West Gulf Coastal Plain
(Area - 15,025,888 ha)
Description - The West Gulf Coastal Plain covers northwest
Louisiana, southwest Arkansas, easternmost Texas, and the southeast corner of Oklahoma. In
general, uplands are dominated by pines and bottomlands by hardwood forests. The pine is
originally longleaf in the southern portion and shortleaf with a significant hardwood
element in the northern portion. The southern edge of the physiographic area occurs where
trees become less dominant and the grasslands of the Coastal Prairies begin. The West Gulf
Coastal Plain extends east to the Mississippi Alluvial Valley and north to edge of the
Ouachita highlands. Drier climate and changing soils to the west mark the edge of the
distribution of pine in eastern Texas and the beginnings of the Oaks and Prairies
physiographic area.
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Conservation recommendations and needs - Pine habitat here, as in the rest of the Southeast, has undergone dramatic changes this century, even though some type of pine still dominates most of the landscape. The area was originally longleaf in the southern portion, with some loblolly in drainages protected from fire, grading into shortleaf pine with some intermixed hardwood to the north. All of this was fire-maintained. Virtually all of it was cut in the early 1900's, which in itself would not have been a grave problem. However, fire suppression and either intentional or neglectful regeneration practices have resulted in replacement of the native on-site species with loblolly or introduced slash pine. More recently, these have been planted in short-rotation plantations. This has been particularly harmful to the Red-cockaded Woodpecker, which shows a strong preference for old longleaf stands, but has also had a negative effect on other pine birds that thrive best under native pine savannah conditions. Young pine plantations do support many birds, however, surprisingly including species normally associated with mature hardwoods such as Worm-eating Warbler, as well as some birds more typical of early successional conditions like the White-eyed Vireo and Prairie Warbler.
Maintenance of older growth fire-maintained longleaf stands must be a high priority for public and perhaps some private lands in the southern half of this physiographic area. Keeping as much of the region as possible in forest, even if short-rotation loblolly, is better for birds than conversion to pasture or other uses.
Meanwhile, bottomland hardwood habitat has also been reduced in extent and fragmented. This is due not only to typical conversion to agriculture and other uses, but also due to inundation by the numerous reservoirs, particularly in eastern Texas. Bottomland hardwoods are not only important for many high priority, area-sensitive breeding birds, but are also becoming known as being potentially of absolute necessity to spring migrants. Radar shows huge numbers of these birds descending into bottomland hardwoods relatively close to the coast upon completion of their Gulf of Mexico crossing. Maintenance of these forests may have conservation implications that extend well beyond the West Gulf Coastal Plain.
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