Southern Company Extends Support of Major Conservation Programs

/PRNewswire/ -- Southern Company today announced that it is pledging an additional $1.08 million to the Five Star Restoration and Power of Flight programs, extending its sponsorship of both conservation programs through 2013. The extended support aligns their sponsorship timelines with Longleaf Legacy, Southern Company's third major environmental stewardship program that helps restore the longleaf pine ecosystem.

"Southern Company is proud to pledge additional funding and support for these important programs and extend our commitment to environmental stewardship throughout our Southeastern community," said Chris Hobson, chief environmental officer at Southern Company. "We look forward to building upon our longstanding partnerships with the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the National Association of Counties, and many other conservation organizations and community partners to further strengthen efforts to protect and enhance our environment."

The Power of Flight program, conserving Southern birds and their habitats, is the largest public agency-private corporation funding effort for bird conservation in the South. This new pledge secures one additional year of funding for projects to the existing 10-year commitment. Efforts span Southern Company's primary service area of Georgia, Alabama, northwestern Florida and southeastern Mississippi.

"Southern Company's support of our work to better conserve the Southeast's fish and wildlife resources has been as consistent as it has been generous," said Jeff Trandahl, NFWF executive director. "The company's unwavering commitment to bettering the fish and wildlife resources of the Southeast has made possible numerous projects, benefiting ecosystems from the coast to the highlands."

The Five Star Restoration Program provides grants and technical support for community-based education and outreach projects in riparian (land-bordering waterways), coastal or wetland areas. Southern Company began its sponsorship of the Five Star Restoration Program in 2006, pledging a five-year $1.2 million commitment. This new pledge adds three years of support to help build local community capacity for resource stewardship and ecological restoration in watersheds through hands-on community involvement, outreach and education. As the Southeastern corporate sponsor, Southern Company joins EPA, NFWF, NACo and the Wildlife Habitat Council (WHC) in selecting and funding Five Star projects.

"EPA commends Southern Company's support as a corporate sponsor of the Five Star Restoration Program," said Stan Meiburg, acting regional administrator, EPA Region 4. "This support will enable EPA to provide challenge grants, technical support and information to promote community-based wetland and stream restoration projects across the Southeast."

The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation is an independent conservation leader that in 25 years has awarded 10,800 grants to more than 3,700 organizations. By building partnerships, the congressionally chartered Foundation has leveraged $635 million into $1.5 billion to sustain, restore and enhance fish, wildlife and plant populations.

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Long-term study finds that nutrient enrichment of headwater stream disrupts food web in unexpected ways

Human activity is increasing the supply of nutrients, such as nitrogen and phosphorus, to stream systems all over the world.The conventional wisdom—bolstered by earlier research—has held that these additional nutrients cause an increase in production all along the food chain, from the tiniest organisms up to the largest predators.A long-term, ecosystem-scale study by a team of University of Georgia researchers, however, has thrown this assumption into question.

The researchers—a team from the UGA Odum School of Ecology and department of entomology in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences—found , unexpectedly, that while nutrient enrichment did indeed cause a steady increase in the production of organisms lower on the food chain, organisms at the top of the food chain did not benefit.

Their study, “Long-term nutrient enrichment decouples predator and prey production,” published this week in the early edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, was funded by the National Science Foundation.It documents the effects of long-term nutrient enrichment of a headwater stream in a forested area at the Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory in North Carolina.For the first two years of the study, the results were as expected: the production of both prey (the organisms low on the food chain) and predators (in this case salamanders and macroinvertebrates) increased.But with continued addition of nutrients, things began to change.While the prey continued to increase at the same rate, the production of predators leveled off, signifying a ‘decoupling’ of the typical relationship between predators and prey.

Maintaining patterns of energy flow between predators and prey is a critical aspect of healthy ecosystems. “What we found was a dead end in the food chain,” said Amy Rosemond, assistant professor at the Odum School, and one of the lead researchers.“This is the first time we’ve seen this kind of trophic decoupling, or break in the food chain, between the levels of prey and predator on this scale.This kind of disruption of the food web wasn’t on anyone’s radar screen before now.”

In this instance, Rosemond explained, the break was driven by the traits of the various prey species that inhabit the stream system.Some of these species were better able to take advantage of the extra nutrition than were others.After the first two years, the nutrient enrichment began to favor the growth of large-bodied prey, such as the caddisfly, Pycnopsyche spp., over smaller organisms.These large-bodied prey were simply too big for the stream’s predators to consume; hence, they were unable to capitalize on the increase in available food.

John Davis, who conducted the research as part of his Ph.D. dissertation, said that the work has global implications.“Nutrient enrichment is a global threat to the health of freshwater ecosystems,” he explained.“However, our understanding of its effects is limited.Our experimental results varied substantially from the few other large-scale experiments, which suggests that ecosystem-level responses to nutrient enrichment are largely context-dependent.This is important because humans are increasing nutrient loading rates to a diversity of ecosystems, but our understanding of their effects is based on only a small number of ecosystem types.”

Rosemond said that their results point to the need for more research, especially large-scale, long-term studies in a variety of ecosystems.Davis agrees.“It took over four years for nutrient enrichment to decouple predator and prey production within these headwater streams,” he said.“But most ecological experiments are limited to time scales of weeks to months.”

