West Gulf Coastal Plain Bird Conservation Region Fact Sheet
The West Gulf Coastal Plain (WGCP) physiographic area occupies about 21 million hectares (52 million acres) in southeastern Arkansas, southwestern Oklahoma, western
Louisiana, and eastern Texas. The area reaches from the Arkansas River Valley in the north in Arkansas and Oklahoma to the coastal prairies and marshes in the south in
Louisiana and Texas and from the Mississippi Alluvial Valley in the east in Arkansas and
Louisiana to the Oaks and Prairies in the west in Oklahoma and Texas. The West Gulf
Coastal Plain lies within the Humid Southeast Region of the U. S. and comprises two subregions: all of the West Gulf Coastal Plain and the Ouachita Mountain portion of the
Ozarks/Ouachitas. The Ouachitas are an uplifted, low montane region with ridges and valleys. The Ozark/Ouachitas are similar to the Interior Low Plateaus just to the east of the Mississippi Alluvial Valley. The area lies within the following ecological map units:
Ouachita Mountain Section; Middle Coastal Plain, Western Section; Arkansas Valley
Section; the Coastal Plains and Flatwoods, Western Gulf Section; and the northwestern most portion of the Mississippi Alluvial Basin.
The area is dominated by pine forests on the uplands, shortleaf (Pinus echinata) to the north and longleaf (P. echinata) and loblolly (P. taeda) to the south, and is dissected by numerous river systems dominated by forested wetlands, largely bottomland hardwood forests. Longleaf pine - bluestem (Andropogon spp. and Schizachyrium scoparium) savannahs formerly dominated the uplands in southeastern Texas and southwestern
Louisiana; these forests are much less common in today's landscape, comprising less than three percent of the land area of the WGCP. Shortleaf pine mixed with oaks (Quercus spp.) and hickories (Carya spp.) were the predominant pines outside of the longleaf range; much of the shortleaf pines have been replaced by loblolly pines except in the
Ouachitas and the drier areas to the west. Upland hardwood communities are intermixed with shortleaf in the Ouachitas and in drier (xeric) and sandier sites throughout the
WGCP. Shortleaf and longleaf pine communities and upland hardwoods are dependent on sandy soils and are largely fire produced and maintained. Loblolly pines were formerly confined to flatwoods in the south and along moist (mesic) slopes in other areas; now loblolly have largely replaced shortleaf and longleaf as plantations in most areas.
Outside of pine forests, the most extensive plant community type in the WGCP is the mixed pine - hardwood type that is often a successional type on lands previously occupied by other types. In more mesic areas and on slopes, hardwood species, requiring greater amounts of moisture, are dominant. Bottomland hardwood forests of various oak species, black gum (Nyssa sylvatica), sweetgums (Liquidambar styraciflua), elms (Ulmus spp) , and ash (Fraxinus spp.) are found in stream and river bottoms; swamps of cypress
(Taxodium distichum) and/or tupelo (Nyssa aquatica) are found in frequently to permanently flooded sites. Other wetlands dominated by herbaceous emergent and floating plants are occasionally found in some permanently flooded areas.
The West Gulf Coastal Plain, as described above, is the focus of a new and innovative initiative that seeks to conserve natural communities and the bird populations within these habitats. The WGCP Bird Conservation Region (BCR) lies almost completely within the Lower Mississippi Valley Joint Venture (LMVJV) as does the Mississippi

Alluvial Valley BCR . The WGCP BCR poses new challenges and opportunities that were not present in the LMVJV BCR; the LMVJV exists presently as a non forested landscape while the WGCP is largely forested, albeit much changed since presettlement.
The LMVJV and WGCP have embraced the "all bird - all habitat" approach to bird conservation that is incorporated in the North American Bird Conservation Initiative
(NABCI). NABCI incorporates the goals and objectives of the North American
Waterfowl Management Plan (NAWMP), U. S. Shorebird Conservation Plan (USSCP),
Partners In Flight (PIF), and the North American Colonial Waterbird Conservation Plan
(NAWCP). The purpose of NABCI is to ensure the long-term viability of bird populations by promoting bird conservation initiatives, such as the LMVJV and WGCP.
This occurs by "delivering the full spectrum of bird conservation through regionally based, biologically driven, landscape oriented partnerships."
The red-cockaded woodpecker (Picoides borealis) is the highest priority species in the
WGCP and occurs in open, park-like pine savannahs. Other high priority species that nest in this habitat type include Bachman's sparrow (Aimophila aestivalis) and the brownheaded nuthatch(Sitta pusilla). Le Conte's sparrow (Ammodramus lecontii) winters in this same habitat type. Several priority species use pine forests and other upland communities including the northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus), eastern wood-pewee (Contopus virens), and the red-headed woodpecker (Melanerpes erythrocephalus). Pine savannahs are a conservation priority because of all the bird species supported in these habitats.
These savannahs are continually threatened by conversion to pine plantations and the lack of prescribed burning and the suppression of naturally-caused fires.
Bottomland hardwood forests and cypress/tupelo swamps support priority species including swallow-tailed kites (Elanoides forficatus); Swainson's (Limnothlypis swainsonii), cerulean (Dendroica cerulea), and prothonotrary (Protonotaria citrea) warblers, white-eyed vireo (Vireo griseus), yellow-billed cuckoo (Coccyzus americanus), and red-headed woodpeckers, especially in the winter. Bottomland forests also support substantial populations of several waterfowl species including the wood duck and mallard. The primary threats to these forests of high conservation priority include reservoir construction; stream modifications; destructive timber harvesting practices; and conversion to pine plantations, pastures, and other land uses.
References:
U. S. NABCI Committee. 2000. North American Bird Conservation Initiative: Bird
Conservation Region Descriptions, A Supplement to the North American Bird
Conservation Initiative Bird Conservation Regions Map. 38pp. and map.
Pashley, D. N., C. J. Beardmore, J. A. Fitzgerald, R. P. Ford, W. C. Hunter, M. S.
Morrison, and K. V. Rosenberg. 2000. Partners In Flight: Conservation of the Land Birds of the United States. 92pp.
Author: Jim Neal, U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Nacogdoches, TX