Ohio Hills
(Area - 7,993,400 ha)
Description
- Landforms within the Ohio Hills consist primarily of dissected, unglaciated plateaus
ranging in elevation from 150 m to 450 m, with some valleys as low as 100 m and some
mountainous areas reaching 1,100 m. A majority of the planning unit was dominated
historically by oak-hickory forests; today these cover roughly 4.3 million ha (10.7
million ac), or 54% of the physiographic area. Numerous patches of northern hardwood
forest occur on north-facing hillsides, particularly near the edges of the Allegheny
Mountains in West Virginia and Allegheny Plateau in Ohio. Historically, oak-hickory and
oak-pine regeneration was dependent on fire, and recent policies of fires suppression in
the southern Appalachians has had major (primarily negative) effects on native forest
composition and structure. Human populations are relatively sparse through most the
physiographic area and are largely confined to the larger valleys; Pittsburgh, PA and
Morgantown, WV are the largest cities. Roughly 40% of the physiographic area is in
agricultural production or urban development, mostly in the northern half. Timber
extraction has been a major activity throughout the history of this region, and it
continues to be important on both public (10% of area) and privately owned forest lands.
Extraction of minerals, oil and gas, and coal are also important land uses throughout this
region, with a new wave of mining underway in the form of highly destructive mountaintop
removal.
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Conservation recommendations and needs - The Ohio Hills is one of the highest priorities for conservation attention among Northeastern physiographic areas due to its high concentration of high priority and declining species. Two early succession species are of exceptional importance here. Concern for one, the Appalachian subspecies of Bewick’s Wren, may be coming too late as most indications are that this bird is now extinct. The second, the Golden-winged Warbler, is relatively common in this region but has been undergoing a precipitous long-term decline (about 10% per year) over the last 30 years. Management to rectify this situation by repeatedly setting back forest succession over large areas is neither inexpensive nor necessarily politically popular. It is quite possible that normal economically feasible silviculture is less likely to create sustained suitable conditions than farm or strip mine abandonment.
The number of high priority birds in mature deciduous forest in the Ohio Hills makes this another very important habitat type. In contrast with some other habitats and with this habitat in nearby physiographic areas, populations of most of these birds in the Ohio Hills are large and relatively stable. Maintaining stable populations focusing on priority species such as Louisiana Waterthrush and Worm-eating Warbler may require comprehensive forest management planning, but would assure a continued source for many birds in this part of the world. A new and important concern is the impact of spreading chip mills on forest age, structure, and composition, particularly in West Virginia. The status of the Cerulean Warbler is a very important exception to the generality regarding stability of forest birds in this physiographic area. In this, the core of Cerulean Warbler range, where the bird has been and continues to be most abundant, populations have been rapidly dropping. This may be a result of a forest that increasingly lacks old trees and a diversity of structure, but this is not at all certain. Improving the status of this bird should be a high priority. Proposed mining operations using the mountaintop-removal method could pose a critical threat to existing Cerulean Warbler habitat, both on ridgetops where mining would take place and in bottomlands and valleys where removed earth would be deposited.
The Ohio Hills is one of the few strongholds throughout the range of Henslow’s
Sparrow, and is the only physiographic area in the Northeast in which the species is not
declining. This bird is vulnerable to extirpation anywhere in its range and even
extinction altogether, and conservation efforts in the Ohio Hills can contribute greatly
to its long term survival. Henslow’s Sparrows are most common in the northern part of
this area, in Ohio, in either hayfields or reclaimed surface mines planted in warm-season
and other native grasses. It is ironic that the strip mines that once devastated vast
areas of forest are of incredible value to birds once abandoned, but are of least value if
allowed to grow back into forest. If maintained as grass, they support Henslow’s
Sparrow, and if kept in early successional shrubs they support Golden-winged Warblers, but
there is no single condition that will support both birds. Specific conservation
recommendations for this physiographic area include:
• identify any extant populations of Appalachian Bewick's Wren, ascertain habitat needs and assure strict protection;
• determine range of suitable habitats and identify present breeding sites for Golden-winged Warbler in this region;
• identify present-day concentrations of Cerulean Warbler within the region; determine protection status and specific threats at these sites;
• maintain a balance of forest-age structures, including adequate amounts of mid-successional as well as late-successional forest;
• assess effects of mountaintop-removal mining and continued forestry practices on regional populations of high-priority forest birds;
• identify most important sites for Henslow’s Sparrow and determine range of suitable habitat conditions; manage sites to maintain suitable conditions if necessary.
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