 Welcome everybody my name is Sally Stockwell and I am happy to have you here with us today to learn about forestry for Maine birds. This is a program that is all about helping landowners, loggers and foresters manage woodlots in ways that benefit birds and other wildlife. So we're going to walk you through the basics of what forestry for Maine birds is and how you can take the information and apply it to your own woodland. And I have my wonderful partners here with me today, Amanda Mahaffey from the Forest Stewards Guild and Andy Schultz from the Maine Forest Service. And I think I neglected say I'm Sally Stockwell Director of Conservation at Maine Audubon. So this is a wonderful partnership program that we've been working on together for a number of years and we're going to create a series of mini videos that kind of walk you through the essence of a typical workshop. So what is forestry for Maine birds? Well it's it's designed to help breeding birds in Maine with create better habitat for breeding birds. Why are these birds important? Well if you look at this poster over here you'll see that we have a variety of forest types here in Maine. We have coniferous forest which are sometimes called softwood forest, mixed forest that have both hardwoods and softwoods together and then deciduous forests that are predominantly otherwise called hardwood forests. And each one of those forest types offers different places for birds to breed, to nest, to raise their young and to hide from predators. So for example in the coniferous forest you might find black bernian warblers way at the top of a coniferous tree singing their hearts out. You'll notice how brightly beautiful their breast is and they have a really thin, wispy song that rises up kind of like that. And then on the trunk of the tree you might find a blackbath wood pecker. They like old trees that flake off, the bark flakes off. They look for insects under those flakes. Down on the forest floor you might find a Canada warbler. Canada warblers, their populations are declining dramatically and they like shrubby areas right next to water. And then if you move into the mixed woods where you have both hardwoods and softwoods you might find a instead of the blackback woodpecker of yellow-bellied sap sucker. That's a type of woodpecker that feeds the drills holes in trees and the sap runs and then they collect the insects that are attracted to that sap. In the middle of the forest you might find Magnolia warblers. They like sort of small evergreen trees somewhat densely packed together and they fit around in those forests. Down towards the shrubby area in the understory you might find black-throated blue warblers. They are particularly fond of hobble bush which is this flowering shrub right there. It's dense enough they can hide in there, they can nest in there. And then if you look in the center of the poster you'll see there's a little opening in the canopy. That opening or gap is a place where you have species like eastern wood peewees or chestnut-sided warblers that will gather in that gap. The peewees will perch on a tree at the edge of the gap and then fly out into the gap to feed on the insect right in that gap. And then if you keep going over into the deciduous or hardwood forest that's where we find species like woodthrush, hermitthrush. The woodthrush likes a really dense canopy over tall dense canopy. Pretty good fill in in the central part of the forest as well and then they nest and breed in that that middle story but they often feed on the forest floor. They'll kick up the leaves on the forest floor and look for insects on that forest floor. And then in the very tops of the big oak trees you often find scarlet tannagers and in fact we have one that's singing right up here behind us. It's not going to sing right now of course but it has been singing since we arrived. Maine is often referred to as the baby bird factory for the Eastern United States. You can see why when you look at this map that National Audubon created of the last best forested acres in all up and down the eastern seaboard. And you'll notice right away that the largest green area occurs right here in Maine. So we have both an opportunity and a responsibility to create good breeding habitat for these different species because if there are no more baby birds no matter what other threats these species face their populations will continue to plummet. And we want to try to reverse that if we can and we need your help. So please join us. Thanks. So our forests here in Maine are extensive. Excuse me. They we have over 17 million acres of forest land here in Maine. We have a wide variety of different types of forests. And and that's why we attract so many birds back to breed in these forests. The other thing that our forests provide these birds are lots of insects. So there's amazing stories about how far away our breeding birds come from. On the far right of the poster if you see the yellow lines we have species like American Woodcock that come here to breed in the summer. But they live in the southern part of the U.S. during the winter. They move slowly back up to Maine over the course of the spring before they arrive in time for the soil is is thawed and they can find the earthworms and other insects in the ground that they feed on. Then we have things like the scarlet tannager species like the scarlet tannager that breeds down in that breeds here in Maine. But then spends the winter down in Central and South America. And my favorite though is the black pole warbler because black pole warblers winter down in South America in the spring. They work their way slowly up through Central America, Mexico, the U.S. and up into Canada where they will breed in the Alaska across the Canadian Arctic and in far northern Maine. But then in the fall all of those black pole warblers congregate in the coast of Maine. They feed extensively to gain a lot of weight before they then jump off the Atlantic and fly all the way nonstop down to their wintering areas. 