Audubon, through our Connecticut and New York regional program, is collaborating with NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) at the Zoar Valley Multiple Use Area to plan a public, educational forest demonstration site.

At the Zoar Valley Multiple Use Area, there is little-to-no forest habitat diversity, leaving forest breeding birds without the conditions necessary to successfully nest and raise young. In addition to providing healthy habitat for wildlife, diverse forests are more resilient, meaning they are better equipped to withstand stressors from climate change and forest pests and pathogens, such as spongy moth.

Our science-based forest management approach involves removing individual and small groups of trees across the 92-acre site, which will create small gaps in the canopy to let sunlight reach the forest floor. This will promote the new growth of a varied mix of trees – like black cherry, oaks, walnut, and aspen, help reduce invasive plants, create wildlife habitat, and improve forest health and resiliency.

Both Audubon and the DEC have experience in other parts of New York implementing forest habitat improvement projects like this and we have seen impressive responses by forest-nesting birds.

A number of New York’s forest-dependent birds are experiencing drastic population declines, so the quality of their breeding habitat is a conservation priority to help their populations grow. Forest birds like Black-throated Blue, Hooded, and Mourning Warblers, and Ovenbirds require small trees and shrubs in the understory for nesting – these species build their nests directly on the ground or in vegetation that is only a few feet high. Other species need young or newly regenerating forest to nest within, like Indigo Buntings, Eastern Towhees, Chestnut-sided Warblers, and Common Yellowthroats.

With an estimated three billion birds lost across North America since 1970, habitat restoration projects like this are essential.