Effects of timber management on forest habitat and small-bodied snakes of the southeastern Coatal Plain

Throughout much of the United States Coastal Plain, historically dominant longleaf pine ecosystems have been eliminated and existing pine forests are comprised primarily of marketable timber species that are kept in even-aged management and harvested by clearcutting. The effects of modern industrial silviculture on reptiles have been generally understudied, particularly for diminutive and often overlooked species such as small-bodied snakes, despite growing concern over reptile population declines. We created four replicated forest management landscapes to determine the responses of six small, semi-fossorial or leaf-litter snake species (scarlet snakes [Cemophora coccinea], ringneck snakes [Diadophis punctatus], scarlet kingsnakes [Lampropeltis triangulum], redbelly snakes [Storeria occipitomaculata], southeastern crowned snakes [Tantilla coronata], and smooth earth snakes [Virginia valeriae]) to forest management in the Coastal Plain of the southeastern United States. We divided each replicated landscape into four treatments representing a range of disturbed habitats: a clearcut with coarse woody debris (CWD) removed; a clearcut with CWD retained; a thinned pine stand; and an unharvested control of second-growth planted pines. Canopy cover, ground litter, and temperature regimes all changed significantly in harvested treatments compared to unharvested controls. Concomitantly, we observed significantly reduced abundances of the six snake species in clearcuts compared to unharvested or thinned pine stands. The highest snake abundances occurred in thinned stands. Our results highlight both the importance of open canopy structure to small snakes in southeastern forests and the negative consequences of forest clearcutting. We suggest that the historical conversion of open-canopied longleaf pine ecosystems to densely-planted managed-pine forests has created a negative legacy of altered herpetofaunal populations that needs additional study.