Masters Research
Providing exotic forages: Planting non-native species to attract wildlife has both advocates and adversaries. Regardless of opinion, the practice has both merit and drawbacks. One merit is that it provides openings that both attract wildlife and give a clear shooting range. This may lead to successful hunting opportunities and more humane harvest. For government agencies charged with creating hunting opportunities, this can be an especially important function.
Native plants represent the natural forage and environment that animals, including game species, evolved. This means that all nutrients required for these animals occur in the native community. By supporting high diversity and variable structure, managers provide the highest probability of growing everything that a given species needs to thrive. Unfortunately, many of these communities have been damaged or degraded so that not all requirements are easy to come by. In addition, introduced invasives, diseases, etc. may have changed the dynamics of certain communities. Because of this, many communities need to be improved or restored. This process can be time consuming, costly, and difficult.
Our forgotten natives
All wildlife species require food, shelter, and water. Providing all three should be the goal of any wildlife management strategy. Plants fulfill at least two of these needs, food and shelter. Native plants such as partridge pea (C. fasciculata) provide both food and shelter for white-tailed deer.
Promotion of native plant communities often require restoration of natural processes such as fire, flooding or other means of disturbance. In the case of Fort Bragg, both fire and soil disturbance may be required to promote some species.
Plant species of interest for white-tailed deer, Eastern Wild Turkey, Northern Bobwhite, and Mourning Dove include native lespedeza (Lespedeza capitata, Lespedeza stuevei), partridge pea (Chamaecrista fasciculata, Chamaecrista nictitans), pokeberry (Phytolacca americana), and common ragweed (Ambrosia artemisiifolia).
To promote these species we disked the soil in pre-existing wildlife openings that contained limited non-native species. For one treatment, we supplemented the preexisting seed bank with local seeds from the species listed above. In a second treatment we provided no supplementation to the seedbank. These two treatments represent our "local communities" test to determine the effect of the current native and naturalized community types on focal wildlife species. In addition we monitored 10 sites in the longleaf pine forest not considered "openings."
Most non-native species used in openings are nutritious and palatable annuals such as the soybeans above. White-tailed deer devoured the soybeans in this field, leaving only those they could not reach inside the cages. Non-native forages are typically divided into two categories. The first is warm season such as soybeans, but also include iron-clay cowpeas, Peredovik sunflowers and LabLab. The second category is cool season. This category includes things such as winter wheat, rye, crimson clover, arrowleaf clover, and Austrian winter peas.
Planting these species mimics standard agricultural practices. Plots planted in this treatment must be planted each year. This practice may cost less in the short run, but the cost quickly adds up. More fertilizer is typically needed and the yearly maintenance is much higher than native openings. In addition, the lack of diversity means that the benefit may be limited to only certain species and at certain times of the year.
For our exotic forages, we used soybeans in the warm season openings and a mix of winter wheat, crimson clover, and arrowleaf clover in cool season openings. We followed standard planting procedures and monitored them throughout the year.
The case for exotic forage