88 hours almost 2,000 miles in one flight. It's truly amazing. So we have we have this wealth of species that returns every year here in Maine. And yet many of these species are struggling. They are of conservation concern. Their populations have been declining over the last 40 years. In some cases they've declined 50, 60 percent of their populations. And we know from recent analysis of the breeding bird survey data that we've lost about a quarter to a third of all of our birds compared to 40 years ago. And so we have this wonderful opportunity and responsibility here in Maine to try to create better habitat for these birds to come back and breed successfully. And we can do this along with other landowner and forester goals for how to manage their property. So that's what the Forestry for Maine Birds program is all about. And we have, I'm going to pause there and then invite you back for the next step of our video series where Amanda is going to talk about what specific features in the forest these birds are looking for and how you can try to identify them yourself. Hi, I'm Amanda Mahaffey. I work for the Forest Stewards Guild and I'm going to help introduce your handy habitat assessment tool for forestry for Maine birds. So first step is to take your three fingers on each hand and point them like this. On your left hand we're going to talk about live things. On your right hand we're going to talk about things that aren't alive but are really important habitat features for forest birds. So first on your left hand we are going to talk about overstory, mid-story and understory. Since I am in the understory I'm going to talk about that first. If you imagine 0 to 6 feet, any woody vegetation that you see in 0 to 6 feet, there are going to be certain forest birds that will key in on that. We're going to get into detail in a little bit. Mid-story is between 6 and 30 feet. So you can imagine between 6 feet off the ground and approximately 3 stories up in the air. That's the mid-story. And in that mid-story you can have stems, you can have branches, you can have leaves that all provide really important habitat for forest birds. And then we have the overstory. So if you can picture a three-story building 30 feet in the air and all the woody vegetation that is up in the canopy, up in the tops of those trees, that's another key area that certain forest birds will key into. So again on the left hand we have live things. Overstory, mid-story, and understory. Now coming back to your handy assessment tool on the right hand we have things that aren't so live. First we'll talk about snags and decaying trees. Then we'll talk about coarse woody material and fine woody material. So snags and decaying trees. As you look around your wood lot you're probably going to see some trees that look like they're in kind of rough shape. You might find some that have really thick trunks that might have holes in them. You might hear certain kinds of woodpeckers and other forest birds that are really taking advantage of those those big dead and decaying trees. So snags and dead and decaying trees are one habitat feature you want to look for. Then we have coarse woody material. We'll show you some good examples but coarse woody material might be some big pieces that are thicker than the stuff you see here. And you can find those after a logging job. We'll show you some good pictures of that as well. So piles of coarse woody material are something that other forest birds will key in on. Last but not least we have fine woody material. So tops and branches smaller material that you find provides habitat for insects which is a good foraging habitat for other forest birds. So a quick review of these and then we have some bonus features for you. So on your left hand live things, overstory, midstory, understory, and on your right hand things that were once live, snags and decaying trees, coarse woody material, and fine woody material. Another habitat feature we have some bonus features for you is leaf litter. So the oven bird which was singing right before we started filming really keys in on hardwood leaf litter. So that's a habitat feature that you'll want to think of for your oven bird. Pizza, pizza, pizza, pizza. Also you want to think about tree size and stand age. So as you look around, size matters. Basically the bigger the better whether it's live or dead. So again our bonus features over here we have leaf litter, hardwood leaf litter, and we have tree size and age. Now your bonus features on your left hand we have canopy gaps and riparian areas. So canopy gaps after a timber harvest or as would naturally occur when tree falls in the forest you get these beautiful openings and in those you probably have seen some nice pools of sunlight where insects like to fly around like they are right here and birds, certain birds that Easternwood, Pee Wee, and others will come in and swoop in and catch those insects on the wing. So canopy gaps are an important habitat feature to look for in your wood lot. And then riparian areas. So riparian meaning waterways. So we'll go visit a riparian area in a little while but just down the hill here there's a nice little quiet stream and there's some nice cool shady features and certain kinds of trees and shrubs that like to use that habitat. And then there are forest birds that also like riparian habitat created by those trees and shrubs. So once again for your bonus features on your left hand we have canopy gaps and then we have riparian areas. So it's a lot to remember and you can always come back to your original six of live things and used to be live things. Overstory, mid-story, understory, snags and standing woody material, coarse woody material, fine woody material. So thanks for tuning in. Thank you so much Amanda for that great introduction to our Forestry for Main Birds habitat features. And