GREETINGS
This year we had a long, mild spring that facilitated a productive and busy season for us. This issue of our newsletter focuses on some of the water-related research and outreach efforts we’ve been engaged in. Also, make sure you don’t miss the feature on our decades-long red-cockaded woodpecker restoration work. We hope you enjoy learning more about what’s been going on at the Jones Center at Ichauway.
RESEARCH
New Funding for Wetland Hydrology Research
The Dougherty Plain has more than 10,000 isolated wetlands, with approximately 100 of those on Ichauway. These wetlands are fed by rainwater that falls onto the surrounding catchments, so they are extremely sensitive to changes in land management that affect water use by surrounding ecosystems. Despite this close connection to the upland, Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) wetland conservation easement programs only allow one acre of upland to be protected for each acre of wetland. To better inform their wetland conservation programs, NRCS is funding Jones Center scientists and collaborators to develop better tools for assessing and restoring wetlands. One objective of this project is to use our long-term wetland water-level data to build and validate models that predict the impact of forest management on wetland inundation. Those results will help the NRCS-easements team better prioritize wetland easement applications, guide landowners in forest management actions that promote healthy wetland hydrology (such as thinning and prescribed fire), and help NRCS assess the conservation outcomes of forest restoration programs.
Wild Pigs and Water Quality
Since August 2020, our Aquatic Biology Lab has been evaluating the effects of wild pig control efforts on water quality. This work is part of the Albany/Georgia Feral Swine Control Pilot Project in cooperation with landowners, UGA, and the Jones Center Wildlife Lab. This is an extension of our long-term study of water quality initiated in the lower Flint in 1993 designed to examine the effects of land use and climate change on streams. ln mid-March, Dr. Steve Golladay provided an update to project landowners, as well as legislative aides to Representative Sanford Bishop and Senator Jon Ossoff. While water quality was generally good in the project area, Golladay noted that in areas of high wild pig activity, we documented degraded water quality. We correlated total suspended solids, turbidity, and specific conductance with detections of wild pig activity. Using a novel approach, we partnered with the Veterinary Sciences Lab in Tifton GA to use environmental DNA (eDNA) to detect pig activity in streams. This work complements the water quality studies in providing a unique indicator specific to wild pig fecal matter, a contaminant of concern in waterways. 

We summarized the first two years of the water quality work in an article published in the 2023 Proceedings of the Georgia Water Research Conference. The article was entitled "Using water quality to assess the impacts of wild pigs in a pilot management study," with Caitlin Sweeney, Research Associate, being the lead author.  
Learning from 30 Years of Water Quality Data
Our Aquatic Biology Lab recently published an article in Ecological Applications that used a novel stoichiometric approach to understand watershed processes using 30 years of water quality data. Stoichiometry considers how the requirements of biota for nitrogen, phosphorus, carbon, and other essential elements affect processes ranging from growth to nutrient cycling at an ecosystem scale. When applied to a watershed, stoichiometry can provide insights into nutrient limitation, contamination, controls on productivity, limits to food webs, and alterations related to human activity. Our article focused on carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus, reporting that there were long-term changes in watershed function related to decreasing water availability during the growing season caused by climate change and regional water withdrawals. Co-authors included Carla Atkinson and Arial Shogren of the University of Alabama and Chelsea Smith and Steve Golladay of the Jones Center. The article is entitled “Water availability and seasonality shape elemental stoichiometry across space and time.”
New Water Management Effort Promotes Freshwater Mussel Habitat Conservation
Our Aquatic Biology Lab began studying freshwater mussels in the lower Flint River and its tributaries in the 1990s. The river is home to more than 20 species, and mussels provide beneficial services such as serving as water quality indicators, purifying water by filtration, and serving as the foundation for stream food webs. Generally, streams with abundant mussel populations are healthier and have more productive recreational fisheries. Mussel populations are in decline globally, and in the Flint River they have been affected by river modifications (channel dredging and reservoirs) and water scarcity (climate change and water withdrawals). The Flint River is home to six federally listed species. Our Aquatic Biology Lab has partnered with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, the Georgia Water Policy and Planning Center, and the US Fish and Wildlife Service in a large project intended to build resilience into stream flows and water supply (see GA-FIT.org). The group’s goal is to develop a Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP) that provides for mussel habitat needs while allowing continued use of water resources to support the regional agricultural economy. Our recent activities for this project include creating GIS maps that show the distribution of mussel species over the past 40 years, initiating an inventory of mussel populations at sites of historic mussel abundance, instrumenting stream reaches to evaluate habitat conditions under water allocation scenarios developed by models, and developing educational programs and materials to raise awareness of mussels.
EDUCATION & OUTREACH
Sharing Our Science at the Georgia Water Resources Conference
The Jones Center was well represented by scientists, research associates, graduate students, and alumni at the biennial Georgia Water Resources Conference in Athens in March. Steve Golladay served on the conference steering committee and spoke on a panel where he gave an overview of mussel populations in the Flint River, while the Aquatic Biology Lab gave presentations on a variety of topics ranging from the restoration of Radium Springs to the impact of wild pigs on water quality. Steven Brantley organized a special session on managing forests for water that included several presentations by Jones Center staff and students.
Longleaf and Water: An Ecosystem Services Forum
In early March, Drs. Steve Golladay and Steven Brantley and graduate student Chambers English travelled to South Carolina to participate in a forum on longleaf and water. Hosted by The Longleaf Alliance and the US Forest Service, the forum explored topics centered on the interactions of longleaf, water, and land management prioritization. Steven helped organize the conference speaker lineup and served as a session facilitator while he, Steve, and Chambers all gave research presentations at the forum. The forum also included a field trip to Santee Experimental Forest to see a watershed-scale longleaf restoration experiment. A team of conference participants is now working on a review publication that summarizes the unique attributes of longleaf ecosystems relevant to water and identifies knowledge gaps to help us understand future research needs. 
