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January 2009 - October 2016
August 1979 - August 1986
August 1996 - August 2009
Publications
Publications (96)
Golden‐winged warblers ( Vermivora chrysoptera ) are facing population declines in the southern Appalachian Mountains. Breeding habitat loss is considered one of the primary reasons for golden‐winged warbler declines in the region. Expanding breeding habitat availability in a manner that promotes population expansion across an interconnected networ...
Climate change is contributing to biodiversity redistributions and species declines. However, cooler microclimate conditions provided by old-growth forest structures compared with surrounding open or younger forests have been hypothesized to provide thermal refugia for species that are sensitive to climate warming and dampen the negative effects of...
Population declines in terrestrial bird species have been reported across temperate regions in the world and are attributed to habitat loss, climate change, or other direct mortality sources. North American and European studies indicate that long-distance migrants, common species, and species associated with grasslands and agricultural lands are de...
Forest policymakers and managers have long sought ways to evaluate the capability of forest landscapes to jointly produce timber, habitat, and other ecosystem services in response to forest management. Currently, carbon is of particular interest as policies for increasing carbon storage on federal lands are being proposed. However, a challenge in j...
Increasingly, objectives for forests with moderate- or mixed-severity fire regimes are to restore successionally diverse landscapes that are resistant and resilient to current and future stressors. Maintaining native species and characteristic processes requires this successional diversity, but methods to achieve it are poorly explained in the lite...
Large-scale commercial thinning of young forests in the Pacific Northwest is currently promoted on public lands to accelerate the development of late-seral forest structure for the benefit of wildlife species such as northern spotted owls (Strix occidentalis caurina) and their prey, including the northern flying squirrel (Glaucomys sabrinus). Attem...
Forests characterized by mixed-severity fires occupy a broad moisture gradient between lower elevation
forests typified by low-severity fires and higher elevation forests in which high-severity, stand replacing
fires are the norm. Mixed-severity forest types are poorly documented and little understood but likely
occupy significant areas in the west...
Our primary objective was extending knowledge of major crop rotations and stand establishment conditions present in 4800 grass seed fields surveyed over three years in western Oregon to the entire Willamette Valley through classification of multiband Landsat images and multi-temporal Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) 16-day comp...
Trees and snags with diameter at breast height (dbh) ≥5 cm were measured in 1983, 1993, and 2003 on 117 plots, each having an area of 200-m2, in an 80-year-old forest in western Massachusetts. In 2003 we measured dead stumps and coarse woody debris (CWD) with diameter ≥10 cm using the line intercept method. Decadal mortality rates were 9.4% and 9.0...
Recent declines in broadleaf-dominated, early-seral forest globally as a function of intensive forest management and/or fire suppression have raised concern about the viability of populations dependent on such forest types. However, quantitative information about the strength and direction of species associations with broadleaf cover at landscape s...
Historical range of variability has been proposed as a concept that can be used by forest land managers to guide conservation of ecosystem functions and biodiversity conservation. The role of humans in historical range of variability has remained somewhat murky and unsettled, even though it is clear that humans have been, are, and will continue to...
Western red-backed voles are endemic to western Oregon and northern California and represent a large proportion of the rodent community in mature Douglas-fir forests. Despite their dominance in these forests, little is known about their selection of home ranges. We radiotracked 23 western red-backed voles in 3 mature, coniferous forest stands in th...
The degree to which dose responses of model organisms (lab rodents) can adequately predict dose responses of free-ranging wild mammals or amphibians is unknown, and the relative sensitivity of such species to body loading of a toxicant such as glyphosate is seldom reported. For relative effects of dosage, we compare sensitivity of nine wild vertebr...
To understand the potential effects of forest policies on sustaining biological diversity at broad scales, we used spatial simulation models to evaluate current and potential future habitat availability over 100 yr for three focal species: Pacific Fisher (Martes pennanti), Pileated Woodpecker (Dryocopus pileatus), and Warbling Vireo (Vireo gilvus)....
Forest biodiversity policies in multi-ownership landscapes are typically developed in an uncoordinated fashion with little consideration of their interactions or possible unintended cumulative effects. We conducted an assessment of some of the ecological and socioeconomic effects of recently enacted forest management policies in the 2.3-million-ha...
