America’s Big Six Focal Region: Crossroads
Focal Landscape: Shawnee Hills
Location: Shawnee National Forest — Oakwood Bottoms (Grand Tower, Illinois)
Cost estimate of completed project: $134,902.16; NWTF contribution: $30,624.27
Overview: This 488-acre project was completed in cooperation with the USDA Forest Service through a stewardship agreement signed in 2018. All tree species directly competing with oaks, hickory, persimmon and bald cypress were removed within the timber stand improvement boundaries at Oakwood Bottoms (an Audubon-classified Important Bird Area) in southern Illinois. The improvement was finished in mid-December. Eighteen acres of garlic mustard are scheduled for foliar spray treatment.
Description of work:
- Crop tree release (increases growing space of selected trees by removing adjacent, competing trees or their crowns)
- Pre-commercial thinning of timber stand
- Cut-stump herbicide treatment
Species targeted: wild turkey, white-tailed deer, waterfowl; other wildlife potentially benefitting include yellow-crowned night heron, Mississippi kite, Louisiana waterthrush, prairie warbler, plus neotropical shorebirds
Partners: USDA Forest Service; Shawnee National Forest