Chapter 4 Habitats
Table 4.4.6-1. Climate change compared to other threats to mafic glades and barrens.
Rank Order
Threat
Comments
1 Warmer winters and more hot spells may fuel increasing desire for housing development at the higher elevations where these communities occur. Development may not directly impact these communities but may increase access and therefore trampling. Development of adjacent landscapes is likely to introduce pollution and sediment through stormwater runoff. There may also be increased opportunity for invasive species to disperse into this habitat. 2 Land ownership patterns, proximity to markets, accessibility, and other factors influence short-term habitat alterations like forestry operations. Full scale high-grading and poor logging practices will have very negative impacts on the structure and composition of adjacent forests. 3 Fire suppression has shifted these communities toward denser vegetation and more mesophytic plant composition than would naturally occur, making them more susceptible to climate change. Burning would increase their resilience to warmer climate and drought, as well as make them less prone to destruction by wildfire. Prescribed burning will have to account for younger canopies whose trees may be more susceptible to fire than in the past. 4 Mafic glades and barrens may actually benefit from a changed climate, at least among the Piedmont examples. This benefit will only be realized if sites are protected from other forms of destruction, and for most, if fire is restored to them.
Development
Logging/ Exploitation
Fire
Climate Change
4.4.6.5 Impacts to Wildlife Appendix 3 provides a list of SGCN and other priority species for which there are knowledge gaps and management concerns. Appendix 3-17 (wildlife) and Appendix 3-22 (plants) identify SGCN that depends on or are associated with this habitat type. It is uncertain how many priority species are associated with this habitat. Bog Turtles are known from a bog wetland at a mafic glade in Ashe County. For animal species, mafic glades and barrens are probably best regarded as a minor component. There may be land snail and moth species that use this habitat type; otherwise, mammals such as Bobcats and Raccoons are expected to use this community primarily as a movement corridor. The Gorgone Checkerspot butterfly is known in the state primarily from an ultramafic outcrop barren community at Buck Creek in Clay County
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2025 NC Wildlife Action Plan
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