Managing Landbird Populations in National Forests of the Pacific Northwest

In this study, demographic monitoring and species-landscape modeling have revealed important ecological relationships for demographics among 13 species of conservation concern monitored on 36 MAPS stations (Figure 1). From these models we can predict the effects of proposed forest management on populations of multiple breeding species. Furthermore, it is possible to spatially extend these models to map potential habitat for a particular species across an entire national forest.  The following report details research that adopts IBP's adaptive Monitoring, Modeling, and Management approach to avian conservation:

Nott, M. P., D. F. DeSante, P. Pyle, and N. Michel. 2005. Managing Landbird Populations in Forests of the Pacific Northwest Region. Publication No. 254 of The Institute for Bird Populations. Executive Summary (412KB) Full Report (5.35MB)

Figure 1. Map of seven groups of MAPS stations (red triangles) operated within seven US Forest Service national forests of Washington, Oregon, and Montana. Two forests lie within the Pacific Northwest Rainforest Bird Conservation Region (BCR), two forests lie within the Great Basin BCR, and two forests lie within the Northern Rockies BCR. USFS lands are shown in green, national parks are shown in hatched yellow, and Dept. of Defense properties are shown in hatched blue.

Climate research was also conducted using demographic data from this network of stations and resulted in the following publication:

Nott, M.P., DeSante, D.F., Siegel, R.B., and P. Pyle. 2002. Influences of the El Niño/Southern Oscillation and the North Atlantic Oscillation on avian productivity in forests of the Pacific Northwest of North America. Global Ecology and Biogeography 11:333-342. (summarized here)