Cover

CHAPTER IV: WILDLIFE HABITATS FOR MISSISSIPPI’S SGCN,

THREATS AND CONSERVATION ACTIONS^176

mechanically chopped, they persist for long periods. Thickets may succeed to swamp forest vegetation
once larger trees overtop the titi shrubs.

LOCATION, SIZE, CONDITION AND CONSERVATION STATUS
EGCP, UEGCP

Small stream swamp forests consist of several communities that are situated on
bottomlands of small streams in the in the piney woods region and cover
approximately 50,000 acres. The patches are long narrow wetland habitats,
which may reach up to 1,000 acres in size. They are often transected by
transportation and power line corridors. They are situated between the stream
channel and pine forests on the adjacent uplands.

Wetlands are afforded greater protection from logging on national forest lands
and less frequently on private lands where streamside management zones are established.
Establishment of pine plantations on adjacent uplands can also reduce the quality of these swamp forest
habitats because they occur in narrow patches. Excessive intrusion and fragmentation that is occurring
in urban and suburban lands has cause additional deterioration of small stream swamp forests.
Headcutting, a process in which downcutting of the streambed accelerates the drainage of swampy
lowlands, is a detriment to small stream swamps. With a lack of periodic fires to reduce shrub densities,
these forests become inaccessible thickets of evergreen shrubs. White cedar swamp forests, one of the
rarest communities of this subtype, have been severely degraded in southern Mississippi by road
building and logging.

The pond cypress swamp forest, another community of this subtype is also very rare because their range
is limited. The community that makes up a majority of this subtype is vulnerable to further decline due
to a lack of prescribed fires and encroachment and fragmentation caused by urbanization. Other less
extensive communities of this subtype are considered very rare (white cedar swamp forest and pond
cypress swamps) and critically imperiled.

SPECIES OF GREATEST CONSERVATION NEED ASSOCIATED WITH
SMALL STREAM SWAMP FORESTS

GROUP SCIENTIFIC NAME COMMON NAME TIER
Amphibians Amphiuma pholeter One-Toed Amphiuma 1
Rana heckscheri River Frog 1
Birds Egretta caerulea Little Blue Heron 2
Euphagus carolinus Rusty Blackbird 2
Elanoides forficatus Swallow-Tailed Kite 2
Eudocimus albus White Ibis 2
Mycteria americana Wood Stork 2
Protonotaria citrea Prothonotary Warbler 3

Range of Small Stream

Swamp Forests