A management plan for a swamp forest based on vegetation analysis

Abstract

Many natural areas in Wisconsin have been preserved by the state legislature, acting through the Scientific Areas Preservation Council, and by public and private organizations such as the Nature Conservancy. The Field Station's beech-maple woods and Cedarburg Bog are good examples. Once a natural area has been preserved, decisions must be made about how to maintain or manage it. Management is defined as any activity directed toward maintaining a given condition in plant and/or animal populations and/or habitats in accordance with the conservation plan for an area (Leopold, et. aI., 1963). Since many biological communities are constantly changing due to the processes of ecological succession, the desirable features for which natural areas have been preserved may disappear, unless some form of active management is utilized. During 1975 and 1976, I made a thorough study of a tamarack-swamp hardwood forest at the Riveredge Nature Center and proposed a management plan based on that study (Swartz, 1977).