Where are golden-winged warblers? Max Patch a possible haven for imperiled bird species
MAX PATCH - A cacophony of birdsong ushers in the Max Patch sunrise. Trails climb from the gravel lot, leading to the 4,629-foot-high mountain bald in the Madison-Haywood county area of Pisgah National Forest. The bald is famous for its stunning 360-degree views, but even from the parking lot, the mountains wowed just fine.
A haze hung in the distance, thinning as color saturated the clouds at the horizon, lit in peachy, 6 a.m. light as the sun began to crest higher.
But a handful of people in the parking lot — on a scouting mission to look for a rare and imperiled bird — weren't watching the eastern sky. Rather, they stared with some intensity at the trees.
Matt Drury, with Appalachian Trail Conservancy, interrupted a conversation apologetically to say, "Really quickly — bobwhite," in the tone one would introduce a colleague. "We haven't had one up here in years."
The sound that got his attention happened again: the distinctive cry of a bobwhite quail. The bird sounds as though it's saying its own name: "Bob-white." Two syllables, pitching upward.
"That's a good start to the day," said Avery Young, a biological science technician with the U.S. Forest Service.
“That’s a big deal. That’s a real big deal," Drury agreed. The ATC has been working on building back the quail's habitat for a long time, he said, "but this is the first time after eight years of working here I've heard one."
'Catastrophic' decline
But despite the excitement, it's not the bird they came to see. The morning of May 21, the team was conducting site monitoring for signs of the golden-winged warbler, one of the most vulnerable migratory songbirds in the United States. It is currently being reviewed for listing under the Endangered Species Act and has been identified as a National Bird of Management Concern and a Focal Species by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
From 1996 to 2010, the Appalachian golden-winged warbler population has declined 97.8%. Drury, ATC's associate director of science and stewardship, said experts say the decline has continued at "catastrophic" levels since 2010.
The Appalachian Trail Conservancy, a nonprofit that oversees management and conservation of the nearly 2,200-mile long AT, is part of a Southern Appalachian Golden-winged Warbler Working Group, along with the U.S. Forest Service and several other agencies and organizations.
“We’re seeing just massive declines, year to year," Drury said. "(We're) literally watching this happen right before our eyes, and that’s why we’re intervening. It is that dire right now.”
Causes of the decline are varied, including habitat loss and hybridization with the blue-winged warbler.
Last year, the ATC was awarded a $100,000, three-year National Park Service natural resources grant to provide enhanced golden-winged warbler habitat across 14 sites and three states along the Appalachian Trail: North Carolina, Virginia and Tennessee. Two of those sites are on Max Patch. The project focuses on increasing populations by growing and improving breeding habitat at focal areas along the AT where previous suitable habitat has "aged out."
The ATC is no stranger to this work — Drury said they've done more than 300 acres of warbler habitat management, independent of this particular project.
Golden-winged warblers require early successional habitat, which Drury described as the earliest stages of a forest; generally grasses, wildflowers, and other forb species. It's a habitat-type "underrepresented on the greater landscape," and one growing continually rarer in North Carolina, with multiple species of conservation concern that would benefit from similar management, like the American woodcock, the brown thrasher and field sparrow.
As early successional habitat diminishes, areas like Max Patch must be managed consistently to maintain the proper bird and pollinator habitat over time.
"For me and for Appalachian Trail Conservancy, maintaining ecological integrity and the biodiversity of the AT and the AT landscape is of utmost importance," Drury said.
"People don't necessarily need to hang a name on things, whether it's a common name or a scientific name, or know exactly what they're seeing, or why, or how important it is, but they appreciate seeing something different and having a new experience each time you walk through this place."
In the Appalachians, warblers nest in blackberry thickets and goldenrod, and the occasional birch tree, drawn to low, scrubby vegetation. They need higher elevation habitat, with about five to 15 trees per acre, and a 30-70% shrub and sapling cover.
During site monitoring May 21, Young and Drury stopped at several marked points around Max Patch to play an audio lure, a 17-minute loop of recorded bird calls, specifically that of the golden-winged warbler, noting which birds they heard in response.
Young said her work around the warblers involves a lot of point counts, for other species as well — traveling to areas of interests and conducting official surveys, or finding areas that haven't been surveyed before.
"The goal is just to assess the population status to ensure there are still some individuals in places where there historically were, if it's increasing, decreasing (or) hybridizing," she said.
'Night and day'
Max Patch attracted national attention at the onset of the pandemic as it flooded with visitors, the serene bald overrun with tents, the most basic Leave No Trace principles abandoned.
People trampled newly planted materials in areas being restored for golden-winged warbler habitat and even pulled up fence posts for firewood. Cars parked on both sides of the gravel road for at least a half-mile in each direction from the trailhead and overflowed from the parking lot. At times there were more than 100 tents staked to the bald, trash and toilet paper everywhere, loud music pumping.
A two-year camping closure was extended last year through June 2026. New rules were implemented in July 2021, designed to limit the land's degradation after overuse by visitors, including no fires, group size limits and overnight closure of the area.
The May 21 visit to Max Patch was "night and day" compared to what it was three, or even five, years ago, Drury said. He has planted tens of thousands of native plants, with strategically managed mowing and saw crews, focused on the intersection of natural resources and visitor-use management.
Blackberry thickets were encouraged to grow in areas where user-created trails had proliferated, and many of those trails — unsustainable and eroding — have been closed and stabilized. It's a more "ecologically functional" area now, Drury said.
Signs warn not to stray from the trail, designating the grassy fields beyond as "habitat restoration area" for the golden-winged warbler and more.
“I’m tired of people telling the story of humans with bad behavior. There’s a lot more going on here. There’s an intrinsic value that always gets missed in all these stories," Drury said.
Max Patch is governed by several land management agencies, including the U.S. Forest Service and the Appalachian Scenic Trail, which is a unit of the National Park Service, and is maintained by the nonprofit Appalachian Trail Conservancy and the Carolina Mountain Club. Walking from the parking lot to the trail, hikers cross from Tennessee to North Carolina.
“The narrative should be about the place,” Drury said, not just the controversy that represents only a "snapshot in time" for the iconic mountain. He was standing at the summit, only a handful of hikers visible in the distance. From the bald, there are views of Roan Mountain to the northeast and the Great Smoky Mountains to the west.
Drury said ATC and its partners are "taking a holistic approach to Max Patch management."
"And that means that we’re managing for the responsible use and enjoyment of the space, while providing habitat for pollinators, for neo-tropical migrant songbirds and a variety of other wildlife," he said.
What can you do?
For people hoping to support their work, Drury said visitors should respect forest and habitat closures, like those that ask visitors not to leave the designated trails, and to follow Leave No Trace ethics.
"People need to show up here ready to hike ... Show up here prepared to respect and protect the place," he said. "That starts when you're loading the car, not when you ride up to the trailhead in flip-flops and no way to dig a hole and go to the bathroom."
Leave No Trace principles:
Plan ahead and prepare
Travel and camp on durable surfaces
Dispose of waste properly
Leave what you find
Minimize campfire impacts
Respect wildlife
Be considerate of other visitors
Source: Leave No Trace, www.lnt.org.
Sarah Honosky is the city government reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA TODAY Network. News Tips? Email shonosky@citizentimes.com or message on Twitter at @slhonosky. Please support local, daily journalism with a subscription to the Citizen Times.
This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Scenic bald at Max Patch offers sanctuary for imperiled bird species
