Habitat Objectives
Landscapes: Within small landscapes (e.g., watersheds, townships, sections), provide >30% of the area as young/ pole forest with site-level habitat conditions as described below.
Sites: Where ecologically appropriate in forests >30 years old provide
– >20% canopy cover of deciduous trees.
Sites: Riparian buffer zones within harvest units should be >55 m (180 ft) wide to provide suitable habitat, and should meet site-level habitat conditions described above.
Habitat Conservation Strategies
– Where deciduous trees occur, ensure persistence of these trees by thinning of conifers shading them out.
– If deciduous trees are not present, conduct thinning to open-up the canopy and allow for development of deciduous trees where ecologically appropriate (e.g., wet sites). Thinning should occur in patches and be variable spaced rather than uniform to minimize negative effects of reduced overstory canopy closure by maintaining some areas with high canopy closure.
– Under long rotations, conduct repeat thinning as necessary to maintain a deciduous canopy component and lengthen the suitability of the habitat for a longer period of time.
Brown Creeper
Forest condition: Old-growth/Mature
Forest Stage: (Multi-Layered/Late-Successional)
Habitat Attribute: Large trees less abundant along edges than in the forest interior requires patches of contiguous forest habitat much larger than their territory to maintain a presence or a viable population (forest-interior or area-sensitive species)
Habitat Objectives
Landscapes: At small landscape scales (e.g., watersheds, townships, sections), provide ≥3 blocks of late successional forest >30 ha (75 ac) or one block >85 ha (210 ac) per square mile with site-level habitat conditions as described below.
Sites: Where ecologically appropriate in forests >60 years old provide
– canopy closure >70%
– ≥15 trees/ha (6/ac) >50 cm (20 in) dbh
– ≥3 trees/ha (1.2/ac) >70 cm (24 in) dbh
-most or all of the trees should be Douglas-fir
Sites: Riparian buffer zones within harvest units should be >30 m (100 ft) wide to provide suitable habitat and should meet site-level habitat conditions described above.
Habitat Conservation Strategies
-Maintain late-successional forests in the largest tracts possible to reduce amount of edge and fragmentation.
-Small patches of late-successional forest or light or moderately thinned forest dominated by large trees can be suitable for foraging only if extensive areas of late successional forest are adjacent (Mayrhofer 2006).
-Retain or create snags (essential for nesting) within late successional forest that are of earlier decay classes with bark remaining rather than older snags without bark.
-In forests managed for production of wood products, extend rotation age to >80 years to allow for development of large trees and snags, and retain these trees and snags and recruit replacements at each harvest entry.
– In conjunction with extended rotations in forests managed for wood products, and where physically practical (e.g., not on steep slopes), conduct early and frequent thinning to accelerate individual tree growth and faster development of large trees.
– In harvest units of forests managed for wood products, retained trees should be clumped (retention aggregates),and should be primarily Douglas-fir with an emphasis on trees with deep fissures or furrows in the bark to provide more surface area and complexity of micro habitats for foraging (Van Pelt 2007).
This paper, published in Avian conservtion and Ecology, presents results from Short-eared Owl surveys conducted by citizen scientists. CLiCK HERE TO VIEW PDF.
Acorn Woodpecker (Melanerpes formicivorus)
Bewick’s Wren (Thyromanes bewickii)
Black-capped Chickadee (Parus atricapillus)
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher (Polioptila caerulea)
