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Trillium, a common
slope forest plant.
Flyr's brickell-bush
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Within Joe Budd is a wide diversity of forest
community types. Most exemplary are a stand of old-growth longleaf
pine on the Budd tract and slope forests along Little River.
Throughout the wildlife management area, the land slopes down to
creeks, rivers, or lakes. The diversity of forests on Joe Budd
provide varied food for deer and other wildlife.
Much of the upland acreage, probably a longleaf
pine-wiregrass community at one time, was timbered by previous
owners and farmed or reforested with fast-growing slash pines.
Logging decks and agricultural fields established by previous
owners are maintained as mowed openings and planted food plots to
benefit wildlife. See rare plants found on or near Joe Budd.
See Major Natural
Communities.
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Wildlife Desert
This planted stand of pine is a biological desert.
Sunlight cannot penetrate to the forest floor
and any seedlings that happen to sprout are
smothered beneath the carpet of pine needles.
Invasive Exotics
This feathery green foliage may look attractive, but it belongs to
the invasive Japanese climbing fern.
On Joe Budd are numerous invasive exotics, many of which were
introduced to the area in the 1800s as landscape plantings.
Considerable efforts are being expended to control the spread of
these plants.
All photos by Don Francis
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Management
The management philosophy at Joe Budd is maximum
diversity results in more wildlife. In the past, natural fires,
elevation changes, and hydrologic differences precluded dense
stands of any single community type.
Today slash pine planted by previous owners is
allowed to mature to marketable size and harvested. The land is
then reforested with longleaf pine. Longleaf is planted randomly
without the ground disturbance associated with bedding. The
understory is then restored, and burn compartments and perimeter
and internal firelines established.
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