Forestry for the Birds: A Tale of Two Woodlands
A Tale of Two Woodlands
Once upon a time, a few centuries ago, a woodland grew in a river valley of central Indiana. The people who managed this grove, made up of oaks and hickories and wildflowers, would burn the undergrowth periodically, creating grazing land for their food – bison, deer, and birds like turkeys.
Figure 1. Forestry for the Birds: the Birders' Dozen. Clockwise from upper left: Cerulean Warbler, Red-headed Woodpecker, American Woodcock, Eastern Towhee, Baltimore Oriole, Eastern Whip-poor-will, Yellow-breasted Chat, Hooded Warbler, Eastern Screech-Owl, Wood Thrush, and Worm-eating Warbler. Painting credit Jessica Outcalt.
As time went on, this woodland became uninhabited, until another family moved in. By this point, the woodland had changed. Asian bush honeysuckle had overtaken the undergrowth, and the overstory of oaks and hickories had been replaced by maples and beeches. Bison no longer grazed in the shade of oaks, and the songbirds couldn’t find places to build their nests or the berries they needed to fuel their migrations.
Once upon a time, a few years ago, a small group of six aspens and a silver maple grew in an urban yard in west Michigan. I grew up in the shade of those trees, watching the leaves change and grow every year alongside me. I fell in love with the outdoors as a child, and that love has propelled me through my career to the present day.
I am lucky enough to own a piece of that first woodland, once an oak woodland with a wide-open canopy, now dominated by invasive species. As I have worked on Forestry for the Birds and beyond in my professional life, I’ve been doing the hard work of putting what I preach into practice in my personal life. The small woodland of west Michigan inspired a love of forests that drives my actions today, with the goal of restoring the woodlands of central Indiana and the Central Hardwoods as a whole.
Why do woodlands matter?
I don’t come from a forestry background. I was always more interested in the animals that lived in the forest, the cute little creatures like chipmunks, deer, and owls. The more time I spent in the woods, however, the more I wanted to learn about what makes them thrive. If you’re reading this article, I suspect you have a similar interest – you love the woods, and you want to see them doing well. Maybe you define “doing well” as “producing good timber,” or “supporting a big population of deer and turkey,” or “keeping my mushroom spot healthy.” And those are all excellent goals and descriptions of thriving woodlands.
The challenge that has arisen, however, is that while timber production, deer and turkey populations, or mushroom abundance might be indicative of forest health in some ways, they’re not the full story. While our forests in Indiana might have a lot of trees and deer, they’re not functioning at their best.
Take a trip back in time with me. Let’s go to the 1600s, before European settlers came to this part of the country. You’ve probably heard the saying, “a squirrel could run from one side of the state to another without setting foot on the ground,” and pictured a closed canopy forest, much like the ones we have today, stretching from Illinois to Ohio.
Unfortunately, this description is likely inaccurate. As we walk through Indiana in 1600, we’d see oaks dominating the forests. We’d see a mosaic of grasslands and savannas and forests, most of which would have an open canopy to some degree. This open canopy allowed sunlight to reach the ground, creating a rich and diverse green understory. Bison and elk would be grazing through the lush understory, and you’d smell smoke in the air from Native Americans intentionally burning through the grasslands and woodlands alike.
And the birds! You’d hear a cacophony of song – Eastern Towhees singing “see tow-HEE-ee-ee” from the tops of standing snags at the edges of grasslands, Wood Thrushes’ flute-like melodies emerging from the deeper areas of forest, or Cerulean Warblers’ buzzy trills coming from white oak groves nearby. Red-headed Woodpeckers chatter as groups, finding insects and acorns to eat and store. At night, the lullabies of Eastern Whip-poor-wills and American Woodcocks sing you to sleep.
Where does Forestry for the Birds come in?
If you’ve been a reader of the Woodland Steward for a while, you’ll recognize some of the birds we just visited during our trip back in time as members of the Birders’ Dozen, a group of twelve bird species that need forest management in Indiana. The common thread that ties them all together is that they all will benefit from active stewardship in your woodlands.
Figure 2. A continuum of canopies - oak savannas are on the left, oak woodlands in the middle, and a closed canopy oak-hickory forest on the right. Image credit Jessica Outcalt.
Our goal with Forestry for the Birds is to provide tools for you to benefit birds in your woodland, and in doing so, benefit the woodland as a whole. Birds act as indicators of forest health, and the birds in Indiana are telling us that our woodlands are in trouble. As forests have aged in Indiana, they have shifted from being a mix of open canopy woodlands, regenerating openings, and older growth woods, to being almost entirely older, maple-beech forests with a closed canopy. While some birds can thrive in this type of forest, Scarlet Tanagers for example, many of our birds do not.
