The Jones Center at Ichauway

Site Description

The Jones Center at Ichauway is one of five of the original ASCC sites. The mission of The Jones Center at Ichauway is to understand, demonstrate, and promote excellence in natural resource management and conservation. Ichauway is a 28,500-acre property that supports a diverse range of ecological communities including upland longleaf pine forests, riparian hardwood forests, isolated depressional wetlands, agricultural fields, shrub-scrub uplands, and human cultural zones. Ichauway was established as a quail hunting reserve in the 1920s by Robert W. Woodruff, and is located on the Dougherty Plain, a karst topography dominated by sandy soils. The Ichawaynochaway Creek flows through Ichauway, and the Flint River forms 13 miles of the property’s eastern boundary.

People walking through a grassy sparse forest. — Unharvested control stand in longleaf pine-hardwood woodlands maintained with prescribed fire; Photo Credit: Hunter Nichols.

Key Projected Climate Change Impacts

Potential climate change impacts for The Jones Center at Ichauway include:

Increased temperatures and drought severity
Variable precipitation amounts and extreme weather events
Increased insects, pathogens, and invasive species
Reduced ability to use prescribed fire as a management tool and increased concerns about wildfires

Climate change will present challenges and opportunities for accomplishing the management objectives of The Jones Center at Ichauway, including:

Challenges

Impacts on plant and animal species of conservation concern
Increased tree mortality rates due to drought and wind disturbances
Reduced number of days with ideal conditions for prescribed fire use

Opportunities

Increased use of climate-adapted tree and groundcover species
Greater reliance on low-density management to increase water yields
Consider a range of site qualities that may be appropriate for long-term success of adaptation approaches

Management Goals & Treatments

Implementation

Which approach best prepares forest ecosystems for climate change? Adaptation options occupy a continuum of management goals related to their levels of desired change. A team of natural resource specialists and researchers developed a set of desired future conditions, objectives, and tactics for The Jones Center at Ichauway based on three climate adaptation approaches. Learn more about the desired future conditions and approaches used from pages linked below:

Resistance

Resilience

Transition

Monitoring

Person wearing an orange hat, vest, and p ants using a chainsaw to cut a downed log. — Collection of cross sections from longleaf pine dead wood to monitor insect populations. Photo Credit: Joshua Puhlick.

Monitoring is an essential component of the ASCC study. Research partners from several institutions are working together to investigate the effectiveness of different silvicultural treatments aimed at creating adaptive ecosystems. Some of the monitoring items include:

Stocking and densities of planted turkey oaks
Insect and fungal assemblages associated with downed coarse woody debris
Diversity of groundcover and woody understory plants
Stand-level water use and water yield
Activity patterns of large and small mammals

Progress & Next Steps

The Jones Center at Ichauway installed permanent sample plots and collected pre-treatment data. Harvesting took place in the winter of 2018. Monitoring is enhanced by remotely sensed data collected annually by NEON.

Site Leads & Partners

Joshua Puhlick (The Jones Center at Ichauway) is the site lead for The Jones Center at Ichauway ASCC site. Key collaborators include Steven Brantley, Scott Taylor, Brandon Rutledge, and Scott Smith (The Jones Center at Ichauway).