TENNESSEE'S IMPORTANT BIRD AREAS PROGRAM

Tennessee’s Important Bird Areas Program, initiated in 1997, has recently been resurrected through the support of the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency. Current plans of the program include restructuring the composition of the Important Bird Areas technical committee, a re-evaluation of the selection criteria, and requesting new site nominations from professional ornithologists, natural resource professionals, and bird clubs. The Tennessee Ornithological Society and two Audubon Chapters will be cooperators on the project.

Photo Courtesy: Byron Jorjorian

FEATURED IMPORTANT BIRD AREA
Name: Southern Cumberland Mountains
State: Tennessee
County(ies): Morgan, Anderson, Scott, and Campbell Counties
Nearest Community: Wartburg, LaFollette, Caryville, Jacksboro, Huntsville, and Oak Ridge.

Site Description: The Southern Cumberland Mountains Important Bird Area lies in a heavily forested region encompassing over 57,062 ha (141,000 acres) in four Tennessee counties. The landscape is nearly 93% forested and includes two significant publicly owned tracts, Frozen Head State Natural Area and Royal Blue Wildlife Management Area. The mountains here are some of the highest in Tennessee west of the Great Smoky Mountains, with more than 14 mountain peaks eclipsing 3000 feet. Within the Southern Cumberland Mountains, mixed mesophytic forest covers moist slopes. Dominant trees include tulip-poplar, basswood, sugar maple, buckeye, northern red and white, and white ash; beech and hemlock are common at low elevations. The watersheds of two medium-sized rivers transect this Important Bird Area providing additional riparian habitats for birds. The area also contains one of the densest beaver populations in eastern Tennessee, providing local concentrations of forested wetland habitats.

Ornithological Summary: The bird-life of the Southern Cumberland Mountains is particularly rich. The most common species detected on point count routes conducted from 1996 – 2000 included Red-eyed Vireo, Indigo Bunting, Scarlet Tanager, Hooded Warbler, Ovenbird, and Wood Thrush (WatchListed), species expected to be associated with such a heavily forested landscape

The Southern Cumberland Mountains IBA includes significant populations of several species of high conservation concern. One of the densest populations of the WatchListed Cerulean Warbler in the species’ range nests within this IBA. Point count routes in mid-aged to mature hardwood forests recorded the species on over 50% of points during sampling from 1995-1997. Additionally, during the Cerulean Warbler Atlas Project sponsored by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology from 1997-2000, more Cerulean Warblers were reported from the Royal Blue WMA than at any of the other 73 sites surveyed.

The Southern Cumberland Mountains also harbor one of the most important concentrations of WatchListed Golden-winged Warblers in the southeastern United States. In 2001, preliminary surveys in Anderson, Campbell and Scott Counties for the Cornell Ornithology Lab’s Golden-winged Warbler Atlas Project yielded 69 Golden-winged Warbler detections. Golden-winged Warblers occupy a variety of early successional habitats within the mountains but are primarily associated with abandoned and reclaimed strip mines.

The avifauna of the Southern Cumberland Mountains also includes disjunct nesting populations of species typically associated with higher elevation forests of the Southern Blue Ridge. This species suite includes WatchListed Black-throated Blue Warbler , Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Blackburnian Warbler, Canada Warbler, Chestnut-sided Warbler, and Veery.

Conservation Issues: Several serious threats face the Southern Cumberland Mountains Important Bird Area. Currently, the area is a fairly intact, forested landscape made-up of large public lands and forest industry land holdings. The presence of the forest and coal industries in the area has helped maintain the large tract sizes in single ownership. However, Interstate 75 cuts through the center of the IBA and the sprawling city of Knoxville, Tennessee is less than a 45-minute drive south. Development pressure is beginning to appear within some portions of the area and the sectioning and sale of forest industry lands would bring a great deal more.

A chip mill built in the mid-1990’s also exists in the center of the IBA. The impacts of timber harvesting for this chip mill, on local bird populations, is unknown. Another serious threat to species requiring mature forests is the potential increase of coal mining in the region. Coal mining techniques used in the region include deep, contour, and mountaintop mining. Mountaintop-mining is known to cause significant habitat modification and destruction, to both the terrestrial and aquatic habitats, by removing the tops of mountains and filling in streams. The use of this techniques has, to date, been limited in the area.

Currently, the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency is working with a coalition of partners in an attempt to purchase an additional 80,000 acres within the IBA boundary. This will create a contiguous protected area of over 141,000 acres in public ownership within the Southern Cumberland Mountains Important Bird Area.

To Learn More About Tennessee's
Important Bird Areas Program

Contact:
Troy Ettel
Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency
P.O. Box 40747
Nashville, TN 37204
(615) 781-6653
Troy.Ettel@state.tn.us