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Impacts of the Northwest Forest Plan on forest composition and bird populations

The Northwest Forest Plan (NWFP) initiated one of the most sweeping changes to forest management in the world, affecting 10 million hectares of federal land. The NWFP is a science-based plan incorporating monitoring and adaptive management and provides a unique opportunity to evaluate the influence...

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Autores principales: Phalan, Benjamin T., Northrup, Joseph M., Yang, Zhiqiang, Deal, Robert L., Rousseau, Josée S., Spies, Thomas A., Betts, Matthew G.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: National Academy of Sciences 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6386667/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30718406
http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1813072116
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author Phalan, Benjamin T.
Northrup, Joseph M.
Yang, Zhiqiang
Deal, Robert L.
Rousseau, Josée S.
Spies, Thomas A.
Betts, Matthew G.
author_facet Phalan, Benjamin T.
Northrup, Joseph M.
Yang, Zhiqiang
Deal, Robert L.
Rousseau, Josée S.
Spies, Thomas A.
Betts, Matthew G.
author_sort Phalan, Benjamin T.
collection PubMed
description The Northwest Forest Plan (NWFP) initiated one of the most sweeping changes to forest management in the world, affecting 10 million hectares of federal land. The NWFP is a science-based plan incorporating monitoring and adaptive management and provides a unique opportunity to evaluate the influence of policy. We used >25 years of region-wide bird surveys, forest data, and land-ownership maps to test this policy’s effect on biodiversity. Clearcutting decreased rapidly, and we expected populations of older-forest–associated birds to stabilize on federal land, but to continue declining on private industrial lands where clearcutting continued. In contrast, we expected declines in early-seral–associated species on federal land because of reduced anthropogenic disturbance since the NWFP. Bayesian hierarchical models revealed that bird species’ population trends tracked changes in forest composition. However, against our expectations, declines of birds associated with older forests accelerated. These declines are partly explained by losses of older forests due to fire on federal land and continued clearcutting elsewhere. Indeed, the NWFP anticipated that reversing declines of older forests would take time. Overall, the early-seral ecosystem area was stable, but declined in two ecoregions—the Coast Range and Cascades—along with early-seral bird populations. Although the NWFP halted clearcutting on federal land, this has so far been insufficient to reverse declines in older-forest–associated bird populations. These findings underscore the importance of continuing to prioritize older forests under the NWFP and ensuring that the recently proposed creation of early-seral ecosystems does not impede the conservation and development of older-forest structure.
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spelling pubmed-63866672019-02-26 Impacts of the Northwest Forest Plan on forest composition and bird populations Phalan, Benjamin T. Northrup, Joseph M. Yang, Zhiqiang Deal, Robert L. Rousseau, Josée S. Spies, Thomas A. Betts, Matthew G. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A Biological Sciences The Northwest Forest Plan (NWFP) initiated one of the most sweeping changes to forest management in the world, affecting 10 million hectares of federal land. The NWFP is a science-based plan incorporating monitoring and adaptive management and provides a unique opportunity to evaluate the influence of policy. We used >25 years of region-wide bird surveys, forest data, and land-ownership maps to test this policy’s effect on biodiversity. Clearcutting decreased rapidly, and we expected populations of older-forest–associated birds to stabilize on federal land, but to continue declining on private industrial lands where clearcutting continued. In contrast, we expected declines in early-seral–associated species on federal land because of reduced anthropogenic disturbance since the NWFP. Bayesian hierarchical models revealed that bird species’ population trends tracked changes in forest composition. However, against our expectations, declines of birds associated with older forests accelerated. These declines are partly explained by losses of older forests due to fire on federal land and continued clearcutting elsewhere. Indeed, the NWFP anticipated that reversing declines of older forests would take time. Overall, the early-seral ecosystem area was stable, but declined in two ecoregions—the Coast Range and Cascades—along with early-seral bird populations. Although the NWFP halted clearcutting on federal land, this has so far been insufficient to reverse declines in older-forest–associated bird populations. These findings underscore the importance of continuing to prioritize older forests under the NWFP and ensuring that the recently proposed creation of early-seral ecosystems does not impede the conservation and development of older-forest structure. National Academy of Sciences 2019-02-19 2019-02-04 /pmc/articles/PMC6386667/ /pubmed/30718406 http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1813072116 Text en Copyright © 2019 the Author(s). Published by PNAS. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ This open access article is distributed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License 4.0 (CC BY-NC-ND) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) .
spellingShingle Biological Sciences
Phalan, Benjamin T.
Northrup, Joseph M.
Yang, Zhiqiang
Deal, Robert L.
Rousseau, Josée S.
Spies, Thomas A.
Betts, Matthew G.
Impacts of the Northwest Forest Plan on forest composition and bird populations
title Impacts of the Northwest Forest Plan on forest composition and bird populations
title_full Impacts of the Northwest Forest Plan on forest composition and bird populations
title_fullStr Impacts of the Northwest Forest Plan on forest composition and bird populations
title_full_unstemmed Impacts of the Northwest Forest Plan on forest composition and bird populations
title_short Impacts of the Northwest Forest Plan on forest composition and bird populations
title_sort impacts of the northwest forest plan on forest composition and bird populations
topic Biological Sciences
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6386667/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30718406
http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1813072116
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