Effects of early‐successional shrubland management on breeding wood thrush populations

Schlossberg, Scott; King, David I.; DeStefano, Stephen; Hartley, Mitch

doi:10.1002/jwmg.21559

Cited by 12 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 84 publications

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“…Such tradeoffs between BCR 30 priority species, even within a single habitat suite, favors fine-scale over coarse-scale management application within the NJPB and should assist decision makers with quantitative species-level alternative management actions. Further, recent work also suggests that some forest interior nesting species shift their habitat to early-successional/young forests post-breeding due to the availability of forage and cover [ 2 , 6 , 58 , 59 ] and the need to fulfill energy requirements of development or molt [ 13 , 60 – 62 ]. Therefore, varying responses to forest management was not unexpected, and further supports the need for heterogeneity and diversity in forest structure and vegetative composition.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Active forest stewardship benefits priority birds in the New Jersey Pine Barrens

Williams,

Terhune,

Parke

et al. 2024

PLoS ONE

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Fire suppression has negatively impacted thousands of acres of private and public lands in the United States. As a case study, the New Jersey Pine Barrens (NJPB) are a disturbance driven ecosystem that is experiencing serious ecological implications due to a loss of traditional forest thinning activities such as harvesting for forest products or thinning for wildfire fuel-load reduction measures coupled with a long-standing philosophy of fire suppression and dormant-season prescribed burning. Dense closed-canopy forest conditions, dissimilar to historic open-canopy forests of the NJPB, have reduced abundance and diversity of certain flora and fauna, including regionally imperiled breeding birds. In recent years, active forest stewardship (e.g., thinning, clear-cutting, and burning) has occurred on private and some public lands within the NJPB; however, the impact of such management on breeding birds is unclear due to a paucity of research on this subject within the NJPB. During 2012, 2013, 2016, and 2017, we conducted repeat-visit point counts (n = 1,800) for breeding songbirds across 75 control and 75 treatment sites within the NJPB to assess the influence of forest structure at three strata levels (groundcover, midstory profile, and canopy) on breeding bird communities. Specifically, we constructed a hierarchical community abundance model within a Bayesian framework for Bird Conservation Region (BCR) 30 priority upland birds (n = 12) within three species suites: Forested Upland, Scrub-Shrub (or Young Forest), and Grassland. At the community level, we found a negative relationship between bird abundance and live tree basal area. At the BCR 30 suite level, we found no relationship between Forested Upland suite-level abundance and any of the measured covariates; however, we found a negative relationship between percentage of woody groundcover and Scrub-Shrub suite-level abundance, and negative relationship between horizontal visual obstruction at 2 m above ground level and Grassland suite-level abundance. Furthermore, the two latter species suites exhibited a strong negative relationship with basal area. We recommend active forest stewardship that specifically targets opening the canopy to achieve basal areas between ~0–15 m2/ha via selective thinning, shelter cutting, and small-scale clear cutting. Mechanical treatment and prescribed burning would produce such conditions and have the added benefit of reducing fuel loads across this ~4,500 km2 landscape as well as assisting in carbon defense strategies for the region.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Active forest stewardship benefits priority birds in the New Jersey Pine Barrens

Williams,

Terhune,

Parke

et al. 2024

PLoS ONE

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“…As a result, unmanaged stands within the study sites we examined in our meta‐analyses may have exhibited the relatively depauperate conditions typical of self‐thinning stands, which generally have the least developed understory layers given high levels of canopy closure (Alaback, 1982; Moore & Vankat, 1986; Runkle, 1981). The lack of dense understory vegetation patches in unharvested stands may have led to absences of nesting and foraging sites for shrub‐ or midstory avian nesting species (Rankin & Perlut, 2015; Schlossberg et al, 2018). Although biologically mature, late‐seral forests may have higher species richness and conservation value for birds, these old‐growth stands only represent a tiny fraction of eastern forests (Keeton, 2006) and, as apparent from the studies we reviewed, are not typically subject to tree canopy management.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of forest management on the conservation of bird communities in eastern North America: A meta‐analysis

