Land Cover Change Comparing Land Cover to Aerial Land Cover Types, 1992 and 2001 Changed Areas Only, 1992 and 2001 Closeups of Changes Examples of Historical Land Cover Change Recommendations goal was to look at what LULC changes were taking place adjacent to UNF lands that could affect wildlife and management there. Important - USFS statistics showed that the amount of land being used for forestry instead of ag has steadily increased with time, but land use says nothing about land cover, which changes over time. Can have lots of land used for forest, but at any one time, much of that forest could be cleared, or forests could be regrowing. We’ll present how we came up with our maps, then show them to you w/ examples and USFS recs.

Comparing Land Cover to Aerial Aerial, date recent Talk about where data came from, then about reclassifying the LULC layers to decrease # of classes and overall accuracy of each class (in the legend); explain how green means forest, red is development, yellow is grassland/ag/low-density or young forest; show how LULC map matches up with aerial photo nicely Uwharrie Point

talk about Uwharrie proc boundary outline, point out the towns with lots of red and yellow (and where closeups will be shown later), what the translucent green areas are (UNF lands), what brown areas are (timber company lands), and private conservation lands – other lands are present, but only LandTrust ones were identified

point out less green, more yellow and red; some red is due to roads appearing as development, while others (Uwharrie Point) are brand new developments as in the second slide.

look at bare areas (gray), areas near the lake (Uwharrie Point and Woodrun), and the lower right, near the town. Here, dark green represents UNF lands.

large areas on the lower right have gone from forest to cleared (grassland/ag/very low density, young forest); major developments along the lake near UNF lands; on left (next county), clearing taking place near existing clearings.

here, gray represents UNF lands here, gray represents UNF lands. Lots of contiguous forest (different shades of green) that are broken up by cleared parcels in the next slide. Also, bare timber company parcels have regrown, and ones covered uniformly with pine have been cut between 92-01. Importantly, many cut areas are next to UNF lands.

Historical Land Cover Change 1938 1968 1999 Historical Land Cover Change Aerial photos show a trend of deforestation from 1938 through 1999. (Sources: 1938, 1968: Montgomery County; 1999: MS TerraServer) 1992 2001 1938-mostly forest, some large fields, one road going N-S. 1968-more clearing of forest. 1999-subdivision put in; golf courses highly reflective and obvious. Forest highly fragmented. 1992-2001: development picked up nicely by LULC maps. Between 1992 and 2001 the peninsula is converted to the Uwharrie Point residential development.

Another Example: Uwharrie River In other places, forest clearing has been balanced by forest regrowth, but the spatial pattern of cleared and regrowing areas changes with time. This is south of Badin Lake, on the Uwharrie River which is off the Yadkin River. The inset represents the scope of the upcoming slides.

Uwharrie River, 1938 Note the cleared areas near the river and on the right (town of Uwharrie). Cleared areas are near the river, roads, and town.

Uwharrie River, 1968 Regrowth has occurred in the riverbend and on the outskirts of town, especially to the north. One of the roads to the north has also shifted.

Uwharrie River, 1999 More regrowth from edges in riverbend. However, in center, roads being put in for new development. Lot marked 2 in the previous slide has regrown, while area between 2 roads at top right has been cleared.

Land Cover Change: Recommendations Consider impacts of changing landscape pattern on USFS patches, e.g.: Connectivity Edge effects Matrix effects Metapopulation dynamics The recommendations we made to the USFS about the land use/land cover changes occurring next to their lands in the Uwharrie were to consider…

looking at just the changed areas, we start out with lots of green and end up with more yellow and red. Here, UNF lands are in dark green.

next, we’ll look at closeups of two areas next, we’ll look at closeups of two areas. The first, Badin Lake, is growing due to recreational use of the lake and construction of second homes. The second is in an area that historically had longleaf pine savannas, but now has many timber company-owned parcels next to UNF lands.