We used spatial simulation models to evaluate how current and two alternative policies might affect potential biodiversity over 100 years in the Coast Ranges Physiographic Province of Oregon. This 2.3-million-ha province is characterized by a diversity of public and private forest owners, and a wide range of forest policy and management objectives....
Salmon runs have declined over the past two centuries in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. Reduced inputs of salmon-derived organic matter and nutrients (SDN) may limit freshwater production and thus establish a negative feedback loop affecting future generations of fish. Restoration efforts use the rationale of declining SDN to justif...
We examined the association between stream reach and riparian conditions influenced by beavers with capture rates of small mammals and amphibians. We compared vegetation structure and capture rates of small mammals and amphibians between stream reaches occupied by beaver and unoccupied reaches in 5 streams in the Oregon Coast Range. Percent cover b...
We examined the association between winter bird community composition and three riparian vegetation types common in the central Willamette River basin: grass-riparian, shrub-riparian, and forest-riparian. There were 20 times more birds detected and 3 times as many species detected in forest-riparian sites than in grass-riparian sites. There were ov...
Contemporary threats to biodiversity conservation and sustainable use of natural resources are complex and require individuals trained to be effective team members developing new information that can be integrated to produce acceptable solutions to problems. Solutions viewed as acceptable now may be unacceptable in the future or in a different loca...
We considered the possible effects Passenger Pigeon (Ectopistes migratorius) flocks may have had on the disturbance regime and species composition of presettlement forests in eastern North America. We suggest that the activities of roosting and nesting Passenger Pigeons caused widespread, frequent disturbances in presettlement eastern forests throu...
We examined capture rates of amphibians in 30 250-300-ha landscapes in the central Oregon Coast Range, Oregon, USA, to better understand multiscale habitat associations. We compared capture rates of 5 species that had 26-79 captures to expected capture rates based on sampling effort in 7 vegetation patch types and 4 species with 208-482 captures in...
Conservation of mammals in the coniferous forests of western North America has shifted in recent years from species-based strategies to community- and ecosystem-based strategies, resulting in an increase in the available information on mammalian communities and their management. This book provides a synthesis of the published literature on the role...
Conservation of mammals in the coniferous forests of western North America has shifted in recent years from species-based strategies to community- and ecosystem-based strategies, resulting in an increase in the available information on mammalian communities and their management. This book provides a synthesis of the published literature on the role...
The process of assessing tradeoffs among different forest uses to help inform debates about sustainable forestry is complex and full of challenges. These challenges include: (1) definition of problems and formulation of a conceptual model, (2) identification of policies and policy alternatives, (3) development of spatial information about regions,...
The rapidly increasing global population has dramatically increased the demands for natural resources and has caused significant changes in quantity and quality of natural resources. To achieve sustainable resource management, it is essential to obtain insightful guidance from emerging disciplines such as landscape ecology. This text addresses the...
Logging and other forest practices are widely reported to be a threat to some amphibian populations in the Pacific Northwest. Riparian buffer strips are one conservation measure that may benefit amphibians in managed forests. However, few amphibian surveys have been conducted in buffer strips. We compared total salamander abundance, amphibian speci...
To investigate multiscale habitat associations, we examined patterns of capture rates of small mammals in thirty 250300 ha landscapes in the central Oregon Coast Range. We compared capture rates of 14 species within 7 patch types to expected capture rates based on sampling effort. We used landscape level capture rates to test for associations with...
We are assessing the potential for current and alternative policies in the Oregon Coast Range to affect habitat capability for a suite of forest resources. We provide an example of a spatially explicit habitat capability model for northern spotted owls (Strix occidentalis caurina) to illustrate the approach we are taking to assess potential changes...
Forests managed primarily for wood resources may be lacking in adequate amounts of coarse woody debris (CWD) for forest-floor vertebrates. We assessed associations between captures of forest-floor vertebrates and volume of CWD in 18 closed-canopy stands of Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii). The volume of CWD ranged from 14 to 859 m(3)/ha. Pitfall...
