Chapter 4 Habitats
Table 4.4.10-1 Climate change compared to other threats to mesic forests.
Rank Order
Threat
Comments
1 Destruction and indirect effects such as fragmentation and edge effect result from land development in suburban areas and even in many rural areas. 1 Logging severely alters canopy structure and composition and is a threat to all but the steepest unprotected examples. Invasive plants are a present and increasing threat. Both development of nearby areas and logging increase the potential for invasion.
Development
Logging/ Exploitation
Plants such as Autumn Olive, Japanese Stiltgrass, Japanese Honeysuckle, Princess Tree, Tree-of-heaven, and Chinese Privet have taken resources from native vegetation and altered habitat structure and species composition. The extent of negative (and positive) impacts of exotic species on populations of native fauna is largely unknown.
Invasive Species
2
3 The severity of climate change effects on these sheltered sites is uncertain. It is expected that the boundary with drier communities will shift, so that peripheral portions are lost, smaller or more marginal examples may be lost, and the total acreage will shrink. These communities often support species disjunct from cooler areas, and some of these species may be lost. 4 Fires that would have naturally swept through these sites (relatively infrequently in the Piedmont, perhaps more frequently in the Coastal Plain) have been suppressed, likely affecting the community composition of mesic plant species and exotics.
Climate Change
Fire Suppression
4.4.10.5 Impacts to Wildlife Appendix 3 provides a list of SGCN and other priority species for which there are knowledge gaps and management concerns. Appendices 3-17 (wildlife) and 3-22 (plants) identify SGCN that depend on or are associated with this habitat type. Fragmentation of mesic forests into smaller or narrower contiguous blocks is a concern for forest interior birds (like the Wood Thrush, Hooded Warbler, and Worm-eating Warbler), which may occur in lower densities or suffer lower productivity or survival in small habitat patches. Fragmentation by roads and development can be problematic for reptiles (especially Timber Rattlesnakes and Eastern Box Turtles), amphibians, and small mammals (particularly the Eastern Mole) that suffer high mortality on roads when traveling between forest patches or between mesic forest and other habitats.
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2025 NC Wildlife Action Plan
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