Deer Park Management

The Deer Park Reserve is an approximately 95-acre tract of land in Hardwick, MA owned and managed by the East Quabbin Land Trust (EQLT) and under Conservation Restriction overseen by the Hardwick Conservation Commission. The north-to-south-oriented Simpson Road divides the property into two sections: a roughly 70-acre parcel on the east side and a roughly 25-acre parcel on the west side. The Deer Park Reserve directly abuts over 700-acres of permanently protected openspace on its southern border, and EQLT is looking to expand the Reserve by protecting additional acreage on the property’s western and northwestern edges. Two small waterways interact with the Reserve: Fish Brook originates and flows south from the eastern section of the property, and an unnamed tributary of Danforth Brook originates and bisects the property northeast to southwest. The majority of the property is wooded, though there is a recent and rich history of grazing on the property contributing to a high proportion of early seral composition. The East Quabbin Land Trust has outlined five general goals for this property:

The primary goal of this Management Outline is to summarize the early successional habitat reclamation goals of EQLT on the Deer Park Preserve, intended to begin in 2009. Two early successional units have been identified as appropriate for reclamation in this plan (Figure 1). Both units have relatively recent grazing histories, are currently in somewhat early seral stages, and are deemed highly feasible landscapes from a restoration and maintenance perspective.

Early successional restoration has been targeted for these units for two reasons.

1: The current and historic composition of these units lends themselves to be best managed as early successional habitat. Both units have been grazed as open pasture with the past 25-years, and since abandonment, both units have slowly progressed through extended periods of early successional habitat on their way toward their current state of young, low canopied woodland. The eastern Unit’s succession has been particularly slow, due primarily to the poor soil upon which it occurs. The extreme eastern section of the eastern Unit does occur on deeper, richer soil, but this has succeeded to primarily gray birch among former orchard trees, lending itself of little value to regional biodiversity. The western Unit has succeeded primarily into a dense stand of low, old-field white pine: a composition of that supports extremely low biodiversity. Additionally, invasive species are beginning to pioneer into the western Unit, and their control will be greatly facilitated by reopening the landscape. Both units are surprisingly sparse with surface rocks, which will facilitate maintenance, and together both Units will create a significant extension to the protected, open habitats abutting the units to the south and southeast.

2: Early successional specialists are important and declining components of New England’s biodiversity. The Breeding Bird Survey shows that most shrubland species have declined rapidly and steadily since the 1960s. In particular, target species of this project have shown some of the greatest declines, especially since 1980 (Table 01).

Table 01: Target Species and Annual Population Decline 1985-2007 in Massachusetts (Breeding Bird Survey Data)

Species	Annual Percent Decline
American Kestrel	-29.2
American Woodcock	-4.8 (1967-2007)
Whip-poor-Will	-10.1
Brown Thrasher	-8.1
Blue-winged Warbler	-3.0
Chestnut-sided Warbler	-2.5
Prairie Warbler	-3.3
Common Yellowthroat	-3.0
Eastern Towhee	-3.3
Field Sparrow	-4.6
Song Sparrow	-2.0
Indigo Bunting	-2.9

Shrubland species have been shown to be a major aspect of the New England landscape even prior to European settlement. Regular natural disturbance events such as river flooding, beaver activity, wind storms, ice storms, localized insect and disease outbreaks, and wildfires offered a continuum of dynamic processes across the landscape, creating a matrix of diverse and shifting seral stages within the region that supported strong populations of shrubland and grassland species. Over at least the past millennium, as Native Americans began settling the landscape, shrubland species likely increased as shrublands and thickets expanded as a result from agricultural clearing and especially burning. It is likely that with European settlement shrubland species at first declined due to the intensity of farming, but by the 1840s farm abandonment east of the Appalachian Mountains resulted in a resurgence of early successional shrub growth, and perhaps a high-water mark for shrubland bird populations in eastern North America. More recently, however, most of the abandoned farmland in New England, beginning especially in the 1980s, had reverted back to close canopied forest or had been converted to housing developments. As development expanded, more natural habitat of any sort was lost, and with it the ability of forests to offer patches of shrubland through natural disturbance. This is compounded by the interruption of natural processes in modern landscapes through such activities as fire suppression, flood control and beaver removal. Sharp declines are being observed with all shrubland species in New England, and as the lack of suitable habitat is combining with serious threats along migratory routes and in wintering grounds, many of these species may eventually disappear. In New England, once common breeders such as Yellow-breasted Chat, Loggerhead Shrike and Golden-winged Warbler are now gone or extremely rare. In the present, protection, reclamation and maintenance of early successional habitat are the key activities in locally supporting remaining early successional species.