Enhancing University Natural Resource Education
Our Ecohydrology Lab hosted two new undergraduate classes from College of Coastal Georgia. The first class examined the hydrology, soils, and vegetation at two wetlands to determine wetland boundaries based on US Army Corps of Engineers permitting guidelines. The second class made Ichauway an early stop on an 18-day tour of hydrology around the state of Georgia. We took them to several stops to teach them about the unique attributes of karst landscapes, hydrology of Ichawaynochaway Creek, and the role of wetlands in watershed health. Both classes also received a healthy dose of Ichauway history, longleaf pine ecology, and the basics of prescribed fire.
The University of Georgia herpetology class made their annual journey down to Ichauway to learn about Coastal Plain habitat for snakes, amphibians, and turtles. The group toured our extensive longleaf pine forests, with added emphasis on the geographically isolated wetlands that play such an important role in the life cycles of so many of our amphibians. The class also focused on the gopher tortoise, a species of concern in our region that has been the subject of intensive conservation efforts here in Georgia. Dr. Lora Smith and her lab hosted the group.
Another annual visiting class is the University of Florida silviculture course. This course has made a spring trip to Ichauway for over 25 years! Their time with us this April focused on the management and restoration of longleaf pine. The century-old second growth longleaf on Ichauway is an excellent example of single-tree selection silviculture using the Stoddard-Neel approach. Our plantings of young longleaf offer a chronosequence of ages and developmental stages as a case study of restoration of this iconic ecosystem.
Convening Natural Resource Professionals
The senior leadership team from the National Forests in Florida spent two days with us in April. Our field tours each day provided updates on our longleaf management and research for veterans of the office, but perhaps more importantly, also served as an opportunity to educate recently transferred USFS staff from outside the region to longleaf pine ecosystems. This group is responsible for the stewardship of approximately 1.2 million acres in Florida, and we were excited to have the chance to share some of our work with them.
We also hosted a board meeting of the Georgia Forestry Foundation, a sister organization of the Georgia Forestry Association. The organizations promote forest stewardship across the state. Former Center Director Dr. Lindsay Boring serves on their board. It was nice to have Lindsay back at Ichauway!
Sharing Our Work Through Media
We were happy to have the opportunity to host WFSU’s Rob Diaz De Villegas and a film crew for a segment on longleaf pine, prescribed fire, and the carbon cycle. Funded by NOVA, the segment aired on WFSU and will hopefully make it into an upcoming NOVA program. The program focused on work from Drs. Josh Puhlick and Steven Brantley.
In collaboration with the Georgia Forestry Association, we were pleased to host Senator Jon Ossoff at Ichauway. Senator Ossoff is a sponsor of the recently introduced Forest Data Modernization Act, which is intended to upgrade our national system of collecting and curating forest inventory data by delivering the most accurate, helpful information possible to scientists, key forestry stakeholders, and the public alike. In addition to the press conference, we had the opportunity to take Senator Ossoff on a field tour to highlight some of our work and the beauty of Ichauway’s longleaf pine. 
CONSERVATION
25 Years of Red-cockaded Woodpecker Restoration on Ichauway
This spring marked the 25th nesting season of the red-cockaded woodpecker (RCW) restoration program at the Jones Center. In 1998, our RCW population consisted of one lonely individual. Ichauway soon became the statewide RCW mitigation site, entered into a Safe Harbor agreement, established 9 new recruitment clusters using artificial cavities (inserts), translocated (moved) 11 RCWs to Ichauway, and restoration was off and running. In the spring of 1999, the original lonely male Ichauway RCW nested with a newly relocated female and produced 2 fledglings.
Over the last 25 years, we have dedicated a significant investment of resources to managing RCW habitat, installing inserts, translocating RCWs, establishing clusters, banding nestlings, and monitoring the population. A total of 85 RCWs have been successfully translocated to Ichauway from partner populations on places like Apalachicola National Forest, Fort Moore, Fort Stewart, Eglin Air Force Base, and private properties in the Red Hills region of Georgia, with a retention rate of 70%. As a result of all these efforts, our population has drastically increased and Ichauway is now home to one of the largest populations of RCWs on private lands.
Some significant events have occurred along the way. Up until 2014, Ichauway’s RCW population had been located entirely south of Highway 91. We made the decision to expand the range of RCWs on Ichauway, and we established clusters north of Hwy. 91 in areas that had not been occupied by RCWs in 50 years or more. Not long after, in 2020, we discovered a natural RCW cavity north of Highway 200 and RCWs began to occupy the most northern portions of the property. Our population has also endured challenges like drought, tornadoes, and Hurricane Michael in 2018. Through it all, the population has remained resilient and has significantly increased its excavation of starts and natural cavities. In the last couple of years, Ichauway’s RCWs have even established a couple of clusters on their own.
Natural RCW Cavity
We achieved another milestone of 50 RCW potential breeding groups (or breeding pairs) in 2023. Our current population size consists of 55 active clusters (a cluster occupied by at least one RCW), with 52 potential breeding groups and 3 single bird groups. We banded a total of 76 nestlings in 2023. Overall, 817 RCW nestlings have been produced and banded on Ichauway since 1999. Ichauway still contains unoccupied areas of suitable RCW habitat and our RCW population is expanding, resilient, and its future is bright.
Ty Paul Goes from Ichauway Fellowship to Silviculture Forester with US Forest Service
Congratulations to Ty Paul who recently completed his MS degree at the University of Florida, via the Ichauway Conservation Fellowship, and began working for the US Forest Service in June as a Silviculture Forester on the Tuskegee Ranger District. We look forward to Ty accomplishing great things!