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About Us < Features < Teaming with Wildlife Project at Fall Line Sandhills Natural Area
By Shirl Parsons, Conservation Issues Coordinator
Top: C.T. Lyles, Junior Bass Busters volunteer, deploys rolls of aluminum flashing to reinstall drift fences for wildlife research. Bottom: DNR staffer Nathan Klaus guides a trencher, the first step to reconstructing drift fences. |
Using State Wildlife Grants and private funds, the Georgia Department of Natural Resources (DNR) acquired 844 acres of former timber company property to create the Fall Line Sandhills Natural Area located in the Upper Coastal Plain in Taylor County. This area is a small component of the entire fall line sandhill community, which bisects Georgia, crossing the state from Columbus northeast to Augusta following along the fall line, and separating the Piedmont region from the Coastal Plain. Georgia's sandhill habitats harbor rare wildlife, but many of the habitats have been degraded and few acres are protected in any way.
On a hot Saturday in July Teaming With Wildlife (TWW) groups met at the Fall Line Sandhills Natural Area to help DNR repair drift fences damaged in spring tornadoes. Participants also learned about the important work being done by DNR in this natural area. DNR's Wildlife Resources Division will restore the property for high priority wildlife such as the gopher tortoise, gopher frog, Bachman's sparrow, southeastern kestrel and the striped newt. Many imperiled plants will also benefit including pondberry, sandhills golden-aster, and Pickering's morning-glory. In addition, gopher frog eggs collected here will be used to restore populations at other protected sites.
Drift fences allow DNR to study the movements and population trends of reptiles and amphibians. Stretches of aluminum fencing are installed in a cross pattern with pit traps located in the center and at each end of the cross. When reptiles and amphibians encounter the drift fence they are forced to change their course and fall into the pit traps. DNR checks the traps daily, recording and then releasing their "catches." TWW members worked with DNR to remove the old fences and install new fences. Groups participating in this project included Junior Bass Busters, Georgia Chapter of the Bass Federation, Georgia Chapter of the Sierra Club, Macon College and Georgia
Wildlife Federation.
The Call, Fall 2008, Volume 18, Number 4
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