Cultural Resources Survey of Southern Pine Beetle-damaged Timber Salvage at Fort Stewart in Bryan, Evans, Liberty, Long, and Tattnall Counties, Georgia

In late 1994 and most of 1995, it became apparent to the Fort Stewart timber managers that the installation was undergoing Southern Pine Beetle (SPB) infestations of epidemic proportions. The rapid movement of these insects across the installation in colonies of various sizes, from an acre to twenty acres or more, resulted in the dramatic destruction of infested portions of the forest. Additionally, because the SPB disturbances encompassed all wildlife habitats including that of the Federally-endangered Red-Cockaded Woodpecker (RCW), there was concern that these infestations could affect the RCW recovery program should the beetles have spread into active woodpecker colonies. Furthermore, there was heightened concern about the potential buildup of forest fire fuels when the trees rapidly died off, sloughed off the bark, and then fell over, thus covering the ground with branches, trunks, pine needles, and other quick-burning materials. Finally, the loss of these trees also represented a major loss of revenue for Fort Stewart, if they were not salvaged soon after the beetle attack and before staining or rotting began. The SPBs are most active in dense pine stands, but also infest some previously thinned stands as well. The infested spots occurred across the Fort Stewart Reservation. In an effort to slow or stop the spread of these beetle infestations, Fort Stewart was subjected to systematic thinning. When the beetles struck, the most effective remedy was to fell and remove the infested trees, along with a buffer zone of trees up to a tree-length or more around the infested area, to prevent the spread to sound trees. To slow the insect spread, it was absolutely critical to remove the timber when possible. Thus Fort Stewart proposed to fell and salvage as much of the beetle-damaged timber as possible, consistent with National Environmental Policy Act, National Historic Preservation Act, the Endangered Species Act, and other appropriate laws and regulations. Following the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, as amended and AR 420-40, Fort Stewart entered a Memorandum of Understanding (MOW) with the Georgia State Historic Preservation Division that outlined how Fort Stewart would address cultural resources management (CRM) requirements while still allowing the timber harvests to continue as expediently as possible.