Unit A is a 12-acre unit on the west side of Simpson Road. Grazing history here is staggered. A logging road currently accesses the interior compartments of the Unit, though the stone bridge that crosses the main channel of the bisecting wetland has collapsed and needs address.

Compartment 01: Compartment 01 is the most recently grazed compartment in Unit A, with active cattle present approximately 25-years ago. Currently the heart of this Compartment is comprised of dense old-field white pine at a canopy height of approximately 20-feet. Very little understory remains under the white pine, though skeletal juniper occurs throughout. Asiatic bittersweet is beginning to pioneer into the white pine area. The southern edge of the Compartment is a mixed deciduous woodland of young red maple, white ash and oak, featuring a small, very old apple orchard. Asiatic bittersweet and honeysuckle are establishing in this section of the Compartment.

Compartment 02: Compartment 02 is a white pine woodlot surrounded by well-formed stonewalls. Canopy height reaches 40-feet in areas. The understory is dense white pine saplings. Asiatic bittersweet is present.

Compartment 03: Compartment 03 is an abandoned pasture, likely grazed within the past 40-years. The canopy is not well defined and is primarily white pine. White pine and various deciduous species comprise a thick sub-canopy approximately 15-feet high. Understory is somewhat dense in areas, comprised of witch-hazel, maple-leaved Viburnum and young musclewood.

Compartment 04: Compartment 04 is very similar to Compartment 03, though the canopy is even less defined and the understory is dense in areas with multi-flora rose. The eastern edge of the Compartment slopes down into a red maple swamp.

Compartment 01: Compartment 01 is an approximately 8-acre ridgeline based upon bedrock ledge and thin, poor soils. This compartment was grazed as recently as 20-years ago, and is now a dense, low canopy of gray birch, red maple, white pine and regenerating oak. As recently as 10-years ago this compartment was dense with a groundcover of early low blueberry, but now this feature is primarily relegated to its northern half. Canopy height is approximately 18 feet throughout most of the compartment, though canopy height gradually increases to meet the high canopy oak forest adjacent to the northern edge of the compartment.

Compartment 02: Compartment 02 is approximately 13-acres and occurs in the flat basin associated with Fish Brook. This compartment has deep soil and is currently dominated by 12-foot tall gray birch with interstitial apple and an patchy understory of goldenrod, arrowwood and multi-flora rose. A few open pockets remain, dominated by rank herbaceous growth (goldenrod, aster, joe-pye weed). A few open pockets of shallow marsh also occur along Fish Brook, comprised of various sedges and some reed canary grass. The eastern edge of the compartment abuts an active hayfield.

Desired Condition: A matrix of open early successional habitat with all Compartments cleared and maintained as shrubland with interstitial herbaceous openings. Select emergent oak and hickory retained, stocked roughly at 1-8 trees per acre. All invasive plants controlled. Some low intensity grazing possible.

- Maintain compartments through an integrated program of selective herbicide application, rotational mowing, selective cutting and possibly grazing.

- All mowing should occur between 01 September and 01 April to avoid conflicts with nesting birds

- Grazing should be employed at a low intensity to allow colonization of desired shrub structure

- Arrowwood, blueberry, various Rubus spp and various Cornus spp are optimal shrub species

Desired condition: Compartment 01 to be an open savannah of sparse tree oaks and hickory above a dense groundcover of early low blueberry and little bluestem with interstitial emergent shrubs such as highbush blueberry, Spiraea, American hazelnut and chokeberry. Compartment 02 is to be a dense open shrubland highlighted by Rubus, Cornus, arrowwood and winterberry with dense interstitial patches of rank herbaceous growth that interfaces with the adjacent wetland and hayfield in a smooth ecotone. Remnant orchard trees and the occasional emergent American elm will remain. All invasives controlled.

- Maintain compartments through an integrated program of selective herbicide application, rotational mowing and possibly grazing.

- All mowing should occur between 01 September and 01 April to avoid conflicts with nesting birds

- Prescribed fire is the optimal management regime for the desired ridgetop structure (Heathland)

- Grazing should be employed at a low intensity to allow colonization of desired shrub structure in the reaming compartments

- Feathering the clearing of oaks on the ridgetop at its northern edge to create a gradual interface with the adjacent high canopy oak/hickory forest is appropriate. However, all generalist trees species should be removed (white pine, red maple, gray birch). Further, all pioneering generalists, especially white pine should be removed from this forest, and if possible, prescribed fire should be employed in this forest.