Author:
Last Updated: 07 Dec 2018
http://www.fs.fed.us/rm/pubs_other/rmrs_2007_saab_v001.pdf
Page 106: This study looked at the effects of post-fire salvage logging as well as changes in nest survival rates as a function of time after a fire. It found reduced nest density after salvage logging in five out of seven species. "Inferences from our study are limited because the treatments were not replicated. However, the two burns were similar in prefire crown closure, prelogging snag densities, and burn severity. We also accounted for calendar year effects when testing for differences in nest densities between the partially logged and unlogged burns. This strongly suggests that differences detected between the two burned areas were likely the result of salvage logging and not other factors. While individuals of every species in the cavity-nesting bird assemblage nested in both the logged and unlogged burns, more species favored the unlogged burn. Black-backed and Hairy Woodpeckers were most strongly associated with the unlogged burn, and both are resident species that may be more at risk from salvage-logging practices than Neotropical migrants (Imbeau et al. 2001, Morissette et al. 2002). Migrants evolved under highly variable abiotic and biotic conditions (Cox 1985), which may explain why they are less vulnerable than residents to habitat changes created by salvage logging. Black-backed Woodpeckers are considered ‘‘burn specialists’’ and may be especially vulnerable to population declines due to habitat loss from postfire salvage logging or fire suppression (Hutto 1995, Dixon and Saab 2000, Hoyt and Hannon 2002). In contrast, American Kestrels, Lewis’s Woodpeckers, and Western Bluebirds, all Neotropical migrants, persisted in the partially logged burn over the 11-year period that we monitored nests. Importantly, the salvage logging was not designed to create clearcuts, but rather to retain more than half the snags over 23 cm dbh, which provided suitable nesting and foraging habitat for aerial insectivores during the decade following fire. However, nest survival for Lewis’s Woodpeckers (and, to a lesser extent, Western Bluebirds) declined during the later postfire period, indicating that habitat quality was reduced compared to the earlier years after fire."