by Kaitlyn Olson with TNC in Elkins, WV
Wild and wonderful West Virginia contains a wondrous and unique ecosystem of red spruce. This species of tree and the ecosystem it creates is historic to West Virginia. In the 1800s and into the 1900’s it was a highly sought-after tree for lumber. Now, it’s the focus of some of the conservation work taking place in West Virginia and the Central Appalachians. The lumbering industry took a heavy toll on this ecosystem, reducing the acreage of red spruce forests from over 500,000 to just a little under 30,000. This means the other species that rely on this ecosystem for habitats, like the endangered cheat mountain salamander and the West Virginia northern flying squirrel, also suffered. Today, conservationists are working to restore this ecosystem in order to create healthy spruce forests and bring back the biodiversity this ecosystem creates. So, how do we know the actions being taken are working? That's where indicator species come in. An indicator species is an organism that reflects a specific environmental condition by its presence, absence, or abundance. The presence, absence, or abundance can cause a change in the environment and can be used to determine the health of an ecosystem. Many species can be indicators and for red spruce 11 species of birds have been identified as indicator species. It’s been proven that in the Central Appalachian mountains, bird populations change in a predictable manner when habitats change or degrade. What makes birds so great as indicator species is how easily they can be detected. Someone looking to assess the health of an ecosystem can sit in the forest and simply listen to detect these birds, creating an effective way to determine presence, absence, or abundance. There are specific times of the year this can be done and certain weather conditions, but other than that there isn't much to limit the assessment of ecosystem health using bird indicator species. The 11 birds that function as indicator species for the red spruce ecosystem were identified in a study done by a Ph.D. candidate at West Virginia University and published this year (Clipp et. al., 2022). Of the 11 species identified, 8 are associated with red spruce ecosystems where the overstory coverage of red spruce is higher than 50% and 3 are associated with medium overstory coverage of 10%-50%. This means that through surveys, it’s possible to see if the conservation efforts taking place are having a positive impact. It will take many years before it will be possible to see any change as it takes a while for spruce to get to overstory coverage even with active efforts to assist in red spruce growth. Hopefully, the efforts will be successful and the wild and wonderful red spruce forests of West Virginia can thrive again.