next up we're going to have Andy Schultz from the Maine Forest Service dive in deeper on the live features of the forest that birds queue into. So come back soon. Hi folks my name is Andy Schultz I'm with the Maine Forest Service and I'm going to focus in on the left hand elements the so-called live elements that Amanda mentioned before. So we're standing here in a mixed wood stand mixed meaning there are softwood trees and hardwood particularly behind me is a hardwood stand and that's a good illustration of several of those elements. Let me first mention though starting from the bottom up with the left hand and I'm going to go like this. That's the riparian area that's water. We're standing on a hill so you won't see water here but water is important. Any number of bird species need the water they need the vegetation that's around the water the usually shady aspects of that and by the way that shade that protects the temperature is also good for brook trout and other fish which illustrates that when you're managing your forest for birds you're also managing it for other species as well. So this is really one way to work with wildlife in general by working with certain birds in particular. So moving up from the riparian area we have the understory which as you recall is the first six feet from the ground up so if you look here you'll see that we have some sapling trees in that zero to six foot range and when we assess this we tend to look what we want to look at is see how much vegetation is in that layer. There's a term called closure so if you were to stand there and look up how much of what you saw would be covered by leaf material. In this case there wouldn't be a lot but there's some. The next layer up is the midstory that is from six feet to 30 and you'll see that some of the trees here are in that range. Again there's not a lot of them so the closure is not high but there is some and then of course the third layer up the overstory above 30 feet as you look into the background you'll see there are trees in that strata and there's probably more of that still than the other layers right here so not just some but maybe more than some. Now that's the quick and dirty assessment that you do with your handy tool. Sometimes though you might ask a forester to go out and measure that in a little more detail and put that in some sort of a plan or something like that but for the purposes today we're just going to go with the the handy method. So that fifth piece on the hand on the left hand is gaps and that would refer to the openings in that upper layer above 30 feet. We're standing in an area that is relatively small gap but still is going to be used by birds like flycatchers something else to think about when you're looking at the live stuff are your tree species and the mix and I mentioned this is mixed wood what we have nearby is a softwood inclusion pine and hemlock amongst a greater forest of mostly hardwood and certain bird species really look for that particular feature. So these are some of the things that you can walk through the woods and notice write it down or you can have a forester do a more formal assessment or inventory of these features. Another feature that you want to look for is what we call a legacy tree. These are bigger older trees usually they have bigger fuller crowns they were here at a time when they had more light they could open up we're standing next to one here that provides yet another element of wildlife habitat in general and bird habitat in particular. So here's another example of the three elements of habitat that we talk about on the left hand the so-called living side and the three elements are the understory the midstory and the overstory. Understory is from ground level to about six feet and you'll see right here we've got pine hemlock we've got a softwood understory filling in here basically somewhere where you can't really see through the woods that means that there's understory there blocking your view. Now if you look up above that six foot level six feet to about 30 feet that's what we call the midstory that would be the middle finger of those three and you can see up here that includes some of the lower branches of taller trees as long as they have leaves on them and they're filling in that space then there there is a layer there that some birds need or use. And you'll see that that's filling in a little bit in this part of the woods. And the third is the one that as a forestry I'm always looking at and it's it's really important to look all the way up and that's above 30 feet so more than a three-story building 30 feet and above is what we call overstory and there are a lot of birds that require either a very dense closed-in overstory or a mostly closed-in overstory with small gaps so that overstory layer is also very important. Thank you Andy for that great review of the live elements of the forest that birds and other wildlife really depend on and I invite you back for the next section where I'm going to be talking about how great dead wood is. Please join us thank you. So welcome back folks you may remember now we get to talk about the importance of dead things in the forest and I'm going to start by looking at this wonderful example of a large snag that's a dead standing tree and if you look carefully up here there are all kinds of holes in the tree those are holes that woodpeckers are making in the tree to try to find insects they might also be holes where they're trying to build a nest they often they build their nest right in the cavity of this dead standing tree and so the thing to remember about snags is that the bigger they are the better they are and my friend Andy is going to help measure this particular snag and tell us that it's almost what did you say well let's call it 16 16 inch diameter all right and so that is big enough for something like a pilliated woodpecker our largest woodpeckers to actually use now in addition