PeerJ Note: This comment was left on the original version of this article
In the article "Evaluating outcomes of management targeting the recovery of a migratory songbird of conservation concern" (Streby et al., Jan. 29, 2018), the image in Figure 2c is described as "an area managed with the same management prescription in Bald Eagle State Park in Pennsylvania", and compared to the image in 2b, which is a site at Rice Lake National Wildlife Refuge, Minnesota, managed by "mechanically cleared of vegetation to ground level through hydro-axing" according to the authors.
A few clarifications are in order. The Pennsylvania site pictured is not maintained according to a Golden-winged Warbler (GWWA) prescription, or any other species-specific guideline. It is an opening in an exotic/native shrubland, mowed annually by a partner agency to maintain a stand dominated by perennial cool-season grasses, and could perhaps be best described under the broad category of "food plot". Therefore, a) the objectives differ, b) the operations differ, and c) the resulting community is much different. The authors describe sites similar to Figure 2b transitioning to areas "dominated by sedges and low shrubs. The authors ultimately describe the practices depicted in Figure 2b as negative. By implication, if Figure 2b and the Pennsylvania site are 'comparable', then the Pennsylvania site is a mismanaged GWWA site. Bald Eagle State Park has been the site of GWWA habitat research, but the depicted site was not part of the research. Sites in Pennsylvania State Parks managed for GWWA would certainly resemble more closely the image in Figure 2a (pre-treatment at Rice Lake National Wildlife Refuge), or the 'mosaic' example depicted in the online Supplemental File 1b, to Bakermans, M.H., C.L. Ziegler, and J.L. Larkin. 2015. American Woodcock and Golden-winged Warbler Abundance and Associated Vegetation in Managed Habitats. Northeastern Naturalist 22 (4): 690-703, available at https://www.eaglehill.us/NENAonline/suppl-files/n22-4-N1335-Bakermans-s1.pdf.
As one of a number of people striving to effectively manage wildlife habitat in Pennsylvania's State Park system, it is frustrating to have our work misconstrued.
Art Gover
Research Support Associate
Wildland Weed Management, Penn State University
