Bird Habitat
Restoration Project
Prior to UPLC's acquisition of the Dead River Community forest, the Bayous parcel had an attempted logging harvest across roughly 3 acres of the preserve. The operation resulted in a roads and a landing area that compacted soils and left a large opening at the entrance of the DRCF. By partnering with the American Bird Conservancy for a Habitat Improvement Grant through the DNR, UPLC planted over 1400 native trees, shrubs, and flowering plants to support song birds. This is an ongoing project, continue reading to learn more!
The before
2016
After an attempted logging operation, the site now has compacted soil, erosion risks, and low diversity in the understory. One of the reasons for the low understory diversity is because bracken ferns were able to quickly colonize the area. Bracken ferns are an aggressive native fern that can easily overtake areas after a disturbance like logging. Deer can make the problem worse since they will eat other regenerating plants that could compete with bracken ferns. If this site was left to recover without intervention, we expect that the understory would largely remain as bracken ferns and maples would be the primary trees coming back.
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The After
2025
Over the 2025 field season, we planted over 14,000 trees, shrubs, and flowers with the help of 35+ volunteers, contributing over 400 hours of volunteer time! We focused on increasing plant diversity and food resources for song birds with plants such as elderberry, service berry, hazelnuts, and oaks. The establishing shrubs were protected with tubes and fencing to give them a chance to escape deer browse, and the bracken ferns were cut back so they could get plenty of sun. The site will need to be continually returned to for maintenance as the new plants establish and grow to a point that they can compete with the bracken ferns and deer themselves.
