California Spotted Owl, Songbird, and Small Mammal Responses to Landscape Fuel Treatments

Title
California Spotted Owl, Songbird, and Small Mammal Responses to Landscape Fuel Treatments
Abstract
A principal challenge of federal forest management has been maintaining and improving habitat for sensitive species in forests adapted to frequent, low- to moderate-intensity fire regimes that have become increasingly vulnerable to uncharacteristically severe wildfires. To enhance forest resilience, a coordinated landscape fuel network was installed in the northern Sierra Nevada, which reduced the potential for hazardous fire, despite constraints for wildlife protection that limited the extent and intensity of treatments. Small mammal and songbird communities were largely unaffected by this landscape strategy, but the number of California spotted owl territories declined. The effects on owls could have been mitigated by increasing the spatial heterogeneity of fuel treatments and by using more prescribed fire or managed wildfire to better mimic historic vegetation patterns and processes. More landscape-scale experimentation with strategies that conserve key wildlife species while also improving forest resiliency is needed, especially in response to continued warming climates.
Purpose
Almost all research on the effects of fuel treatments has been performed at the stand scale (10—25 ha). Given the large home ranges of many key wildlife species commonly at the crux of forest management issues in the western United States (e.g., the CSO, the northern spotted owl [Strix occidentalis caurina], the Pacific
fisher), it is important to understand fuel-treatment impacts at larger spatial scales.
Begin Date
2015-08-21
End Date
2015-08-21
Originator Name
Scott L. Stephens, Seth W. Bigelow, Ryan D. Burnett, Brandon M. Collins, Claire V. Gallagher, John Keane, Douglas A. Kelt, Malcolm P. North, Lance Jay Roberts, Peter A. Stine, And Dirk H. Van Vuren
Keywords
Adaptive Management, Fire Policy, Fire Suppression, Forest Management, Forest Restoration, Forest Service Planning Rule, Managed Wildfire, Restoration, Sierra Nevada, Wildlife Conservation
Resource Type
Document
Resource Owner
deercreekgisWebsite

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