Logging and Wildfire Influence on Grizzly Bear Habitat in Northwestern Montana

Defining the predator landscape of northeastern British Columbia.

“…Individual bears were more variable in the fall with some selection for high-value habitats for all ungulate species, and some avoidance of high-value habitats for caribou and Stone's sheep. (Servheen 1983;Zager et al 1983;Wielgus and Bunnell 1994;Waller and Mace 1997). In the coming years, however, grizzly bears in the northern Rocky Mountains likely will face increased pressure from forestry, mining, and oil and gas exploration and development.…”

“…I was unable to quantify their relative importance in the BP, however, because these productive areas could not be distinguished spectrally from the burn habitat categories (Lay 2005), and their extent in the BP may be limited. Numerous studies have documented the importance of wildfires in the abundance and distribution of various bear foods, and the subsequent seasonal or annual importance of these areas to local bear populations (Zager et al 1983;Hamer and Herrero 1987;McLellan and Hovey 2001). Prescribed burning has been recommended as a silvicultural treatment for grizzly bear foods that are negatively impacted by forestry activities (Nielsen et al 2004).…”

“…abundances of most critical bear foods including ungulates, green herbaceous vegetation, roots, and other subterranean foods (Martin 1983;Zager et al 1983;Irwin and Hammond 1985;Knight 1999). Similarly, the selection of shrub habitats by bears in the summer and fall may be related to both foraging and ungulate encounters.…”

Fire ecology of the forest habitat types of northern Idaho

“…Caribou Table 6-Summary of postfire survival strategy and fire response information of some plant species occurring in forests of northern Idaho. Information here is taken from species summaries in the Fire Effects Information System (FEIS) (Fischer and others 1996) and also from Armour and others (1984), Arno and others (1985), Ash and Lasko (1990), Bradley and others (1992a,b), Britton and others (1983), Coates and Haeussler (1986), Comeau and others (1989), Crane and others (1983), Daubenmire and Daubenmire (1968), Bradley (1987), Freedman (1983), Fulbright (1987), Hawkes and others (1990), Keown (1984), Kramer (1984), Lotan and others (1981), Lyon (1966, Lyon and Stickney (1976), McLean (1969), Miller (1977, Morgan and Neuenschwander (1988a,b), Mueggler (1965), , Rowe (1983), Shiplett and Neuenschwander (1994), Geier-Hayes (1989, 1993), Stickney (1981), Viereck and Dyrness (1979), Vogl and Ryder (1969), Volland and Dell (1981), Woodard (1977), Wright (1972Wright ( , 1978, Zager (1980), Zamora (1975), and Zimmerman (1979). …”

“…In the Selkirk Mountains (Kaniksu National Forest) and the SelwayBitterroot Wilderness, grizzly and black bear (Ursus arctos and U. americanus) historically used burns in the forb and shrub stages for summer and fall food (Almack 1986;Davis and others 1986). Huckleberries are heavily used by bears; in western Montana, they are prevalent in burns 25 to 70 years old, especially on mesic sites (Martin 1979;Zager 1980). Much of the fall food supply of both grizzly and black bears was historically obtained from caches of whitebark pine cones made by red squirrels (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus) in mature, mixed-species subalpine stands (Kendall and Arno 1990;Mattson and Reinhart 1994).…”