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Interior Low Plateaus
(Area - 17,846,900 ha)
Description - The Interior Low Plateaus constitute a diverse landscape that
extends from north Alabama across central Tennessee and Kentucky into southern Illinois,
Indiana, and Ohio. It consists of six distinct subregions: the Shawnee Hills, Bluegrass
region, Western Highland Rim, Central Basin, Eastern Highland Rim, and Tennessee Valley.
Its hilly topography sets it apart from the Coastal Plain to the south and Prairie
Peninsula to the north. To the west, the valley of the Mississippi River separates the
Interior Low Plateaus from the Ozark Highlands, the two of which share many similarities.
Western mesophytic, oak-hickory, and beech-maple forests were historically the most
abundant cover types. There were also tallgrass prairie elements in the north and
northwest, oak savannahs in the Bluegrass and other northern sections, barrens and glades
in central regions, and forested wetlands along major waterways.
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Conservation recommendations and needs - Habitat loss through conversion to agriculture and other uses and the fragmentation and reduced quality of what remains are the biggest conservation issues in this area. Grasslands and savannahs have been converted to cool season pasture. Many glades and barrens have become urban areas, and others have been overtaken by woody vegetation due to fire suppression. Floodplain forests have largely been either inundated by reservoirs or converted to row crops. The upland forest types remain common habitats in some of the subregions, although as a result of management history most forest is now closed-canopy with little mid- or understory development. Also, the proliferation of chip mills means that trees are harvested at younger ages and the overall age structure is changing even further than before.
Conservation objectives vary by subregion, but in general, in order to perpetuate existing high priority species and to create an opportunity to re-establish two extirpated species (Greater Prairie-Chicken and Swallow-tailed Kite), the following actions should be implemented:
- Sustain existing forested acreage, with about 80% in hardwoods and the remainder in short-rotation pine management;
- Manage about 400,000 ha of that hardwood forest in long rotation patches of about 4,000 ha each;
- Consolidate an additional 90,000 ha of forested wetland;
- Additionally, restore 40,000 ha of native warm season grass and oak savannah habitat; and
- Incorporate bird conservation into ongoing barren and glade conservation projects.
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