Commitment to Diverse Habitats Guides Forest Management on Conservation Areas
By Jim Low, Missouri Dept. of Conservation
12-03-2009No one who knows where and how Missouri State Forester Lisa Allen grew up could be surprised at her career path. Just as predictable is her commitment to ensuring that Show-Me State forests remain healthy, continue contributing to Missouri’s economy and provide recreational opportunities.
A native of Howell County, Allen grew up near what now is the USDA Forest Service’s Devil’s Backbone Wilderness. Her mother taught biology and ecology at West Plains High School, and from an early age, Allen accompanied her father on firewood-cutting trips to the Mark Twain National Forest. By the time she left home to study forestry at the University of Missouri-Columbia she could identify most tree in the Ozarks.
“I went everywhere with my dad,” Allen recalls. “I was the third of three girls, and dad finally decided he wasn’t going to get a son, so he made me his fishing buddy.”
Allen says she, like nearly all foresters, chose her profession because of a deep love for forests. For her, she confesses, “Forestry is more of a religion than a job.”
She began her career as an assistant resource forester for the Missouri Department of Conservation in 1984, after earning a bachelor’s degree in forestry. She went back to school later to earn a forestry master’s degree, then worked her way up through the ranks at the Conservation Department. She assumed leadership of the Forestry Division in 2006 after a stint leading the agency’s Private Land Services Division.
One of Forestry Division’s biggest jobs is maintaining diverse, high-quality fish and wildlife habitat on the Conservation Department’s 450,000 acres of forest. While this is a large area, it is dwarfed by Missouri’s 14.6 million acres of privately owned forest.
The state’s thriving tourism and forest-products industries depend on healthy forests. Data from the U.S. bureaus of Economic Analysis and Labor Statistics and the U.S. Department of Agriculture show that forest products contributed $5.7 billion to the state’s economy in 2006. The industry supports 31,700 jobs with a payroll of approximately $1.25 billion.
All this is in addition to the recreational value Missourians derive from hiking, camping, hunting, fishing and a host of other outdoor activities and the economic value of forest-related tourism.
Allen said some Missourians mistakenly assume that the Conservation Department sells large quantities of timber from conservation areas each year. In fact, she said, the agency is harvesting less timber each year than it grows. In Fiscal Year 2009 the Conservation Department harvested less than 2 percent of the forest acreage it owns or manages.
Timber harvests on conservation areas are conducted by private loggers who vie for the jobs through a competitive bidding process. Bidders must have completed the Professional Timber Harvester training to ensure that they know how to remove trees with the least impact on remaining trees, soil and streams. Conservation Department foresters inspect logging sites and strictly enforce the use of best management practices designed to protect forests and streams.
Revenue from timber sales makes up about one-half of one percent of the Conservation Department’s annual income, but Allen said revenue is never the determining factor in deciding when and where to cut trees.
“Wildlife habitat and forest health are our top priorities,” she said. “The fact that our forests also create jobs for Missourians and help drive the state’s economy are icing on the cake.”
Allen noted that abundant, diverse wildlife populations require diverse habitats. The idea of vast, uniform tracts of mature timber is appealing, but it is neither natural nor desirable for wildlife management.
“When you read the journals of early European explorers in the Ozarks, you discover that the region looked very different than it does today,” she said. “Instead of having oak-hickory forest almost everywhere, like we do today, some areas were covered with shortleaf pines. Where you see cedar thickets today, there used to be sunny glades, and there was a surprising amount of grassy savanna and open woodland. The Ozarks actually had elk and buffalo back then.”
Humans played an active role in maintaining Missouri’s diverse historic forest landscape. Indians lit fires to remove leaf litter and hasten spring green-up, attracting deer and other game animals. Today, the Conservation Department is using fire and various timber-harvest strategies to create and maintain habitats once produced by natural processes.
“Nobody loves mature forest more than a forester,” said Allen. “There’s nothing like standing in a grove of old trees and looking up at that cathedral-like canopy. That is why we keep some state forestland in mature timber. But if you want lots of deer and turkey, if you want the full range of warblers and hawks and lizards and salamanders and small mammals that once inhabited these hills, you need the other habitat types besides mature forest. The best way to achieve that, while maintaining quality recreation and sustainable timber production is through active forest management.”