Amy Phelan

Restoration of a Pitch Pine / Scrub Oak Woodland at the Hopeville Pond Natural Area Preserve, Griswold , CT

Five acres of one of Connecticut 's rarest forest types were set aflame on May 8, 2002 . The Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) burned these Woodlands for the sake of environmental conservation and the preservation of fire-tolerant species. These controlled fires were the start of a restoration program for the Pinus rigida (pitch pine) Woodlands within the Hopeville Pond Natural Area Preserve. Pinus rigida Woodlands grow over a wide geographical range that extends from Maine to New York south to Virginia and into parts of South Carolina and occur from sea-level to the tops of mountains (Forman 1979). Many are located on well-drained, nutrient poor, sandy glacial outwash plains on soils of alluvial or marine origin (Little 1959). Many Pinus rigida Woodlands include Quercus ilicifolia (scrub oak), Gaylussacia baccata (huckleberry), Vaccinium spp. (blueberry species), Myrica pensylvanica (bayberry), Comptonia peregrina (sweetfern), and a wide range of graminoids as dominant plant species. The DEP management goals for the Hopeville Pond Natural Area Preserve are to use prescribed fires and other management practices to expose mineral soil and open the Woodland canopy, thus providing an ideal habitat for reproduction and growth of Pinus rigida and other species characteristic of Woodland communities. This thesis documents the initial treatments and their effects over a three-year period.