Snag Forest Habitat Protection
The goal of the Snag Forest Habitat Protection campaign is to ensure that research on fire, insect outbreaks, and wildlife is translated into improved forest-protection policies and effective forest-management activities that conserve this critical, scarce, and misunderstood wildlife habitat.
Fire, insect outbreaks, and other disturbances are natural elements of healthy, dynamic forest ecosystems in the western United States, and have been for millennia. Exciting scientific research has demonstrated that many species of plants and animals increase in abundance following high-intensity fire and insect infestations. Research conducted by Wild Nature Institute scientists through the Institute for Bird Populations found that California Spotted Owls – a species that was previously assumed to be harmed by high-intensity fire – prefer to forage for their small-mammal prey in intensely burned forests when that habitat is available. Predatory woodpeckers are strongly dependent upon disturbances: Black-backed Woodpeckers are the most specialized of all birds to eat wood-boring beetle larvae in intensely burned forests and are rarely encountered in unburned areas, and American Three-toed Woodpeckers are far more abundant in forests with spruce beetle epidemics than other areas. In turn, beetle populations are regulated by these predatory woodpeckers. Far from being a threat, high-intensity fire and insect outbreaks actually provide great benefits to forests and many wildlife species.
However, a disconnect exists between the science and public opinion about impacts of high-intensity fire and insect epidemics, with the public mistakenly believing that these disturbances destroy wildlife habitat. This false assumption that fire and insects are destructive to wildlife is providing the underlying basis for increased commercial logging, even though widespread logging— including salvage logging of dead trees—is actually the greatest threat to the forest ecosystem.
Campaign Actions:
Through the Snag Forest Habitat Protection campaign, Wild Nature Institute scientists are continuing our targeted studies of fire and insect effects on Spotted Owls, Black-backed Woodpeckers, and other forest wildlife. These studies will contribute to a larger shift in the scientific understanding of the important role of disturbance in forests and counter false premises for increased commercial logging. Our scientists have extensive experience with outreach to the public, media, policymakers, conservation organizations, and other scientists. We will apply this experience to ensure that the results of our research (and related studies on the ecological importance of disturbance) reach a broader audience. Avenues for dissemination of results include reports and peer-reviewed publications, presentations at scientific and activist conferences, articles and editorials in the media, meetings with decision-makers, comments on proposed land-management projects and plans, Endangered Species Act listing petitions, and other innovative outlets.
The Wild Nature Institute thanks the Environment Now Foundation for funding the Snag Forest Habitat Protection campaign, the Norcross Wildlife Foundation for purchasing equipment, and ESRI, Inc. for donating ArcGIS software for use in the Institute’s habitat analyses.
Fire, insect outbreaks, and other disturbances are natural elements of healthy, dynamic forest ecosystems in the western United States, and have been for millennia. Exciting scientific research has demonstrated that many species of plants and animals increase in abundance following high-intensity fire and insect infestations. Research conducted by Wild Nature Institute scientists through the Institute for Bird Populations found that California Spotted Owls – a species that was previously assumed to be harmed by high-intensity fire – prefer to forage for their small-mammal prey in intensely burned forests when that habitat is available. Predatory woodpeckers are strongly dependent upon disturbances: Black-backed Woodpeckers are the most specialized of all birds to eat wood-boring beetle larvae in intensely burned forests and are rarely encountered in unburned areas, and American Three-toed Woodpeckers are far more abundant in forests with spruce beetle epidemics than other areas. In turn, beetle populations are regulated by these predatory woodpeckers. Far from being a threat, high-intensity fire and insect outbreaks actually provide great benefits to forests and many wildlife species.
However, a disconnect exists between the science and public opinion about impacts of high-intensity fire and insect epidemics, with the public mistakenly believing that these disturbances destroy wildlife habitat. This false assumption that fire and insects are destructive to wildlife is providing the underlying basis for increased commercial logging, even though widespread logging— including salvage logging of dead trees—is actually the greatest threat to the forest ecosystem.
Campaign Actions:
Through the Snag Forest Habitat Protection campaign, Wild Nature Institute scientists are continuing our targeted studies of fire and insect effects on Spotted Owls, Black-backed Woodpeckers, and other forest wildlife. These studies will contribute to a larger shift in the scientific understanding of the important role of disturbance in forests and counter false premises for increased commercial logging. Our scientists have extensive experience with outreach to the public, media, policymakers, conservation organizations, and other scientists. We will apply this experience to ensure that the results of our research (and related studies on the ecological importance of disturbance) reach a broader audience. Avenues for dissemination of results include reports and peer-reviewed publications, presentations at scientific and activist conferences, articles and editorials in the media, meetings with decision-makers, comments on proposed land-management projects and plans, Endangered Species Act listing petitions, and other innovative outlets.
The Wild Nature Institute thanks the Environment Now Foundation for funding the Snag Forest Habitat Protection campaign, the Norcross Wildlife Foundation for purchasing equipment, and ESRI, Inc. for donating ArcGIS software for use in the Institute’s habitat analyses.
This video from the Wild Nature Institute demonstrates the beauty and life found where burned forests are left to wild nature. Footage was shot in the Lassen National Forest in California during a Black-backed Woodpecker study.
Paper by Wild Nature Institute's Monica Bond and Colleagues Calls For a New Forest Fire Paradigm That Embraces the Ecological Values of High-Severity Fires
Read below or DOWNLOAD HERE
Click on the titles below to download some of the publications co-authored by Wild Nature Institute scientists about forest fire and wildlife.
· Lee DE, Bond ML, Siegel RB. 2012. Dynamics of California Spotted Owl breeding-season site occupancy in burned forests. The Condor 114:792-802.
· Bond ML, Lee DE, Siegel RB. 2010. Winter movements by California spotted owls in a burned landscape. Western Birds 41:174-180.
· Bond ML, Lee DE, Siegel RB, Ward, JP Jr. 2009. Habitat selection and use by California spotted owls in a post-fire landscape. Journal of Wildlife Management 73:1116-1124.
· Bond ML, Lee DE, Bradley CM, Hanson CT. 2009. Influence of pre-fire tree mortality on fire severity in conifer forests of the San Bernardino Mountains, California. The Open Forest Science Journal 2:41-47.
· Bond ML, Gutiérrez RJ, Franklin AB, LaHaye WS, May CA, Seamans ME. 2002. Short-term effects of wildfires on spotted owl survival, site fidelity, mate fidelity, and reproduction. Wildlife Society Bulletin 30:1022-1028.
· Bond ML, Lee DE, Siegel RB. 2010. Winter movements by California spotted owls in a burned landscape. Western Birds 41:174-180.
· Bond ML, Lee DE, Siegel RB, Ward, JP Jr. 2009. Habitat selection and use by California spotted owls in a post-fire landscape. Journal of Wildlife Management 73:1116-1124.
· Bond ML, Lee DE, Bradley CM, Hanson CT. 2009. Influence of pre-fire tree mortality on fire severity in conifer forests of the San Bernardino Mountains, California. The Open Forest Science Journal 2:41-47.
· Bond ML, Gutiérrez RJ, Franklin AB, LaHaye WS, May CA, Seamans ME. 2002. Short-term effects of wildfires on spotted owl survival, site fidelity, mate fidelity, and reproduction. Wildlife Society Bulletin 30:1022-1028.