The maintenance of the earth's biological diversity is widely seen as both necessary for ecosystem integrity and aesthetically desirable. This book focuses on how biodiversity can be maintained in forested ecosystems, particularly in those forests that are subject to timber harvesting. At the core of the book lies the concept that diversity should...
In response to public dissatisfaction with forest management methods, we initiated the College of Forestry Integrated Research Project (CFIRP) to test alternative silvicultural systems in Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii stands in western Oregon. We compared costs and biological and human responses among a control and three replicated silvicultur...
Silvicultural alternatives to clear-cutting have been suggested to promote development, retention, or creation of late-successional features such as large trees, mul-tilayered canopies, snags, and logs. We assessed bird response to three silvicultural alternatives to clear-cutting that retained structural features found in old Douglas-fir (Pseudo-t...
Silvicultural alternatives to clear-cutting have been suggested to promote development, retention, or creation of late-successional features such as large trees, multilayered canopies, snags, and logs. We assessed bird response to three silvicultural alternatives to clear-cutting that retained structural features found in old Douglas-fir (Pseudotsu...
The emphasis of forest management in the Pacific Northwest has shifted recently from the production of timber resources to the maintenance or restoration of biological diversity and ecosystem functioning. New standards and guidelines for management emphasize the retention of forest structures (live trees, logs, and snags) to reduce logging impacts,...
The Oak-Hickory Vegetation Type covers portions of 15 states in the central United States. In the Southeast, it is a major vegetation type in Arkansas, Kentucky, and Tennessee with extension into Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas. This chapter provides a comprehensive summary of current knowledge about the oak-hickory forests including its...
Conversion of hardwood stands to conifers is a common practice in the Oregon Coast Range, but little is known of the effect on small mammals. We sampled small mammals on 3 replicate red alder (Alnus rubra) sites 1 year before and 2 years after the application of forest management treatments. On each site, 1 unit each was (1) left uncut (control), (...
Field observations of remnants from predation on pandora moths, Coloradia pandora Blake, suggested that eggs from gravid females were being rejected. Captive feeding trials with golden-mantled ground squirrels, Spermophilus lateralis Say, verified that this rodent is a natural enemy of C. pandora that rejects eggs while feeding on moths. Nutritiona...
We radiotracked 16 female long-legged myotis (Myotis volans) in the central Oregon Cascade Range that used a total of 41 day roosts. Large Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) snags averaging 97 ± 7 (SE) cm diameter at breast height (dbh) and 38 ± 3 m in height were the most commonly used roost structures (88%). The odds that a snag was used as a da...
During 1988-1989, 22 stream habitat attributes were measured and compared between 40 beaver-dam sites and 72 unoccupied-stream sites to identify attributes associated with dam-site selection by beaver (Castor canadensis) in streams of the Drift Creek Basin, Lincoln County, Oregon. Beaver built dams in areas with wide valley-floors; narrow, low grad...
Cumulative effects of forestry operations accumulate over time and space in forested landscapes where harvesting and management occur. We review the literature and concepts associated with cumulative effects and propose a framework for evaluating them. In order to evaluate potential adverse effects of forestry on vegetation, soils, streams, aquatic...
In western Oregon, we created snags by sawing tops off live Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) (n = 821) trees and monitored their condition and use by cavity-nesting birds. We created snags in three silvicultural treatments: modified clearcut stands, two-story stands, and small-patch group-selection stands. We used two snag patterns: clumped and...
Mapping of biodiversity elements to expose gaps in conservation networks has become a common strategy in nature-reserve design. We review a set of critical assumptions and issues that influence the interpretation and implementation of gap analysis, including: (1) the assumption that a subset of taxa can be used to indicate overall diversity pattern...
Mapping of biodiversity elements to expose gaps in conservation networks has become a common strategy in nature-reserve design. We review a set of critical assumptions and issues that influence the interpretation and implementation of gap analysis, including: (1) the assumption that a subset of taxa can be used to indicate overall diversity pattern...
Changes in forest management policies in the Pacific Northwest have resulted in a broad array of management alternatives to clearcutting on state and federal forest lands. These management alternatives should be monitored for their effects on animal use, particularly during critical periods for survival. We compared abundance of resident birds amon...
