Boreal Hardwood Transition
(Bird Conservation Region 12 - U.S. portion)
(Area 22,039,686 ha)
Executive Summary
Description – The U.S. portion of Bird Conservation Region (BCR) 12, the Boreal Hardwood Transition, extends across portions of northern Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan, including the Upper Peninsula. Extensive deciduous, coniferous, and mixed forests cover the planning unit, comprising more than half its land cover. Grassland and wetland habitats also are well represented, with grassland and agricultural lands especially concentrated in the Lake Superior coastal plain and southern and western fringes of the planning unit. BCR 12 has experienced less urbanization than other regions, but several metropolitan areas do exist within its boundaries, including Duluth and Saginaw. In addition, recent years have seen a significant increase in rural and recreational home building in some counties. Despite low human population, the landscape has been influenced by the exploitation of timber and other natural resources since European settlement. These anthropogenic disturbances have resulted in conversion to farmland, loss of wetlands, forest simplification and an increased dominance of fewer tree species.
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Conservation recommendations and needs - Major conservation issues and opportunities for the planning unit center on how to best manage northern forests. The primary challenge is how to maintain healthy, viable populations of native birds and other organisms while accommodating the growing demands placed on forest resources. Factors limiting bird populations in the Boreal Hardwood Transition involve landscape-level changes due to logging, housing development, and road building combined with the effects of natural disturbances such as forest fire and white-tailed deer herbivory. Other issues include the threats to migratory stopover habitats and the growing concern of climate change. Related to all of these issues is the state of conservation planning in the region and the limitations that may become apparent due to a lack of ecological information and the coordination necessary to achieve meaningful bird conservation.
- Identify causal factors and develop strategies to reverse population declines of Belted Kingfisher, Olive-sided Flycatcher, Brown Thrasher, Northern Rough-winged Swallow, Bank Swallow, and Field Sparrow.
- Identify areas appropriate for grassland-shrub management that will not conflict with other grassland priorities. Build public-private partnerships to conserve and restore grassland-shrub habitats in designated areas.
- Determine range of suitable habitats and identify present breeding sites for Golden-winged Warbler; verify and refine predictive habitat models for this species.
- Promote structural diversity at the landscape scale, including patches of early-, mid-, and late-successional forest in a range of patch sizes.
- Where possible, maximize the amount of forest interior (and minimize disturbance within it) to benefit area-sensitive and forest-interior species.
- Remove unneeded dams, dikes, or levees to reestablish hydrological connections between riparian and floodplain habitats and provide a greater variety of successional habitats.
- Work with local zoning boards to guide housing densities and the legal setback of buildings from shorelines.
- Advise homeowners to limit the use of pesticides and other harmful chemicals in important nesting and foraging areas.
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