREST SERVICE Updated: 2019.02.28 POTOMAC-GARRETT STATE FOREST 18,632 ACRES 1 Table of Contents Preface 6 Index of Tables 7 Index of Figures 8 Abbreviations 9 Chapter 1 - Background and History of the Forest 11 1.1 Introduction 11 1.2 State Forest Planning and Sustainable Forest Management 14 1.3 Planning Process 16 1.4 Purpose and Goals of the Plan 17 1.5 Future Land Acquisition Goals for Potomac-Garrett State Forest 18 Chapter 2 - Resource Assessment 20 2.1 Garrett County 20 2.2 General Geology and Soils 21 2.3 Water Resources 21 2.4 Wildlife Resources 23 2.5 Endangered and Threatened Species of Special Concern 24 2.6 Plant Communities and Habitats of Special Concern 27 2.7 Important Wildlife Species 29 2.8 Migratory Birds of Special Concern 32 2.9 Fish Species of Special Concern 33 2.10 The Forests of Garrett County 33 2.11 Forest Management in Garrett County 35 2.12 The Forest Products Industry 36 2.13 People and Forests in Garrett County 36 2.14 Landscape Considerations 39 2.15 Water Quality Issues 41 Chapter 3 - Resource Characterization 43 3.1 The Forests 43 3.2 Old Growth Forest 45 2 3.3 Forest Production 45 3.4 Water Quality 46 3.5 Watersheds 46 3.6 Soils 49 3.7 Complexes 50 3.8 Compartments 51 Chapter 4 - Land Management Area Guidelines 54 4.1 Land Management Areas 54 4.2 General Forest 55 4.3 Ecologically Significant Areas ESA and Other State Protected Lands 55 4.4 Forested Riparian Buffers 55 4.5 Wildlife Habitat Areas 56 4.6 Visual Quality Areas 56 4.7 Non-Forested Lands 56 Chapter 5 - Forest Management 57 5.1 High Conservation Value Forest HCVF 57 5.2 Potomac-Garrett State Forest Mapping 57 5.3 Forest Types and Silvicultural Practices 58 5.4 Cultural Heritage and Indigenous Peoples 61 5.5 Forest Management Guidelines 62 5.6 General Management Areas 62 5.7 High Conservation Value Forest Areas 63 5.8 Forest Management Activities 66 5.9 Forest Harvesting Equipment 69 5.10 Chemical Use 70 5.11 Financial Returns 71 5.12 Forest Modeling 71 5.13 Inventory and Monitoring 72 5.14 Forest Certification 74 5.15 Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) – Guidelines & Principles 74 5.16 Practice Scheduling Annual Work Plans (AWP) 76 5.17 Non-Silvicultural Forest Management Activities 76 Chapter 6 - Water Quality Areas: Riparian Forest Buffers and Wetlands 78 3 6.1 Introduction 78 6.2 Riparian Forest Buffers High Conservation Value Forest (HCVF) 78 6.3 Non-Operational Wetlands 80 6.4 Riparian Forest Buffer Delineation for High Conservation Value Forest 82 6.5 Management and Function of Expanded Riparian Forest Buffers 82 6.6 Significant Vernal Pools 83 Chapter 7 - Ecologically Significant Areas (ESA) 89 7.1 Ecologically Significant Areas (ESA) Defined 89 7.2 Ecologically Significant Area (ESA) Descriptions 91 7.3 Prescribed Burning within ESAs 109 7.4 Use of Herbicides/Pesticides within ESAs 109 7.5 Annual Work Plans 109 7.6 Wildlands 109 7.7 Historic and Archaeological Areas 110 Chapter 8 - Wildlife Habitat: Protection and Management 112 8.1 Introduction 112 8.2 Invertebrates 112 8.3 Non-Game Small Animals 114 8.4 Reptiles 114 8.5 Amphibians 115 8.6 Forest Game Birds and Mammals 115 8.7 Upland Game Birds and Mammals 120 8.8 Waterfowl 121 8.9 Aquatic Furbearers 122 8.10 Upland Furbearers 123 8.11 Management Objectives and Strategies 125 8.12 Rare Threatened and Endangered Wildlife Species 127 8.13 Fishery Assessment 129 Chapter 9 - Public Use & Education 137 9.1 Background 137 9.2 Current and Future Public Uses 137 9.3 Education and Public Outreach 149 9.4 Implementation 150 4 Chapter 10 - Monitoring Plan 151 10.1 Introduction 151 10.2 Monitoring Plan 151 10.3 Tier I Landscape scale Longterm Monitoring 152 10.4 Tier II Stand Complex-level Medium-term Monitoring 155 10.5 Tier III Management Activity-based Short-term Monitoring 157 10.6 Procedures by Forest Management Actions 158 Chapter 11 - Annual Work Plan Process 161 11.1 Annual Work Plan 161 11.2 Annual Work Plan Time Table 163 11.3 Contents of the Annual Work Plan 164 Chapter 12 - Operational Management 166 12.1 Introduction 166 12.2 Funding Sources 166 12.3 Operational Cost 167 12.4 Summary 172 Appendix 173 Appendix A - Citizens Advisory Committee 173 Appendix B - FSC US Forest Management Standard v1.0 174 Appendix C - Sustainable Forestry Initiative 176 Appendix D - Soils Management Groups 181 Appendix E - Rare, Threatened & Endangered Species 185 Appendix F - SFI Management Review & Continual Improvement 187 Appendix G - Glossary 188 Appendix H - Biological Diversity 190 Appendix I - Maps ?? Appendix J - Conifer Component of the Forests of Garrett County 225 Appendix G - Forest Resource Planning Determination of Annual Incremental Growth 235 Appendix