LBL's forest management activities support its recreation and education mission. Management tools include fire and disease protection, planting trees, cutting trees, and creating "preserves."
The Kentucky and Tennessee Divisions of Forestry provide the primary means of fire prevention at LBL. In areas such as biosphere reserves, natural fires are allowed to burn under certain conditions -- if, for example, they pose no threat to visitors or LBL's public use facilities. Spring and fall are peak fire hazard months, and LBL staff will restrict or ban open fires, as conditions dictate.
The most serious disease threat to LBL forests is the gypsy moth, which has devastated Eastern U.S. forests and is spreading into the Southeast. While the gypsy moth has not yet advanced into western Kentucky and Tennessee, a future infestation is likely. An on-going surveillance project monitors for gypsy moths; significant numbers have yet to appear but when they do, an integrated pest management plan will be initiated.
Earlier forest management practices called for planting trees such as Virginia pine, oak and bald cypress to control erosion and provide winter wildlife cover. Today, LBL allows Mother Nature to do most of the tree planting. Before any forest management activities such as tree cutting take place, surveys are conducted to ensure that sufficient numbers of advanced young trees are available to reforest the site.
Tree cutting is an important forest management tool. Nature uses fire to maintain a forest's health; humans use selective tree cutting, or timber management, in the same way. Selective thinning allows sunlight to reach the forest floor, helping seedlings become established. The flourishing young plants provide food and cover for many of LBL's 356 species of wildlife. LBL does not clear-cut its forests, and less than 2% (2,880 acres) is cut a year. Of that, 60-70% of the trees remain on any given site.
Within LBL, 42,500 acres (25% of LBL) are set aside as a Biosphere Reserve. These protected areas are open to most public uses, but most timber and open land management is prohibited. The Biosphere Reserve recognizes and protects LBL's unique natural resources and helps meet regional biodiversity needs.
While most of LBL is forested, 7% (12,050 acres) consists of open lands --  farmland, woods openings, and so forth. Open
lands are maintained to enhance biodiversity in LBL, provide wildlife viewing opportunities for the public, and provide food for wildlife.
Cooperative farming activities take place on about 3,900 acres of open land. Crops such as corn, soybeans, winter wheat, and hay crops are grown by licensed private farmers who provide up to 20 percent of their crop for wildlife. Farmers must comply with the direction in the Land and Resource Management Plan regarding pesticide use and other agricultural practices.
Woods openings are two to 10-acre tracts scattered throughout LBL which provide habitat diversity and food for wildlife. In total, they comprise 1,050 acres.
Perhaps the best known of LBL's open lands is its 750-acre Elk & Bison Prairie. This area is a demonstration of West Kentucky and Middle Tennessee's native "barrens" landscape, and the native wildlife that once roamed these lands. Barrens are a prairie-like ecosystem characterized by tall grasses such as Indian Grass and bluestem, dotted with small clumps of hardwood trees.
Prior to the 1800s, when Native Americans inhabited the region and large herds of bison roamed, the use of fire as a tool to keep the forest's growth in check. By the mid-1800s, the loss of native peoples and big game and the fire suppression that followed settlement gave trees the upper hand; the barrens were lost.
But in the early 1970s a small patch of barrens was discovered at LBL. Biologists began maintaining the patch with periodic "controlled burns." In 1994, work began on the Elk & Bison Prairie, a larger-scale restoration effort. This involved removing trees, seeding native grasses, and introducing native wildlife such as elk and bison.
Why is forest management necessary? Can't nature "manage" the forest on its own?
As long as humans have inhabited the region, there has been forest management -- from Native Americans' use of fire to clear land, to modern-day agriculture and industry. Fire in particular is a major reason why LBL's forest has been dominated by oak and hickory trees for thousands of years, as these species require large amounts of sunlight when they are seedlings.
If left completely unmanaged, LBL's forest composition would shift toward maple and beech trees, species that prefer shade. Maple trees do not produce nuts that wildlife can feed on -- maple seeds are small and winged, often referred to as "helicopters." This would negatively impact many different wildlife species, including songbirds, such as deer, squirrel, and wild turkey, which for thousands of years have fed on the acorns and nuts of LBL's oak/hickory forest.
Does LBL clearcut its forests?
No. Most of the harvests are selective in nature and are best described as thinnings. A selective harvest allows sunlight to reach the forest floor and fosters the growth of new oak and hickory seedlings.
When LBL began harvesting timber in 1966, there were 309 million standing board feet of timber in LBL. Today, LBL has over 730 million board feet of timber standing and growing each year. LBL's Resource Management Plan allows for an average harvest of about one third of the forest's annual growth.
What about old-growth forests, which are becoming rare and are important wildlife habitat?
Various wildlife species, such as some songbirds, prefer an old-growth forest habitat. LBL has set aside 42,500 acres of mature hardwood forest from any timber harvest or farming operations for old-growth forest.
Was LBL really a prairie 200 years ago?
Scientists debate whether the "barrens" which once existed in Western Kentucky and Middle Tennessee were a true prairie. Although warm-season grasses typically associated with a prairie -- big and little bluestem, Indian grass, and switchgrass -- are native to the region, the barrens were not limitless "amber waves" like the Great Plains.
Instead, Kentucky and Tennessee's barrens were characterized by rolling hills of prairie grass and wildflowers dotted with clumps of oak and hickory forest. The forest was kept at bay by the trampling and grazing of large mammals such as bison and periodic fires set by Native Americans and nature.
Price's Potato Bean
(Apios priceana)
LBL is home to the country's largest concentration of this rare plant. Found in Alabama, Kentucky,  Mississippi and Tennessee, Price's potato bean is on the Federal list of threatened species. Habitat loss due to cattle grazing, trampling, and clear-cutting have severely diminished the potato bean's numbers around the country.
Only 28 populations are known to exist in the U.S., and 6 of them are inside LBL. The Kentucky State Nature Preserves Commission has been studying LBL's populations in an effort to monitor and develop a long-term management plan. Current management practices include protecting the populations from human activity and removing competing vegetation in the surrounding area.
Price's Potato Bean is a vine-like perennial in the pea family. It has deep green foliage and small white flowers. It is found along shoreline areas and on the edge of forests.
Black Cohosh
(Cimicifuga rubifolia)
An important medicinal plant, only two populations of Black Cohosh have been identified in LBL. The plant is currently a candidate for protection under the Endangered Species Act.
Native Americans used Black Cohosh to treat everything from rattlesnake bites to gynecological problems. Its root and rhizome are still popular as a naturopathic remedy for a variety of conditions.
Black cohosh can be found in forest stands. LBL's two existing populations are closely monitored and protected from human disturbance.
Gypsy Moth
(Lymantria dispar)
Having devastated Northeastern U.S. forests, the gypsy moth now poses a serious threat to forests in the Southeast. Originally from France, the pest is a particular threat to species of red and white oak. In its larval stage, the gypsy moth can defoliate an entire tree, weakening and eventually killing it. Large numbers of gypsy moths can decimate entire stands of trees, especially in drought years when they are already weak.
Biologists studying the gypsy moth know the species is slowly moving south. While it has not yet advanced into western Kentucky and Tennessee, an infestation is likely in the future.
Since 1973, LBL has been part of a USDA Forest Service program to monitor for the presence of gypsy moths. This involves setting out pheromone-baited traps in spring, then collecting them in late summer. Traps are set out in LBL's campgrounds and public use areas, as gypsy moth egg masses are often carried on motor vehicles such as RVs and trailers.
From 1973-1994, only two male gypsy moths were trapped at LBL. When the surveillance program indicates a more substantial presence of these pests, an integrated pest management plan will be launched.
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