Bottomland Hardwood Management for Wildlife

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Bottomland hardwood forests are extremely important to wildlife, sportsmen, and recreational landowners in Texas. As with many other habitat types, the value of bottomland forest to wildlife often increases with active management. However, it is critical that landowners manage with clear targets in view. The following guidelines, dubbed “Desired forest conditions for wildlife” (DFCWs) provide a general forest management framework for promoting the development of productive wildlife habitat. The guiding premise throughout is to diversify tree species composition, vertical and horizontal structure, tree age, and canopy densities within forest stands, creating a patchwork of habitats that benefit a wide variety of wildlife species across landscapes. These conditions provide productive habitat to sustain populations of forest-dependent wildlife in concert with sustainable forestry. Examples of the forest stand parameters that are critical to achieving these desired habitat conditions include:

• High tree species diversity;
• Multiple tree size classes within stands;
• Forest canopy densities that allow sufficient sunlight needed for a healthy understory and midstory;
• Creation of forest canopy gaps through tree removal (group selection) to establish/release desirable advanced regeneration and internal stand structure.

For each forest variable, the “Desired Structure” should be viewed as the target for management, while the “Conditions that May Warrant Management” values serve as potential trigger points for considering the most appropriate treatment(s) for returning to Desired Structure.