The Tyler Audubon Society (TAS), working with Audubon Texas and the City of Tyler will begin a habitat restoration project at Langley Island on Lake Tyler in March, 2010. The objective of the project is to restore and enhance habitat quality, and to increase the educational value for visitors while maintaining the relative remoteness of the island.
The project is being funded through monies provided by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality as part of the Supplemental Environmental Project program. This TCEQ program directs fines, fees, and penalties collected for environmental violations toward environmentally beneficial projects such as this one.
During the 1960’s and 1970’s, TAS planted several thousand plants of various species to vegetate the island. At that time the pastureland had trails mowed by members of Audubon. Since then, however, the island went largely unmanaged. Currently, the island is dominated by dense stands of slash and loblolly pines, interspersed with small pockets of hardwoods. There is limited habitat and structural diversity throughout due to limited sunlight because of the dense pine canopy, and a thick layer of pine needle ground cover.
TAS has identified three main goals:
1. Increasing the general diversity and distribution of habitat types;
2. Increasing the complexity of mid-and understory vegetative structure; and,
3. Supplementing the island with man-made roosting and nesting structures.
Within the next 90 days, depending upon weather conditions, certified forester Jeff Williams of Williams Forestry will be conducting a prescribed burn designed to consume ground cover, and to cause high mortality among small or weakened trees. The burn will occur in mid-winter, depending upon the best available conditions of wind, temperature and humidity. It is so designed to reduce the likelihood that the burning will create a nuisance, cause a hazard, or harm the environment. All appropriate notifications and precautions will be taken to meet Texas air pollution regulations. In the short term, this will open the canopy due to leaf-loss, and remove the pine-needle ground cover, allowing for under-story and mid-story growth because of increased available sunlight.
To protect the island from erosion and to prevent fire debris from entering the water supply, a non-burned, 100-foot wide buffer around the perimeter of the island will be established. The plan is to burn the southern two thirds of the island center. The initial burn will be followed by a series of low intensity burns, most likely on a 3-5 year rotation for habitat quality maintenance. After the initial burn, TAS is considering re-seeding the land island with a native plant seed mix and adding plants to prevent invasion by non-native invasive species that are present on the surrounding lakeshore.
Whitehouse Boy Scout Troops 248 and 354 will be assembling and installing wood duck boxes around the perimeter of the island. TAS is looking into erecting egret/heron nesting/roosting platforms on the north end of the island, and high-level nesting platforms on the southern end of the island. These platforms may attract a variety of species for both nesting and roosting, and will contribute to increasing the overall habitat diversity of the island. These actions, along with long-term biological monitoring, will ultimately lead to habitat of higher quality on the island that will help increase the diversity of birds and other wildlife found there.
Once this work is complete, a cleanup and trash removal is planned and trails along the island perimeter will be marked for day use. As has been the practice for the last 55 years, only day light usage of the island for educational purposes will continue to be permitted. All users will be requested to remove any material they bring to the island and leave “no tracks”. The island is for observing nature and birding activities. Camping, picnicking and hunting are prohibited.
Tyler Audubon continues to ask for assistance on the project. Only with community help can this project be completed. Please contact Joe Marsey at (903)825-0123 if you or your group would like to help on this interesting project.