L - Black Bear Bait Station Suvery Results 239 5 Preface The information contained within the Potomac-Garrett State Forest Sustainable Management Plan was derived from a variety of sources. These include the 1993 Potomac-Garrett State Forest - Ten Year Resource Management Plan, and the 2010 Sustainable Forest Management Plan for Pocomoke State Forest. Data presented in tables and charts that are specific to Potomac-Garrett State Forest was generated from field data collected by the Maryland Forest Service and the Maryland Wildlife & Heritage Service from 2002 through 2009. Other information contained within this document is referenced as to its source. The 18,632 acres Potomac-Garrett State Forest is located entirely within Garrett County. 6 Index of Tables Table 1.1 Acquisi(on and Disposi(on History of Potomac-Garre9 State Forest Table 2.1 Land Use in Garre9 County Table 2.10 Area of Timberland by Forest Type and Ownership Group Table 2.13.2 Popula(on Characteris(cs of Maryland and Garre9 County Table 3.1 Forest Diversity Analysis Table 3.3.1 Potomac-Garre9 S.F. & Savage River S.F. as % of Garre9 County Table 3.3.2 Potomac-Garre9 State Forest as a % of Forest by County Table 3.5.1 Strahler Stream Order by Watershed Table 3.5.1.1 Es(mate # of Stream Miles by Category, Fish Index of Bio(c Integrity Table 3.5.1.2 Es(mate # of Stream Miles by Category, Benthic Index of Bio(c Integrity Table 3.6.1 Soil Management Groups for Potomac-Garre9 State Forest Table 3.7.1 Potomac-Garre9 State Forest - Complexes Table 3.7.2 Complex Sta(s(cs by Size Table 3.8.1 Potomac-Garre9 State Forest Compartments Table 3.8.2 Compartment Sta(s(cs by Size Table 5.2 Potomac-Garre9 State Forest Management Layers Table 5.3 Forest Diversity Analysis Table 8.13 List of Common & Scien(fic Names of Fish Within the Potomac-Garre9 S.F. Waterbodies of the Youghiogheny and Potomac River Watersheds Table 10.3.2 Strata for Long-Term Monitoring on Potomac-Garre9 State Forest 7 Index of Figures Figure 2.1 Garre9 County Land Cover Surrounding Potomac-Garre9 State Forest Figure 2.7.1 White-tailed Deer Harvest Trends for Garre9 County, 1980-2009 Figure 2.9.2 Bear Visita(ons at Scent Sta(ons in Garre9 County Figure 2.14.2 Watersheds in Garre9 County Figure 3 Potomac-Garre9 State Forest - Garre9 County, Maryland Figure 4.1 Schema(c of Land Management Area Guidelines Figure 6.6.1 Amphibian Buffer Zone Around a Vernal Pool Figure 6.6.2 Vernal Pool Connec(vity Zone for Amphibian Conserva(on Figure 11.1 Annual Work Plan Development Process 8 Abbreviations AMWI Appalachian Mountain Woodcock Initiative ATV All Terrain Vehicle AWP Annual Work Plan BIBI Benthic Index of Biotic Integrity BMP Best Management Practices CAR Corrective Action Requests CBI Combined Biotic Index CCC Civilian Conservation Corps CF Chesapeake Forest CFI Continuous Forest Inventory DNA Deoxyribonucleic acid DC District of Columbia DNR Department of Natural Resources DDT Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane ESA Ecologically Significant Areas FIBI Fish-based Index of Biotic Integrity FIDS Forest Interior Dwelling Species FSC® Forest Stewardship Council® GCN Greatest Conservation Need GIS Geographic Information System GPS Global Positioning System HCP Habitat Conservation Plan HCVF High Conservation Value Forest ID Interdisciplinary LAC Limits of Acceptable Change MBSS Maryland Biological Stream Survey MD Maryland NBPR North Branch Potomac River NHA Natural Heritage Areas NWR National Wildlife Refuge OGEMA Old Growth Ecosystem Management Area ORV Off Road Vehicle PA Pennsylvania PGSF Potomac-Garrett State Forest PHI Physical Habitat Index RTE Rare, threatened, and Endangered SAFETEA Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act SFI® Sustainable Forest Initiative® SMG Soil Management Groups 9 SMZ Streamside Management Zones SRSF Savage River State Forest US United States USDA United State Department of Agriculture USACE United States Army Corps of Engineers USFWS United States Fish and Wildlife Service USGS United States Geological Survey WSSC Wetlands of Special State Concern 10 Chapter 1 - Background and History of the Forest 1.1 Introduction The history of the Potomac and Garrett State Forests began with the birth of Maryland's Forestry and Public Lands system. In 1906, John and Robert Garrett were concerned with the future of Maryland's forestlands. They had inherited 1917 acres of land from their grandfather John W. Garrett who had expanded the B&O railroad into Garrett County in the mid 1880's. Garrett County was to later be named after him. Robert Garrett donated this land to the state with the stipulation that the state must make "adequate provision for its care".