to these large snags we have smaller snags in the forest that can be used by smaller woodpeckers like downy woodpeckers and then once those downy woodpeckers build a hole chickadees or tip mice will come in and use that cavity for their nest in future years something like this size would be good for a downy woodpecker or chickadees but definitely not pilliated woodpeckers now the next thing we're going to look at our dead is dead wood on the forest floor all right so if you look around on the forest floor here you'll see all kinds of dead wood on the ground now some people look at that and they think oh that's messy i want to clean it up make it look almost like a part but no no no no we don't want you to do that we actually love down wood on the forest floor we we say messy is good and more is better so i'm here's an example of some down large down woody material this old tree that fell and is lying on the forest floor and in order to count it as being part of the down woody material we need it to be at least six inches in diameter and andy what have we got here in fact we've got more than eight more than eight inches so so this is a pretty good size piece and it's also over 17 feet long so this is the kind of log that a roughed grouse might stand on top of and flap its wings and send out a booming boom boom boom sound to attract a mate it's also the kind of log that a fisher cat might run along the top of or look underneath searching for small mice and amphibians to feed on so these features on the forest floor are really important the other thing we want to look for are what we call fine woody material smaller smaller logs that are not logs smaller twigs that are on the forest floor but often in piles so not really what you see right in front of us but those piles of smaller twigs are places where birds can hide from predators and they can also look for insects that collect in that pile of forest in fact just last week i was out walking through the woods behind my house and there was a winter wren that was tucked right in the center of one of those piles of fine woody material so we'll see if we can find one of those piles for you in a minute so here's an example of a small pile of fine woody material and if you were to add a little bit more some other branchy tops of trees and branches on top of this you'd have a nice little cozy cave where birds specially sparrows and rands can come in thrushes can come in and hide in there from predators and they can also feed on the insects that collect in among these branches and then another important part of the forest is what's here on the forest floor these dead leaves are called leaf litter and oven birds in particular need a nice thick layer of leaves at least an inch and a half thick because they come in and they gather these leaves together and they create a little nest on the forest floor that looks just like an oven with the side entrance here which is why they're called oven birds and i can hear some of them in the background right now they go teacher teacher teacher and they wouldn't be here if it weren't for this leaf litter now that you've had a chance to learn all about what different habitat features different birds need to rest feed and raise their young we'd like to invite you to come back and talk with several professional foresters about how you can put together a management plan that enhances habitat for birds and other wildlife along with meeting whatever other goals you have for your property so please come back soon welcome back everybody now we've come to the final series final video of our series where we're going to put everything together you've learned a lot about what habitat feature birds cue into in the forest why they're important which birds use what part of the forest and now we're going to talk to amanda about how do you take that information and put it together into a management plan so amanda can you tell us a little bit about how that would happen i'd be happy to do that sally so a really good place to start is with the forestry for main birds guidebook this nice thick book here is a guidebook for foresters managing woodlots with birds in mind but if you're really active landowner you also might want to get your hands on a copy of it because there's some really great information here about all the things that we've talked about today the first thing i'd like to bring your attention to in terms of management plans is this handy trail map i would do air quotes but i can't right now handy trail map which is on page 76 and 77 on managing forest with birds in mind so how do you get from a handy habitat assessment to a forest management plan i'll read you the basic steps and uh we'll talk through it a little bit first we want to know for you as a landowner what are your goals and objectives so that's where it starts what do you care about on your land next we want to assess the current habitat conditions and again your handy habitat assessment is a good place to start next we want to think about what are the light what are the goals and objectives you have in light of what you actually have going on in the woods and then we would talk about silvicultural systems that can help that can help in you achieve your goals on your land silviculture is the art and science of forest management there's a little bit of art and a little bit of science and when you put it together you can have forest bird habitat that is enhanced by timber harvesting and special treatments that happen on the ground so silvicultural systems and that goes hand in hand with the forest management plans so again we start with landowner goals and objectives and then we have to understand what's going on on the ground what does it mean for forest bird habitat then we can make some goals and decisions and decide what silvicultural systems will help us achieve those goals and that goes hand in hand with forest management planning so to give