Fort Bragg, North Carolina
Last Edited: 5/5/2010

Background - Fort Bragg is a major U.S. Army installation located approximately 10 miles northwest of Fayetteville, North Carolina. It is home of the 82nd Airborne Division and used for training and military exercises. The rare and imperiled longleaf pine savanna habitat makes up about half of the 160,000 acre area, and provides habitat for a number of Endangered species including the Red-cockaded Woodpecker and the Bachman's Sparrow. Fort Bragg is in the NABCI Southeastern Coastal Plains Bird Conservation Region (BCR27), and is covered by the PIF South Atlantic Coastal Plain Bird Conservation Plan (Physiographic Area 3). MAPS stations are located in various habitats including pine savanna, riparian scrub/woodland, and upland woodland.

Management Issues - Management plans for Fort Bragg include the restoration of the native longleaf pine savannah through removal of invasive plant species and prescribed burning. MAPS is monitoring the effects of fire management and determining optimal fire regimes for the Prairie Warbler, an identified management species of concern. MAPS has detected long-term declines in many bird populations at Fort Bragg. These declines may be due to the expansion and improvement of pine-savannah habitat around the more mesic MAPS stations. However, similar declines have been reported in Breeding Bird Survey data and other MAPS data representing the Atlantic coastal region. Currently, investigations are being made of the influence of annual weather variation on the regional vegetation (e.g. greennesss indices) and, especially conditions on the wintering grounds of Neotropical migrants.

MAPS Monitoring (1995-2008) - The MAPS Station Information file contains descriptions and geographic location information for all the seven MAPS stations that have ever operated at Fort Bragg. Five of these stations have operated yearly since 1995. Station I102 started in 1995 and was discontinued in 2002 in order to avoid capturing Red-cockaded Woodpeckers. It was replaced with Sandstone Hill in 2003, which was chosen specifically for monitoring Prairie Warbler response to a prescribed fire regime. Google Earth generated maps of the Fort Bragg location (BRAG) and of each station (I104, I113, S110, S112, S114, SAHI) show the specific arrangement of the nets and the associated vegetation (we do not have net lane coordinates for the discontinued station I102).

Installation Contact:
Jessie Schillaci
Directorate of Public Works
jessie.schillaci@us.army.mil
910-396-2544 x206

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