And the need to understand the effects of nutrient enrichment continues to grow more important. According the Environmental Protection Agency, the health of 47 percent of lakes and 45 percent of streams in the U.S. is impaired, with excessive nutrients a significant source of that impairment.Nutrient inputs to lakes and streams are likely to continue to increase globally from fertilized agricultural and suburban lands and from human and animal wastes that enter aquatic systems from treated sewage, septic tanks, or run-off from land.Furthermore, headwater streams, like the study stream in Coweeta, may account for as much as 73% of all stream miles.These headwater streams are the ‘feeders’ of larger rivers, so their response to nutrient enrichment likely affects downstream systems as well. But long-term effects of nutrients have not been previously tested in these systems.

“Without more accurately assessing the long-term effects of nutrients on a diversity of ecosystem types,” Davis concluded, “we won’t be able to adequately predict how global ecosystems are going to respond to chronic nutrient enrichment.”

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Vanishing Habitat Walk at Sprewell Bluff State Park

Join a guided tour with a park ranger on a trail that transverses a globally imperiled habitat – the Montane Longleaf Pine Woodland. Participants will meet at the main parking area near the river at 10:00 am, June 6, 2009. This hike is part of National Trails Day, an event sponsored by the American Hiking Society. There is a $3.00 charge for the hike, and a $5.00 daily park pass fee. The hike will cover about two miles, and lead participants through a variety of habitats, from the river bottomlands, to the unique upland Longleaf community. All wildlife, from birds to dragonflies to butterflies will be discussed on this interpretive walk.

Why is this habitat so important?

The Montane Longleaf Community found at Sprewell Bluff, and the Natural areas across the river, are a rocky slope, ridge top community that is composed of Longleaf Pine, Shortleaf Pine, Sand Hickory, Post Oak, Chestnut Oak, Sparkleberry, and a variety of native grasses and wildflowers. Before European Settlement, natural fires, and fires set by Native Americans, maintained this community. But, with settlement, the old Longleaf Pine was turpentined, logged, or began to disappear as the land was farmed and used as grazing area for cattle. Fire was suppressed, and without fire, other trees like Loblolly Pine, less fire resistant oaks, and sweetgum moved in, and eventually, changed the habitat. Now, only puzzle pieces, little remnants of what used to be, survive as clues about what the forest looked like long ago.

The Department of Natural Resources Non-Game Wildlife Program has begun an ambitious effort to restore what is left. By prescribe Burning, thinning Loblolly Pine, and replanting Longleaf Pine, the native grasses and wildflowers are coming back in under the opening canopy, and young Longleaf Pine are waiting to reclaim their spot back in the forest. To see our efforts, and learn more about this rare ecosystem, join us on this hike and many others to come at Sprewell Bluff State Park.

To find out more information about these programs, or about Sprewell Bluff State Park, please call the park office at 706-746-6026 or talk to a park ranger at the park. For information on these or other programs happening at other parks, please visit www.gastateparks.org.
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Scientist Names Top Five Invasive Plants Threatening Southern Forests in 2009

U.S. Forest Service Southern Research Station (SRS) Ecologist Jim Miller, Ph.D., one of the foremost authorities on nonnative plants in the South, today identified the invasive plant species he believes pose the biggest threats to southern forest ecosystems in 2009.

"Cogongrass, tallowtree, and Japanese climbing fern are among the fastest moving and most destructive nonnative plant species facing many southern landowners this year," said Miller. "Rounding out the top five invasive species that I’m very concerned about would be tree-of-heaven and nonnative privets. While our forests are besieged by numerous invasive plants, these and other nonnative species present serious financial and ecological threats to the South and its forests in 2009."

Nonnative species often out-compete native forest plants and may degrade forest productivity, wildlife habitat, recreational values, and water quality. Invasive species also greatly increase expenses as public and private land managers work to combat their spread and deal with their effects (such as increased wildfire risk and severity).

Nonnative plants can be introduced and spread by wildlife or through other natural means. Humans also spread invasive species by planting them in their gardens and yards and by seeds hitchhiking on their clothes. Additionally, tractors and mowers used in multiple locations without being cleaned often spread nonnative plants.

In an effort to inform forest managers, landowners, and others about where the most threatening invasive plants are in the South and to help them prepare for these threats, Miller collaborated with SRS Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) scientists to develop maps showing the spread, county-by-county, across the Southeast of more than 30 of the most serious nonnative plant species. The invasive plant data were collected on FIA plots throughout the southern United States in cooperation with State forestry agencies. In partnership with the University of Georgia’s Center for Invasive Species Science and Ecosystem Health, SRS researchers recently posted the maps and occupation levels online.

Maps posted at http://www.invasive.org/fiamaps/acres.cfm show the number of acres in a county covered by each nonnative species. Maps posted online at

http://www.invasive.org/fiamaps/percent.cfm show the percent of subplots analyzed in a county that have each invasive species. A spreadsheet found at
http://www.invasive.org/fiamaps/summary.pdf shows the total acreage of 33 invasive plant species in 12 Southeastern States (data for eastern Oklahoma is missing as SRS FIA just
completed this part of the State’s inventory this month). Users can access the maps and spreadsheet via http://www.invasive.org/fiamaps/. Current plans are for researchers to update the information annually.

Miller hopes government agencies, forest managers, natural resource professionals, landowners, students, and others will use the information to help combat the spread of nonnative plant species in southern forest and grassland ecosystems.

Details on the five invasive plants mentioned above can be found online via: http://www.srs.fs.usda.gov/pubs/gtr/gtr_srs062/. The Web page features Jim Miller’s book titled Nonnative Invasive Plants of Southern Forests: A Field Guide for Identification and Control, published in 2003. Request a copy by e-mail at srspubqueue@fs.fed.us or by calling 828-257-4830.

Based in Auburn, AL, Miller is a scientist in the SRS Insects, Diseases, and Invasive Plants of Southern Forests unit.

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