If you had asked me 15 years ago if I thought active management, which often includes cutting down trees, was a good strategy, I might have laughed at you. But as I have sought to benefit birds in the forest, I’ve realized something. A garden doesn’t grow well if you leave it alone for the entire season. The weeds will overtake your crops, and the soil will struggle to function at its best. In the same way, a forest won’t thrive if you never touch it. The weeds – which in this case might be invasive brush or less desirable trees – will overtake your crops – which might be the white oaks or black walnuts you’d like to harvest to pay for your child’s college down the road.
Forestry for the Birds takes a slightly different angle: instead of viewing trees as the primary “crop,” we see the birds as the species we’re tending. We want birds to thrive in our patches of woodlands, and so we manage the woodlands in a way that provides them with the best chance of success.
For example, your favorite bird might be an Eastern Whip-poor-will. This bird depends on open canopy forests with an open understory, often created by repeated low intensity prescribed burning. If you want whip-poor-wills to flourish in your property, you’ll need to put in effort to make that a reality. You might consider a small patch cut or thicket cut to create regenerating shrub cover for whip-poor-wills to nest and shelter, or a shelterwood harvest to remove the midstory and open the canopy, or controlled burns every few years to create a diverse understory.
As you’re managing your forest with these practices, you’ll likely notice other birds benefitting as well, beyond just the twelve of the Birders’ Dozen. Deer and turkey will benefit from many of the practices we highlight in the pocket guide and silvicultural guide, for example. These birds offer a place to start for landowners and professional foresters, a starting point for bird-friendly forest management.
Figure 3. Open oak woodland, with big trees and snags for Red-headed Woodpeckers and Eastern Towhees to enjoy, an open understory for Eastern Whip-poor-wills to forage in and oak seedlings to regenerate, and a canopy structure ideal for Cerulean Warblers. Photo credit Jarred Brooke, Purdue FNR.
Figure 4. Closed canopy maple-beech forest. Much like a garden that's overgrown with weeds so the crop can't thrive, the seedlings of trees like white oaks can't grow in this environment. Photo credit Jessica Outcalt.
What can we do?
Define your goals. The first thing any professional forester or conservation professional will ask you when they meet you is: “what are your goals for your property?”
- · What is your top priority for your woodland? Is it timber production, wildlife habitat, recreational opportunities, or even all of the above?
- · If you’re interested in bird-friendly forestry, what kinds of birds do you want to benefit the most? Do you have a favorite bird, or is there one from the last twelve issues that stood out to you?
Find a forester. Professional foresters are some of your best resources for meeting your objectives. They can help you come up with an individualized management plan, one that meets the forest’s needs and your own objectives. Make sure to choose a forester who aligns with your own values, not just the one who works for the lowest fees. For more information and a directory of Indiana professional foresters, visit https://www.findindianaforester.org/.
Enjoy the birds! My favorite aspect of Forestry for the Birds is that it shifts the discussion around forest management from “what are we cutting,” to “what are we creating?” Bird-friendly forest management is a way to benefit the entire community within and around your forest. This type of intentional management isn’t destroying habitat. In fact, it’s creating new habitat, something that will have almost immediate results. For example, if you get a chance to visit a 5- to 10-year-old clearcut or patch cut, just close your eyes and listen for 10 minutes. Try to count how many kinds of bird songs there are. Better yet, use the free Merlin app on your phone to see how many species are singing at once.
Forest management doesn’t have to be a negative action. In fact, the birds will thank you for it! Birds and people have been part of the forest community for centuries, and active, intentional management can benefit both birds and people.
“A part of me wants the beech to live, to believe that this forest will thrive even if I do nothing. It is not true. In this changed and changing world, we are offered choices that are nuanced and unclear, bittersweet and shadowed with compromise. I remind myself that there is nothing radical about doing what is easy and convenient and comfortable, nothing radical about doing nothing. I remind myself that what is truly radical is to do what is necessary to build a better world.” – Ethan Tapper, forester and author of How to Love a Forest: The Bittersweet Work of Tending a Changing World
Bio: Jessica Outcalt is the Natural Resources Training Specialist for Purdue Extension in the Forestry and Natural Resources department. She earned her Bachelor’s of Science in Biology from Taylor University (2016) and her doctorate in wildlife ecology from Purdue University (2020). She has worked in the realm of bird conservation throughout the last five years: first working with The Nature Conservancy to develop Forestry for the Birds in Indiana, then working as an Extension Educator in Grant and Cass Counties before beginning her dream job as an Extension Specialist on campus in 2024.
This article is the final installment in a series of articles highlighting forest birds in Indiana, part of the Forestry for the Birds initiative led by The Nature Conservancy in Indiana. For profiles of each of the twelve birds – the Birders’ Dozen – please visit inwoodlands.org for past issues.
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