you a little more detail on how we get from our handy habitat assessment to a forest management plan all these things that we were talking about earlier with overstory midstory understory live features not live features those are similar to what a forester would be would be assessing in a timber inventory and in fact all those handy assessments are paired with science so in in the forestry for main birds forester's guidebook and also online at the main autobahn website you can find a copy of the data form that pairs this so just as a quick example in terms of overstory instead of just thinking hmm is there a lot some or not much then we'd give you we'd give you a little bit more detail about what are the tree species that are there um or is it more of a hardwood or softwood mix where's the canopy height um and then take notes about the canopy gaps and other features there's some really good habitat assessment tools and a way to capture the data um on this form and once you run your handy habitat assessment or your detailed data assessment a number of times it goes really quickly so it's something as a forester that you can add on to um pretty easily to what you're already doing that the information you're already already collecting in each stand. Thanks again to Amanda for setting the stage for what's involved in putting together a management plan and now we're going to hear from two experts on the topic who are familiar with working with landowners on developing those management plans first we're going to hear from Andy Schultz with the main forest service who is a land landowner outreach forester and he also works closely with district foresters for the main forest service so Andy can you please tell us what do you do and what do district foresters do and how do you help landowners develop management plans for their woods. Okay well uh Sally as you mentioned I'm uh my name's Andy Schultz I'm the landowner the landowner outreach forester for the main forest service and that's a statewide position I mostly talk to folks on the phone or by email about their wood lots and um try to get them on the path to help them take their next step which very often may be getting that forest management plan done uh in that case we usually refer to a group of consulting foresters and more about that in a second but I do want to mention one more tool here and that's this book which is the forest trees of Maine essentially if you want to know your species your tree species and more about where to find them and of course that is key to uh determining habitat as well that book is available from the main forest service or by calling your local district forester so we have 10 district foresters here in the state of Maine covering the entire state you can look up your district forester by going to main forest service dot gov there's a find your district forester page or you can email to forestinfo at main dot gov and just let people know where you are or where your woodlot is and people like me will respond and tell you who your district forester is district foresters can come out they can walk with you answer questions make broad suggestions and recommendations they will not perform the function of writing a forest management plan or overseeing a timber harvest again as I mentioned for that they're going to refer you to a private consulting forester we do keep a list of those on our website we refer to them as stewardship foresters and they're there to provide those services to private landowners including getting your woodlot in shape for different wildlife habitat and different species we now have a former district forester and currently a private consulting forester with us to talk a little bit about the role that private consulting foresters can play and how they can help you manage your woodlot for the values that you care about thank you thanks for Paul Larrabee thank you Paul Larrabee consulting forester my main job is to meet with landowners and really try to get to understand their objectives for their land that often involves walks in the woods long conversations usually with coffee or tea usually about what their main goals are for their land and that varies but the one uniform theme is you know recreation wildlife aesthetics and timber management and also the next generation what's going to happen to the land for the next generation so after we discuss all of these topics and usually it's in great detail i've worked to develop a long-term plan for that land to meet all of those objectives and that that includes doing inventories whether it be wildlife you know understanding what types of wildlife are using the lot at that time what type of recreation activities are happening on the lot an inventory of the timber an inventory of the shrubs all of that inventory is conducted and then presented to the landowner with some options now ultimately the landowner the landowner guides those decisions based on their objectives what a forester does is provide the information and provide guidance for that landowner and so usually that that all gets compiled into a forest management plan and that management plan is adaptive it's once it's written doesn't mean that it's written in stone the landowner can modify that management plan based on market conditions weather conditions insect conditions i try to encourage my landowners to reference that management plan often and make notes take notes in the management plan and if things need to be modified in that management plan don't be afraid to reach out to your consultant forester when i was a district forester i would meet with landowners and refer them to consulting foresters and i remember the last thing i'd always tell a landowner was make sure you like your forester it makes sense right because it's supposed to be a long-term relationship it's not when a landowner works with a forester that forester may work for multiple generations on that same land