et al. 2023

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Forest management affects conditions for both early‐ and late‐seral organisms, and managers and conservationists require information for balancing the ostensibly opposing habitat needs of both these guilds. We conducted meta‐analyses that examined silvicultural systems with a range of postharvest retention and their impacts on mature‐forest and shrubland bird species densities in eastern North America during the breeding season. Densities of mature‐forest bird species generally declined as canopy tree retention and basal area decreased, although some mature‐forest species had similar densities among unharvested and partially harvested (e.g., first‐entry shelterwood) stands, and others had their highest densities in shelterwoods. We conducted a previous meta‐analysis study, which showed most shrubland bird species in the region increase with harvest intensity, but some shrubland species had similar densities in clearcuts and shelterwoods. Given the contrasting effects of harvest intensity on the two avian guilds, we used Partners‐in‐Flight conservation values to generate objective community‐wide conservation indices relative to postharvest tree retention. Clearcuts and shelterwoods typically had the highest conservation values, and unharvested and lightly thinned stands (70%–100% tree retention) had the lowest conservation scores. Many declining shrubland bird species of conservation concern are abundant in low‐retention stands, thus elevating the conservation value of these stands. Additionally, high conservation values of harvested stands with 40%–70% tree retention represent the presence of both shrubland and mature‐forest species; the latter are potentially responding to enhanced understory structure needed for avian nesting or foraging. In contrast, contemporary closed‐canopy forests in eastern North America are generally characterized by low structural diversity and are mid‐seral stands due to historical patterns of land use and tree harvesting. Although avian community conservation values were lowest in high‐retention stands and many other threatened, non‐avian taxa depend on open‐canopy, managed forests, managers should note that late‐seral, unharvested stands can provide important habitat for old‐growth‐dependent taxa and any intensive forestry should also take into account other factors. Considering the growing interest in using postharvest retention of canopy trees to meet ecological objectives, our novel synthesis can assist managers in assessing species‐specific and community‐wide avian responses to tree retention levels along the entire gradient of canopy treatments.

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“…Furthermore, as early successional forest patches, these small patches may play a valuable role within the urban forest matrix by diversifying forest structure and providing pockets of critical habitat for select bird and mammal species within the built environment. For example, management plans for rural forests in the region often include interventions specifically designed to create early successional habitat (~0.8 ha) within mature forest (DeGraaf & Yamasaki, 2003; Schlossberg et al, 2018). Results from our study then illuminate a potential parallel role for small patches in cities as urban analogues (Lundholm & Richardson, 2010).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Diverging conditions of current and potential future urban forest patches

et al. 2022

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Forested natural areas in cities provide a range of social, ecological, economic, and health benefits. Ensuring the delivery of these benefits requires an understanding of current and potential future forest conditions, yet urban forest dynamics are not well‐understood. Here, we address this knowledge gap by examining forest structure and composition in 126 plots distributed across three forest patch sizes (large [95–126 ha], medium [1–19 ha], and small [0.05–0.65 ha] patches) in the city of New Haven, CT. We detected significant shifts in forest structure and composition suggesting a suite of distinct successional trajectories within each patch size. Large patches comprised 95% native tree species in the canopy (>5 cm dbh), sapling (1–5 cm dbh), and seedling (<1 cm dbh) layers, suggesting that these large patches will continue to be native‐dominated in the future—a primary objective for urban forest management. Moreover, in these large patches, shifts in the dominant species in each stratum suggest that as large patches move through succession they will transition from moderately shade‐tolerant forest types (i.e., oaks) to shade‐tolerant types (i.e., American beech)—a similar successional trajectory to surrounding second‐growth forests in the region. Medium patches were the most heterogeneous patch size sampled. Despite this heterogeneity, they generally resembled large patches in the canopy and sapling layers but diverged in the seedling layer. In medium patches, the invasive Norway maple replaced American beech as primary seedling species suggesting a future shift toward non‐native‐dominated forest in the future. Small patches were the most compositionally and structurally distinct patch size sampled. Only 36% of the canopy trees and saplings in small patches were native species; however, this increased to 71% native in the seedling layer. Additionally, the most important seedling species included those that are bird‐dispersed highlighting the potentially valuable role that these small, non‐native, forest fragments play as wildlife corridors. Collectively, our study demonstrates that multiple forest types, dynamics, and conditions can be found within a single city and that forest patch size offers a helpful framework to begin to parse out these differences.

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Effects of early‐successional shrubland management on breeding wood thrush populations

Cited by 12 publications

References 84 publications

Active forest stewardship benefits priority birds in the New Jersey Pine Barrens

Active forest stewardship benefits priority birds in the New Jersey Pine Barrens

Effects of forest management on the conservation of bird communities in eastern North America: A meta‐analysis

Diverging conditions of current and potential future urban forest patches

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