We inventoried breeding and wintering bird communities in four treatments of temperate rainforest on Prince of Wales Island, southeast Alaska during 1991-1992 and 1992-1993. The four forest treatments sampled included: (1) young growth (20 years) orig-inating from clearcut logging with no silvicultural modification (non-modified), (2) young growth...
We compared abundance and diversity of breeding and winter birds between commercially thinned and unthinned 40- to 55-year-old Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) stands in the Oregon Coast Ranges. Abundance of breeding birds was greater in thinned stands. Bird species richness was correlated with habitat patchiness and densities of hardwoods, snag...
New silvicultural strategies to sustain both ecological and human communities are being developed and implemented on federal forest lands in the Pacific Northwest (PNW) United States. Two important stand-level components of the new silviculture regimes are rotation age and retention level of live trees in harvest units. Ecologists have suggested th...
Human-caused fragmentation of forests is increasing, yet the consequences of these landscape changes to vertebrate communities are poorly understood. Although bird community response to forest fragmentation caused by agricultural or urban development has been well studied, we have little understanding of these dynamics in landscapes undergoing inte...
Ecologists have advocated retaining various densities of canopy trees in harvest units in Pacific Northwest forests, In contrast to clear-cutting, this practice may better emulate the patterns of disturbance and structural complexity typical of natural forests in the region. Several ecological attributes, including vertebrate habitat diversity, are...
This chapter is intended to provide a comprehensive summary of current knowledge about the Mixed Mesophytic Forest Region. Forests of the Mixed Mesophytic Forest Region are characterized by high biodiversity at the community level of ecosystem organization. They are among the most (if not the most) biologically rich systems of the temperate regions...
Equitability and diversity of small mammal communities were higher along streamside than upslope transects. There was no difference in small mammal or amphibian species richness per transect between streamside and upslope transects. Community similarity between streamside and upslope habitats was <55% for both amphibians and mammals. Capture rates...
The authors did not detect differences between streamside and upland sites in 25 or 28 habitat characteristics, nor in capture rates for one amphibian species and four mammal species. Capture rates for Ensatina salamanders Ensatina eschschlotzi were higher in upland than in streamside habitats. Roughskin newts Taricha granulosa were the most common...
By autumn, the number of beaver Castor canadensis dams had increased to 1.1 and 1.2 per km on the two streams. Beaver dams increased summer pool habitat 7-14% over unmodified conditions. Although density of coho Oncorhynchus kisutch was similar among pool types, beaver ponds were larger and contained more coho fry than non-beaver pools; thus, beave...
Despite the perceived ecological and management significance of streamside areas in the moist coniferous and mixed deciduous-coniferous forests of the Pacific Northwest, there is little empirical data on the relative importance of streamside habitat to area avifauna. Consequently, we compared breeding bird species diversity, richness, evenness, and...
Compared capture rates of small mammals and amphibians in six mature forest stands in the C Oregon Coast Range in spring 1988. Fewer small mammal and amphibian species were caught with Museum Special traps than with pitfalls. Townsend's chipmunks Tamias townsendii and deer mice Peromyscus maniculatus were more vulnerable to capture in Museum Specia...
We compared physical and vegetative habitat characteristics at 14 dam sites occupied by beaver (Castor canadensis) with those at 41 random unoccupied reaches to identiiy features important to dam-site selection in the Long Creek basin, Grant County, Oregon. Stream reaches with dams were shallower and had a lower gradient than unoccupied reaches. Be...
Bird abundance increased 21% and 23% on 2 clearcuts during the 2nd growing season after cutting. Bird species richness and bird diversity were highest on an uncut control area of mature forest and a best management practices harvest unit with a riparian buffer strip. Bird diversity and species equitability were lowest on a logger's choice unit with...
In live trees availability of dens with entrances ≥2.5 cm in diameter for secondary cavity users was summarized by forest type, cover type, stand age, land ownership, stand origin, and physiographic site in Florida and South Carolina. Den density was lowest in slash pine (Pinus elliottii) and longleaf pine (P. palustris) stands and highest in oak (...
