Jackson and Clay County UT Extensions hosting a meeting to help local landowners improve wildlife habitat management.
Jackson County Extension Director Dill Hughes said many property owners do not actively manage their acreage for specific environmental outcomes. Hughes said the goal of the joint program is to provide residents with the necessary education to make informed decisions about their property.
“What they don’t realize or fail to realize that they can actually take the resource that they have and they can manipulate it and change it over time to improve timber values,” Hughes said, “And also improve the wildlife habitat that they have on their properties.”
Hughes said maintaining healthy habitats is increasingly difficult as residential development and subdivisions accelerate across the Upper Cumberland, Hughes said. Regional growth often leads to habitat fragmentation, which breaks up the consistent woodlots and brushy areas animals use as travel corridors.
“The animals generally will adapt, but the smaller animals in particular, when you fragment their habitat and they can’t connect one to the other, they don’t have the habitat that they need in terms of the structure and the types of succession they need. But they also don’t have habitat that’s connected close enough together for them to be viable in a lot of cases,” Hughes said.
Managing for specific species requires maintaining land in certain stages of plant succession. Hughes said an area left alone will naturally transition from plowed ground to brush and eventually into a forest, but different animals require different environments.
“Some animals prefer thick areas, some animals prefer mature woodland, some animals prefer open areas,” Hughes said. “And so whatever animal it is that you’re trying to manage for, you need to create habitats that they prefer.”
Hughes said landowners should consult with professionals before beginning aggressive timber thinning or habitat changes. He recommended contacting Richard Underwood, a private lands biologist based in the Cookeville NRCS office who works with the Soil Conservation and Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency.
“His job is to work with landowners, private landowners across the Upper Cumberland, and assess what they have and what goals they have, and then how to manipulate the habitat to improve the habitat for what they’re trying to manage for,” Hughes said.
Collaborative management between neighbors can help create larger blocks of habitat, though Hughes said this requires strong communication and shared goals. He said landowners must be willing to work together rather than becoming proprietary over the wildlife that moves across property lines.
The joint educational program will be held on Tuesday at the Jackson County UT Extension Office. The meeting is free and open to the public, featuring a presentation by University of Tennessee researcher and wildlife specialist Dr. Craig Harper, who will provide practical guidance on forest stand improvement, land manipulation, and maximizing natural habitat value on private acreage.