and and really you need to have a good working relationship and you need to get along so meet with meet with multiple consultants and work with somebody that you like and that you want to work with well into the future thanks paul so if i'm a landowner sounds like the best thing to do is first contact the main forest service and talk to andy and then he can refer me to a district my local district forester who can come out on my land walk it with me maybe do a quick habitat assessment talk about what my goals are for managing that land maybe i don't really know what my goals are so the forester can help me think through that and help prioritize whether it's wildlife or timber or aesthetics or recreation all above all of the above and then after i meet with that district forester if i decide that i want to put together a management plan then i can go to the list of stewardship foresters bring a couple out have them come walk the land with me so i can decide which one i click with and then then what happens then if i want to move forward with creating that management plan how do i do that okay good questions and very often the next step involves signing up for a program of some sort at main forest service we have a an assistance program that we call the woods wise incentives program and that can provide some financial assistance for getting a certain kind of forest management plan more than a bare bones plan this would be a plan that comprehensively looks at wildlife habitat forest health timber value water quality and the water features on the land and and a host of other things and as again i mentioned there'd be some reimbursement for that so it's what we used to call cost share program there is also another organization called the natural resources conservation service which is a federal branch of the usda it's a federal agency they have offices around the state and they can provide an array of financial and technical assistance as well through a program called the environmental quality incentives program which can also help defray the cost of forest management plans and beyond that it can help with the cost of certain practices that have been recommended in the plan so when you talk about what happens next sally typically the plan is not the end of the story by any means whether you get it through a program or simply you know pay your forestry to write one for you implementing the recommendations is really key and if your your desires have to do with wildlife habitat creating those gaps making sure that your large woody material remains that you don't get too involved in cleaning up the forest all of these things are part of what hopefully follows the plan and the recommendations and then furthermore you want to consider that this is not a one-time deal it's kind of like get a plan follow the plan review the plan amend the plan update the plan continue on and on and typically you would update that plan at least every 10 years or so 10 years is a good interval most of the programs that I mentioned woods wise and and the environmental environmental quality plans get written for 10-year periods that also coincides with a few other programs such as the tree growth tax law the point about plans is they really should be living documents and there could be many things that happen within that 10 years that really makes it makes sense to revisit you could have a weather event insect outbreak something in your own personal life or your family's life that causes you to need to change course so never really think of it as something that's just set in stone and done and then as paul mentioned don't be afraid to call back either your consoling forester or sometimes this is another good place to call the district forester just for a check-in so yeah it's a continuing process what we really at main forest service are one of our goals is to get woodland owners really engaged with their woods um so this involves working professionals it involves the planning but as much as anything it just involves getting out there walking around enjoying it learning from it and um hopefully passing it on to your family members in the future yes so there's a real legacy element here not only for your family but also for the forest as we know trees take a long time to grow right now we're in a much older forest than we were in earlier today and if you look around you can see there are many more big trees taller trees there's more vegetation at all layers of the forest there's some really nice down woody material here and um and the hammock and hollow floor which is typical of a forest that hasn't been disturbed for a long time and those are all features that take a long time to develop so we're in this for the long haul and that's why paul said it's so important to find somebody you like to work with i hope you've enjoyed our little mini series of videos talking about our forestry for main birds program we've tried to give you a brief introduction to the program it's way more fun though if you can actually come out into the woods with us and so once we're able to offer workshops again we encourage you to join us in person and we also encourage you to go to the main autobahn website under forestry for main birds you can find all kinds of additional resources there and of course remember to check in with the main forest service for help in contacting a district forester or a consulting forester or the main tree found main tree farm to enter your wood lot into their certification program if you have any questions you can give me a call or email my name again is sally stockwell and that uh at main autobahn that email is s stockwell at mainautobahn.org and our website is just mainautobahn.org so please come join us thank you and remember messy is good bigger is better more is better and you have an important role to play in helping keep this baby bird factory going strong long into the future thanks for all you do