The forest vegetation (stems ≥ 2.5 cm dbh) of the Knobs Region of Kentucky was studied at eight sites to provide baseline information concerning species composition, stand structure and species-environment relations in this distinct geologic and physiographic region. Species composition closely resembled that of the Cumberland Plateau of eastern Ke...
Snags were more abundant in palmetto Sabal palmetto, oak-hickory (Quercus-Carya) and oak-tupelo-baldcypress (Quercus-Nyssa-Taxodium) stands than in longleaf pine Pinus palustris or slash pine P. elliottii stands. Stands >60 yr old supported more snags than 0-30 yr old stands. Snags were most abundant on stream margins and in deep swamps. Recommende...
Managers of urban forests may want to improve habitat for gray squirrels (Sciurus carolinensis) where more are desired, or to reduce habitat quality where squirrels are a nuisance. Habitat characteristics that are desirable for either purpose were determined by trapping and line-transect censusing squirrels on a 276-acre tract that resembles an urb...
Snag densities were compared among 3 forest communities in each of a virgin and a 35-year-old 2nd-growth mixed hardwood stand in eastern Kentucky. Snags <15.0 cm dbh were more abundant in the 2nd-growth than in the old-growth stand, but there was no difference in density of snags ≥15 cm dbh between the stands. Density of snags >10 cm dbh was higher...
A soil-applied herbicide rate of 40 lb/acre TORDON 10K created snags (dead trees) and/or habitat characteristics desirable for foraging and nesting cavity-nesting birds in eastern Kentucky. Integration of picloram pellet application into TSI programs would allow stand quality improvement and a sustained supply of potential feeding and nesting sites...
Snag and cavity densities were measured on two watersheds in a mixed mesophytic forest in eastern Ken-tucky. One watershed received timber stand improvement (TSI) by girdling 20-30 y~rs prior to measurement and one did not receive TSI. There were more snags on the TSI watershed than on the non-TSI watershed. Total cavity den-sity was similar betwee...
Improvement cutting, or removal of undesirable stems by silvicide or girdling, can foster the integration of forestry and wildlife management in the central hardwood region. Group selection or small, narrow clearcuts are recommended for attaining uneven-aged and even-aged management objectives, respectively. Reforestation of surface mines should co...
Thirty-nine taxa of invertebrates used nest boxes and natural cavities in three mid-South forest habitats. Twelve of the 16 genera identified used nest boxes more frequently than natural cavities. Only carpenter ants (Camponotus sp.) (Formicidae) and termites (Kalotermitidae) used natural cavities more frequently than nest boxes. Wood roaches (Parc...
Total percent cover was significantly higher on cut than uncut plots in bottomland hardwoods 19 months after cutting, but no difference in cover was found in upland hardwoods 8 months after cutting. Species diversity did not differ between cut and uncut plots, but it did increase from slough to ridge sites in bottomland hardwoods. Reorganization of...
Vegetation cover in the plantation was greater than that in the nearby bottomland hardwoods. The plantation was dominated by early succession species and species with persistent root systems. Differences in species composition between the stands are probably due to higher light levels within the plantation, and to alteration of physiographic site b...
Use of 235 nesting boxes by birds and mammals was compared to use of 165 natural cavities in 3 forest habitats. Nest boxes were used more frequently than natural cavities by 12 of the 19 species using cavities (P
To understand the potential effects of forest policies on sustaining biological diversity at broad scales, we used spatial simulation models to evaluate current and potential future habitat availability over 100 yr for three focal species: Pacific Fisher ( Martes pennanti), Pileated Woodpecker (Dryocopus pileatus), and Warbling Vireo (Vireo gilvus)...
The concepts described in Duncan et al. (above) provide a framework for integrating ecological and social variability in the creation of the Historical Range of Variability (HRV) and the Future Range of Variability (FRV), but does not evaluate how useful are all these concepts in contemporary landscapes. We have developed a three-dimensional perspe...
High quality georeferenced data on crop production practices and other land uses is critical but often lacking in undertakings, such as the USDA Conservation Effects Assessment Program (CEAP), that seek to measure the effectiveness of conservation practices in achieving their goals and the general impact of human activities on ecosystem services. E...