Location: Hardwick
Overall size: 2,498 (1,937 acres of Wildlife Management Area + 561 acres of Wildlife Conservation Easement)
Potential size of restoration area: Approximately 950 acres
Size of area currently under restoration: Approximately 515 acres
Summary of restoration activities:
The greater Muddy Brook Valley represents one of the most important opportunities in Massachusetts to restore and maintain a significant collection of fire-influenced natural communities, often collectively referred to as Barrens.
Barrens communities support approximately 75 species on the Massachusetts Endangered Species List, along with a long list of vulnerable species identified in the MA Strategic Wildlife Action Plan.
Barrens are disturbance-dependent communities. They require periodic disturbance events, in most cases fire, to keep them functioning at a high level.
The Muddy Brook Valley retains a clear legacy of barrens communities which have been degraded by 75 years of fire exclusion. Restoration at this site requires a one-time timber harvest to remove generalist species and to restore the open structure of functioning barrens communities. Long-term maintenance of these communities will involve periodic prescribed fire events.
Barrens communities are incredibly resilient and highly restorable; their associated species will recolonize a recently disturbed community quickly either through the seedbank, through previously dormant rootstock, or by animals that immigrate from other similar areas.
A few growing seasons have passed since the bulk of phase I restoration was completed at Muddy Brook and there has already been an impressive ecological response, including:
The emergence of 23 fire-influenced plants not observed prior to the restoration event, including 2 Endangered, 2 Threatened, and 3 Watchlist species;
The return of the eastern whip-poor-will bird to the site following a documented 30-year absence;
A significant increase in early successional breeding birds, including the American woodcock, prairie warbler, field sparrow, and eastern towhee;
An increase in bee species from 36 to 103 species; and
A growing list of specialized moths and butterflies that includes several sate-listed species.
The positive conservation results at Muddy Brook are being amplified across the region as other agencies, non-profit organizations, and institutions are learning from MassWildlife’s approach to inland barrens restoration and utilizing these methods in their own habitat management efforts. Muddy Brook is now used regularly as a living laboratory to teach college students, land managers, and the general public about restoration and conservation.
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