Postfire Woodpecker Foraging in Salvage-Logged and Unlogged Forests of the Sierra Nevada

Hanson, Chad T.; North, Malcolm P.

doi:10.1525/cond.2008.8611

Cited by 40 publications

(45 citation statements)

References 23 publications

(33 reference statements)

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“…Bean plots facilitate comparison of distributions of data points by simultaneously displaying the data along with normal density traces of the data. Our preconceptions of important predictors of woodpecker occupancy were based on our own field observations (including pilot field data collected in 2008) as well as previous research conducted on the species (Hanson andNorth 2008, Hutto 2008). We expected woodpecker occupancy to be influenced by fire age (higher occupancy in more recently burned areas), fire severity (higher occupancy in more severely burned areas), and pre-and post-fire forest composition and structure.…”

Section: Habitat Data and Exploratory Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

“…v www.esajournals.org (Hanson and North 2008). Our study represents the first broad-scale survey of Black-backed Woodpeckers across recently burned forests of the Sierra Nevada and the first to assess responses of the species to habitat characteristics relevant to managing habitat for the species in the region and refining its use as an MIS.…”

Section: Occupancy Modelingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Thus, woodpecker responses to burn severity at a larger landscape scale may have obscured patterns summarized at individual sampling points (in our case at the scale of 90 3 90 m pixels). Studies that have shown strong positive responses of Black-backed Woodpeckers to high-severity stand-replacing wildfires have sampled a wider range of conditions, comparing sites between burned and unburned forest stands or individual sites prior to and following a fire (Hutto 1995, Murphy and Lehnhausen 1998, Kotliar et al 2002, Smucker et al 2005, Hanson and North 2008. Nevertheless, our finding of a relatively weak fire-severity effect could indicate that Black-backed Woodpeckers in the Sierra Nevada may require, or at least be more tolerant of, more heterogeneous landscapes than has been suggested for other regions (e.g., Hutto 2008).…”

Section: Occupancy Modelingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We plan to explore this possibility further in future modeling efforts (e.g., by including a fire.age i 3 snag.ba i interaction term in the logitlinear model for occupancy probability). If this inference holds, it suggests that salvage logging following wildfire may not just negatively affect short-term responses of woodpeckers and other wildlife (Koivula andSchmiegelow 2007, Hanson andNorth 2008), but it may have particularly strong negative effects on the longevity of fire areas as habitat for these species.…”

Section: Occupancy Modelingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Wildfire and salvage logging are priority management issues in coniferous forests of western North America (Hutto 2006), and the Black-backed Woodpecker (Picoides arcticus) was recently selected by the USDA Forest Service as a management indicator species (MIS) for snags in burned forests of the Sierra Nevada (USDA Forest Service 2007). Highseverity stand-replacing wildfires have been suggested to be particularly important for this species (Hutto 1995, Murphy and Lehnhausen 1998, Kotliar et al 2002, Smucker et al 2005, Hanson and North 2008, with habitat quality peaking within the first few years of a high-severity fire (Murphy and Lehnhausen 1998, Saab et al 2007, Nappi and Drapeau 2009. However, the species may also respond positively to lower intensity fires such as controlled burns (Russell et al 2009), and it also occurs to some extent in unburned forests (Dixon andSaab 2000, Tremblay et al 2009).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Occupancy modeling of Black-backed Woodpeckers on burned Sierra Nevada forests

2011

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Abstract. The Black-backed Woodpecker (Picoides arcticus) has been designated by the USDA Forest Service as a management indicator species for snags in burned conifer forests of the Sierra Nevada of California, USA. However, little is known about the characteristics that affect between-fire and within-fire habitat selection by the species in the region. Here we report on the first broad-scale survey of Black-backed Woodpeckers on wildfire-affected forests of the Sierra Nevada. We implemented a Bayesian hierarchical model to: 1) estimate Black-backed Woodpecker occupancy probability in fire areas burned within a time window of 1-10 years; 2) identify relationships between occupancy probability and habitat covariates (fire age, change in canopy cover pre-to-post fire, and snag basal area), elevation, and latitude; and 3) estimate detection probability and relate it to survey interval length and survey type (passive v. broadcast). We included random fire-area effects in our model of occupancy probability to accommodate clusters of nonindependent points surveyed within the larger set of fire areas. Mean occupancy probability was estimated to be 0.097. Elevation (after controlling for latitude) had the strongest effect on occupancy probability (higher occupancy at higher elevation) followed by latitude (higher occupancy at northerly sites). Fire age was also important; occupancy probability was about 43 higher on the youngest compared to oldest fires. Although the direction of regression coefficients were in the expected direction (positive), snag basal area and canopy cover change were of minor importance in affecting occupancy probability. There was some indication, however, that the importance of snag basal area increased with fire age. Weak links between occupancy and canopy cover change suggested the species uses a range of burn severities, and such heterogeneity may promote habitat longevity. Our estimate of overall detection probability (across all survey intervals) was 0.772. We found strong effects of survey interval length (higher for longer interval) and, especially survey type (higher for broadcast survey) on detection probability. Our modeling framework and implementation illustrates the flexibility of the Bayesian hierarchical approach for handling complexities such as estimating derived parameters (and variances) and modeling random effects, and should prove generally useful for occupancy studies.

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Section: Habitat Data and Exploratory Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Occupancy Modelingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Occupancy Modelingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Occupancy Modelingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Occupancy modeling of Black-backed Woodpeckers on burned Sierra Nevada forests

2011

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Secondhand homes: The multilayered influence of woodpeckers as ecosystem engineers

Hardin

Leivers

Grace

et al. 2021

Ecology and Evolution

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Toward a more ecologically informed view of severe forest fires

et al. 2016

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Abstract.We use the historical presence of high-severity fire patches in mixed-conifer forests of the western United States to make several points that we hope will encourage development of a more ecologically informed view of severe wildland fire effects. First, many plant and animal species use, and have sometimes evolved to depend on, severely burned forest conditions for their persistence. Second, evidence from fire history studies also suggests that a complex mosaic of severely burned conifer patches was common historically in the West. Third, to maintain ecological integrity in forests born of mixed-severity fire, land managers will have to accept some severe fire and maintain the integrity of its aftermath. Lastly, public education messages surrounding fire could be modified so that people better understand and support management designed to maintain ecologically appropriate sizes and distributions of severe fire and the complex early-seral forest conditions it creates.

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Postfire Woodpecker Foraging in Salvage-Logged and Unlogged Forests of the Sierra Nevada

Cited by 40 publications

References 23 publications

Occupancy modeling of Black-backed Woodpeckers on burned Sierra Nevada forests

Occupancy modeling of Black-backed Woodpeckers on burned Sierra Nevada forests

Secondhand homes: The multilayered influence of woodpeckers as ecosystem engineers

Toward a more ecologically informed view of severe forest fires

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