Natural Resource Inventory and Assessment - Town of Guilford

Invasive plants in Guilford’s uplands include Japanese barberry, Asiatic bittersweet, autumn olive, winged
euonymus, honeysuckle, multiflora rose, and Norway maple, among others. (See list in Appendix D-2.)
Overabundant species are native species that have thrived in response to changes in land use to the point
that they threaten populations of other native species. For example, raccoons and opossums, which thrive
in a suburban landscape, prey on ground-nesting birds. Also, overpopulation of deer has actually altered
the structure and composition of Guilford’s forests. Deer eat acorns and oak seedlings and may hamper
regeneration of oaks. At the same time they tend to avoid beech, birch, black cherry, which tend to
increase in heavily browsed areas. Deer browse has nearly eliminated forest herbs such as orchids, resulting
in ground cover dominated by ferns, mosses, and grasses.
Sources of stress: horticultural introduction; spread of seeds via vehicles, animals, clothing, etc
Wildlife disturbance can be a significant threat to reclusive animals or those such as nesting or feeding
birds that are particularly sensitive at times during their life cycles. Forests close to developed land are
subjected to human influence, including domestic pets that prey on wildlife.
Sources of stress: habitat fragmentation, incompatible recreation, domestic pets, incompatible
agricultural practices (See Loss of habitat.)
Pests/pathogens: Tree blights have caused huge losses, even of entire species of trees. Major tree
blights have all but eliminated two native species of trees from Guilford’s forests. One, a fungal blight
imported in wood products from Europe eliminated the chestnut in the early 1900s. Another, Dutch elm
disease, a fungal disease carried by both native and non-native bark beetles, arrived on this continent in
contaminated elm veneer in the 1930s. Today few American elms survive. The gypsy moth has repeatedly
stripped local forests of their leaves. The hemlock wooly adelgid, which is an insect, has wiped out nearly all
eastern hemlocks in Guilford. Others pests and blights include ash blight, dogwood decline, and others.
Sources of stress: wind-blown, transported materials
Over-harvest/over-collection of a species can lead to its decline, particularly if it requires a long time to
mature and produces few offspring. For example, spotted turtles and wood turtles are extremely susceptible
to even relatively low levels of casual collecting if it persists over time.
Sources of stress: collectors, poacher for pet trade
References
Anderson, M. 2001. Multiple Scale Conservation of Matrix Forest: Thinking Inside the Blocks. Draft unpublished
paper for The Nature Conservancy
Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection, Aquifer Protection Program
http://dep.state.ct.us/wtr/aquiferprotection/index.htm
Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection. 2004. Connecticut Vegetation Organized by Natural
Community Types. Hartford, CT
Cronon, W. 1983. Changes in theLland. New York: Hill and Wang
Farnsworth, E. 2004. The Natural World of the Traprock Ridges: Dry and Warm Alternates with Cool and
Moist. Connecticut Woodlands. Middlefield, CT: Connecticut Forest and Park Association
Hammerson, G.A. 2004. Connecticut Wildlife: Biodiversity, Natural History, and Conservation. Hanover, NH:
University Press of New England
Jorgenson, N. 1978. A Sierra Club Naturalist’s Guide: Southern New England. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books
LaBarbera, L., T. Rumpf, P. Sharp and H. Woolsey. 1978. Ecological Reconnaissance Survey of Town-owned
Properties. Guilford, CT: Guilford Conservation Commission
Massachusetts Audubon Society. 2004. Grassland Birds
http://www.massaudubon.org/Birds_&_Beyond/grassland/index.php
Meyer, J.L. et al. 2003. Where Rivers are Born: The Scientific Imperative for Defending Small Streams and Wetlands.
American Rivers and Sierra Club
Natural Resource Inventory and Assessment Town of Guilford, CT D7
Uplands