From: George Wuerthner [gwuerthner@gmail.com]
Sent: Tuesday, November 27, 2012 10:19 AM
To: Meril, Rick
Subject: Lynx
Rick:
That article on lynx and the assertion that logging is key to success ignores some important research. And I think it represents the narrow linear thinking that is common among management types.
AT least in the Rockies, there is a definite dependency on old growth forests. The lynx are totally lined up with these forests. What they do is sally forth into younger forests where the snowshoes are found, but their travel corridors, their denning habitat, etc. is all in older forests with a lot of snags, down wood on the ground, etc. So it is misleading to suggest that old growth is not needed--at least in the Rockies, and I suspect as well in the mid west though I don't know that to be true.
Furthermore, this article gives the impression that logging is a substitute for the wildfires that previously created the snowshoe habitat.
There's a vast difference between logging and fires. The biggest is the loss of biomass with logging. The dead trees in a burnt forest are critical to the long term health of the ecosystem.
Finally logging creates access for trappers, etc. that would not exist. And this creates vulnerability for lynx.
George
That article on lynx and the assertion that logging is key to success ignores some important research. And I think it represents the narrow linear thinking that is common among management types.
AT least in the Rockies, there is a definite dependency on old growth forests. The lynx are totally lined up with these forests. What they do is sally forth into younger forests where the snowshoes are found, but their travel corridors, their denning habitat, etc. is all in older forests with a lot of snags, down wood on the ground, etc. So it is misleading to suggest that old growth is not needed--at least in the Rockies, and I suspect as well in the mid west though I don't know that to be true.
Furthermore, this article gives the impression that logging is a substitute for the wildfires that previously created the snowshoe habitat.
There's a vast difference between logging and fires. The biggest is the loss of biomass with logging. The dead trees in a burnt forest are critical to the long term health of the ecosystem.
Finally logging creates access for trappers, etc. that would not exist. And this creates vulnerability for lynx.
George
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U.S. Fish & Wildlife
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PREFERRED HABITAT:
Canada lynxes require early, mid-, and late-successional forests ]. Early and midsuccessional forests are required for hunting snowshoe hares [and late-successional forests are required for denning and raising kittens
Canada lynxes require early, mid-, and late-successional forests ]. Early and midsuccessional forests are required for hunting snowshoe hares [and late-successional forests are required for denning and raising kittens
Other habitat preferences for Canada lynxes include proximity of early and midsuccessional forest to mature forest stands at least 2 acres (1 ha) in size, and minimal human disturbance
In Alaska and Canada, boreal forests are preferred by Canada lynxes, and in the Intermountain West, spruce-subalpine fir (Picea spp.-Abies lasiocarpa) and lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta) forests are preferred
In the Hudson Bay lowland and the Great Lakes-St Lawrence River ecotones, Canada lynxes prefer deciduous habitat dominated by poplar (Populus spp.), paper birch (Betula papyrifera), alder (Alnus spp.), and willow (Salix spp.). Conifer species associated with winter activity include jack pine (Pinus banksiana) and black spruce (Picea mariana)
In Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Quebec, Canada lynxes are found in spruce (Picea spp.) and fir (Abies spp.) forests. In northeastern North America, Canada lynxes primarily inhabit deciduous forests dominated by maple (Acer spp.) and beech (Fagus spp.)
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Canada lynx Lynx canadensis habitat and forest succession in northern Maine, USA
Wildlife Biology, 10: 285 - 294
Abstract:
The contiguous United States population of Canada lynx Lynx canadensis was listed as threatened in 2000. The long-term viability of lynx populations at the southern edge of their geographic range has been hypothesized to be dependent on old growth forests; however, lynx are a specialist predator on snowshoe hare Lepus americanus, a species associated with early-successional forests. To quantify the effects of succession and forest management on landscape-scale (100 km2) patterns of habitat occupancy by lynx, we compared landscape attributes in northern Maine, USA
Lynx were more likely to occur in landscapes with much regenerating forest, and less likely to occur in landscapes with much recent clearcut, partial harvest and forested wetland. Lynx were not associated positively or negatively with mature coniferous forest.
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Federally Listed, Proposed and Candidate Species
Canada Lynx
|  FWS |
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Click on the counties below for a county species list.Species Information
Albany Coutny | Big Horn Coutny | Carbon County | Fremont County | Hot Springs County | Johnson County | Lincoln County | Park Coutny | Sheridan County | Sublette County | Teton County | Washakie County
In Wyoming, Canada lynx (Lynx canadensis) live in subalpine/coniferous forests of mixed age and structural classes. Mature forests with downed logs and windfalls provide cover for denning sites, escape, and protection from severe weather. Early to mid-successional forests with high stem densities of conifer saplings provide optimal habitat for the lynx's primary prey, the snowshoe hare (Lepus americanus).
Snowshoe hares reach their highest densities in regenerating forests that provide visual cover from predators and thermal cover. To benefit lynx, habitats should retain an overstory for concealment and forested connectivity between feeding, security, and denning habitats.
Historically, lynx were observed in every mountain range in Wyoming.
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Some timber practices can remove the mature forest that the lynx needs for denning and rearing young. These activities can also disrupt lynx travel patterns, as the cats prefer tree cover. Roads threaten the lynx by fragmenting its habitat, isolating lynx populations, exposing them to predators, and providing competitor species new access to habitat formerly dominated by the lynx. For example, snowmobile traffic creates trails that may allow competitors like coyotes, wolves, and cougars access to lynx winter habitat
Historically, the Canada lynx ranged from Alaska across Canada and into many of the northern U.S. states. In eastern states, it lived in a transition zone in which boreal coniferous forests yielded to deciduous forests. In the West, it preferred subalpine coniferous forests of mixed age. It would den and seek protection from severe weather in mature forests with downed logs but hunt for its primary prey, the snowshoe hare, in young forests with more open space.
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