Biodiversity Values
The forests of the Southern United States are home to a large number of species of fauna as a result of the warm, relatively humid climate and the diversity of habitats found from Virginia to Texas among the associated coastal plains, bottomlands, and uplands. Forests are valued by many purely for their wildlife populations which provide opportunities to pursue such pastimes as hunting and bird watching. Federal and state laws have been enacted which are intended to prevent species extinction and maintain adequate, critical habitat for rare, threatened, and endangered species. Forest managers are responsible for maintaining the habitat required by wildlife populations in their forests. Therefore, as forests in the South are managed more intensively, and as population growth and urban expansion put greater pressure on forests and result in fragmentation of forest ecosystems, it is critical that foresters and landowners be knowledgeable about the ways in which forest management can affect biodiversity.
This section will provide an explanation of biodiversity, its place in sustainable forest management, and management options to help maintain diversity. Specific topics include:
Readers interested in additional sources of information about biodiversity conservation in our National Forests might consult Norse and others (1986), Linder (2004), and other papers in Rauscher and Johnson (2004) for material related to the South.
Encyclopedia ID: p1268
