Habitat use and nest success of scrub-shrub birds in wildlife and silvicultural openings in western Massachusetts, USA

The relationship between shelterwood cuts and crown thinnings and the abundance and distribution of birds in a southern New England forest

“…These species, and in particular Eastern Towhee, have been declining in recent years in New England due to reduced areas of early successional forest (Witham and Hunter, 1992;Hagan, 1993). Shelterwood cuts can be used as tools in the management of these species, possibly in conjunction with clear-cuts, which from recent studies nearby YMF appear to increase the abundances of some species that were very rare in our study, such as American Goldfinch Carduelis tristis, Cedar Waxwing Bombycilla cedrorum, and Prairie Warler Dendroica discolor (Askins et al, 2007;King et al, 2009). One caveat is the somewhat concerning tendency for the brood parasite Brown-headed Cowbird to prefer shelterwoods, sharply increasing in abundance in the $6-10 year shelterwoods, before dropping again.…”

Demographic response of a shrubland bird to habitat creation, succession, and disturbance in a dynamic landscape

“…Because disturbance-dependent habitats are ephemeral, species that depend on them require continuous habitat management (DeGraaf and Yamasaki, 2003;King et al, 2009). Although management is clearly necessary to ensure the long-term persistence of these habitats (Oehler, 2003;Thompson and DeGraaf, 2001), conservationists and managers may be concerned about the short-term effects of habitat treatments.…”

Forest recovery patterns in response to divergent disturbance regimes in the Border Lakes region of Minnesota (USA) and Ontario (Canada)

“…In many systems forest recovery can be delayed due to either poor tree recruitment (Foster, 1983;Simard, 2009), competition with established understory vegetation (Royo and Carson, 2006;Gilliam, 2007), or both (Lavoie and Sirois, 1998). Such delays have longterm consequences for landscape age structure, with implications for sustainable forestry (Doyon et al, 2011), carbon storage (Pan et al, 2011), insect outbreaks (Robert et al, 2012), and wildlife habitat (Manolis et al, 2002;King et al, 2009;Landriault et al, 2012).…”