As ecologist George Wuerthner and other contributors to this blog have opined about multiple times, we have been wrong about our obsession to be SMOKEY THE BEAR and put out all forest fires.................."Research in Yosemite National Park between 2010 and 2012 monitoring 13 Spotted Owls revealed that the Owls foraged near their roosts and along the edges of patches of burnied forest, preferring these edge habitats".................While avoiding the interiors of severely burned forest patches, the Owls did select larger burned patches where significant edge habitat existed".................Bottom line is that "Fire is a crucial part of the forest ecosystem on which threatened spotted owls rely, but climate change and decades of fire suppression are changing the dynamics of these forests--and likely lessening the population of the Spotted Owl"

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/sciencedaily/plants_animals/ecology/~3/wnx486m_4tI/170531084456.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email

Spotted owls benefit from forest fire mosaic

The National Park Service's Stephanie Eyes (formerly of Humboldt State University) and her colleagues wanted to know how Spotted Owl foraging patterns are influenced by fire severity and fire-created edges, with the goal of informing future fuels reduction efforts and prescribed burning programs. They used radio-transmitters to track movements of 13 owls on eight territories in Yosemite National Park between 2010 and 2012 and found that overall, owls foraged near their roosts and along the edges of patches of burned forest, preferring these edge habitats. Owls selected larger burned patches than the average available size but avoided the interiors of severely burned patches.

"Maintaining a complex mosaic of forest patches with smaller patches of high severity fire can help sustain California Spotted Owls in the greater landscape," says Eyes. "What's unique about our study is that we investigated fires that burned within the natural range of variation, so it paints a picture of how owls used a burned landscape before the onset of today's large stand-replacing fires." Despite the owls' preference for edges, there may be a threshold over which edges have a negative effect on habitat quality, and more research is needed to find the right balance between beneficial edge habitat and potentially harmful habitat fragmentation.

"This paper provides new radio telemetry data on how owls use home ranges that have had recent wildfires," according to the University of Minnesota's R.J. Gutiérrez, an expert on Spotted Owl habitat use. "Eyes and her colleagues provide a new piece of the puzzle about how owls respond, and they show that this response can be complex. More importantly, because their work occurred within a national park, it will serve as a 'natural control' that can be compared with other owl-fire studies occurring on managed forests."

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Story Source:

Materials provided by American Ornithological Society Publications Office

Journal Reference:

1. Stephanie Eyes et al. California Spotted Owl (Strix occidentalis occidentalis) habitat use patterns in a burned landscape. The Condor: Ornithological Applications, May 2017 DOI: 10.1650/CONDOR-16-184.1

Date:

May 31, 201