Thomas P. Sullivan , Druscilla S. Sullivan, Pontus M. F. Lindgren, Douglas B. Ransome

Green-tree retention and life after the beetle: stand structure and small mammals 30 years after salvage harvesting

Sullivan T. P., Sullivan D. S., Lindgren P. M. F., Ransome D. B. (2010). Green-tree retention and life after the beetle: stand structure and small mammals 30 years after salvage harvesting. Silva Fennica vol. 44 no. 5 article id 451. https://doi.org/10.14214/sf.451

Abstract

We report on a retrospective investigation of the impacts of salvage harvesting of lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta var. latifolia Engelm. ex S. Wats.), killed by an outbreak of mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae Hopk.) in the 1970s, with variable retention of Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii (Mirbel) Franco). Our inference to biodiversity was coniferous stand structure and four mammal species: the southern red-backed vole (Myodes gapperi Vigors), common shrew (Sorex cinereus Kerr), red squirrel (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus Erxleben) and northern flying squirrel (Glaucomys sabrinus Shaw). We tested hypotheses that, at 30 years after salvage harvest of beetle-killed lodgepole pine trees, (1) abundance and diversity of stand structure, and (2) abundance of mammal species, will increase with higher levels of green-tree retention (GTR). Stand structure attributes and small mammals were sampled during 2005–2008 in young pine stands, with a range of GTR seed-trees (none, dispersed, and aggregated Douglas-fir), and uncut forest in south-central British Columbia, Canada. Diameters and heights of Douglas-fir and lodgepole pine and basal area of total conifers supported hypothesis (1). Mean abundance of the red-backed vole was consistently higher (2.3 to 6.4 times) in the uncut forest than other stands. Overall mean patterns of abundance for common shrews, red squirrels, and northern flying squirrels were similar among treatment stands. Mean abundance of the red-backed vole supported hypothesis (2), but numbers of the other three species did not. There is “life after the beetle” at 30 years after salvage harvesting, and this was enhanced by GTR.

Keywords
biodiversity; stand structure; Pseudotsuga menziesii; ecological indicators; green-tree retention; small mammals; mountain pine beetle; Pinus contorta; salvage harvest

Received 29 June 2010 Accepted 8 December 2010 Published 31 December 2010

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