On November 15th and 28th, the Houston Sierra Club (Sierra Club) met with the U.S. Forest Service (FS) to discuss the Montgomery County Wildlife Habitat Improvement Project (MCWHIP). This project would take place in Compartments 31, 32, and 33 on the west side of Sam Houston National Forest (SHNF), east of FM 149 and south of Osborn Road. The Texas Conservation Alliance (TCA) also attended the November 15th meeting.
The MCWHIP has a project area of 3,512 acres and includes: Mature stand thinning (logging of 20 to 50% of the pine trees) on 1,437 acres and the regeneration harvest (clearcutting) on up to 351 acres of greater than 90 year old pine trees; thinning, mastication (grinding of the understory), and burning of 1,088 acres of 30 to 80 year old pine trees; and thinning, mastication, and burning of 261 acres of less than 30 year old pine trees.
The Sierra Club and TCA told the FS there should be no clearcutting of greater than 90-year-old pine trees. Both organizations advocated for retention of these trees so the federally endangered Red-cockaded Woodpecker (RCW) has habitat for nesting and foraging.
The Sierra Club also told the FS it wants: additional environmental analysis in an environmental assessment (EA); use of the Ecosystem Classification System (ECS), ecosystem management, and sound science; collaboration and consensus; clearcutting only on existing young pine plantations; variable basal area (BA) thinning; prescribed burning; no thinning below 60 BA; clumpy landscape-level heterogeneity; a protective 50-foot buffer on both sides of the Lone Star Hiking Trail; sites with blackland or blackland-like soils with pine trees would be managed as savannahs; Shortleaf Pine restoration areas that reintroduce and monitor native grasses and herbaceous vegetation; snag/coarse woody debris; no thinning in areas where the BA is already 60 to 90; protection of Post Oak clumps and individual trees; and interplanting of pine seedlings among old growth pine trees in existing openings.
The Sierra Club met with the FS on November 28th and visited Compartment 33, Stand 1, to verify the forest type that grows there. The Sierra Club was concerned that the MCWHIP proposes logging and restoration of Shortleaf Pine in Stand 1 when this is forest of hardwood trees that should not be logged.
The Sierra Club and FS walked the southern and western boundaries of Stand 1 and verified that Stand 1 is not suitable for thinning, clearcutting, or restoration of Loblolly or Shortleaf Pine trees.
Stand 1 has soils that have high: calcium content (high pH), shrink-swell properties, and moisture retention. Stand 1 is a riparian woodland and a bottomland extension of blackland prairie soils. Stand 1 is a Bottomland Post Oak – Palmetto forest type, a very rare forest type in SHNF and should be protected and studied.
The Sierra Club told the FS that Stand 1 is not amenable to management as a pine forest. The Sierra Club requested that the FS remove Stand 1 from the MCWHIP because it is unsuitable for RCW management. The only management needed in Stand 1 is control of non-native invasive plant species and feral hogs.
The Sierra Club will continue its oversight of and collaboration with the FS to ensure that a kinder and gentler ecosystem management is used in the SHNF. For additional information about the MCWHIP or if you would like to volunteer to help the Sierra Club in its “citizen oversight” activities in the National Forests and Grasslands in Texas contact Brandt Mannchen, brandtshnfbt@juno.com or 832-907-3615.