WILDLIFE CONSERVATION THROUGH IMPROVED FOREST MANAGEMENT AND USE OF NEW TECHNOLOGIES

• Sponsoring Institution: National Institute of Food and Agriculture
• Project Status: COMPLETE
• Funding Source: MCINTIRE-STENNIS
• Reporting Frequency: Annual
• Accession No.: 1020656
• Project Start Date: Oct 1, 2019
• Project End Date: Sep 30, 2024
• Program Code: [(N/A)]- (N/A)

Recipient Organization
UNIVERSITY OF MAINE
(N/A)
ORONO,ME 04469

Performing Department
School of Forest Resources

Non Technical Summary
We are amidst a global extinction crisis. My research focuses on forest wildlife species with declining populations that are edging closer to needing protection under the US Endangered Species Act. My research aims to work with forest landowners and managers to find management solutions that 1) improve habitat for declining species, and 2) promote achievement of other management objectives such as timber production. The general design involves establishment of study areas for telemetry projects focused on better understanding habitat selection and survival for declining wildlife species including Rusty Blackbird, Bicknell's Thrush, and American Woodcock. For Rusty Blackbirds, I plan to select study areas with a range of forestry practices ranging from low-management-intensity naturally regenerating forest stands to high-management-intensity planted stands in order to understand effects of forest management intensity on habitat selection and nest and fledgling survival. For Bicknell's Thrush, I will compare habitat characteristics selected in a heavily harvested forest landscape to an unharvested forest landscape. The American Woodcock project involves agencies and sites in multiple states and provinces with questions focused on survival and habitat use during migratory periods. All of these species are migratory and thus expanding research infrastructure used to understand migration ecology and demographics is critical to the Maine Agricultural and Forest Experiment Station (MAFES) and partners in the Midwest and Northeast.This research will provide new information to aid forest landowners and managers to sustainably manage their forests to meet multiple management objectives including assistance to declining forest wildlife species. An improved regional understanding of migration ecology and demographics of declining species will aid in more effective conservation actions. These outcomes will contribute to protection of biodiversity supporting maintenance of ecological services and recreational opportunities such as wildlife viewing and consumptive use which are central to Maine's economy and cultural heritage.

Animal Health Component

60%

Research Effort Categories

Basic

20%

Applied

60%

Developmental

20%

Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)	Subject of Investigation (SOI)	Field of Science (FOS)	Percent
123	0850	3100	60%
135	0820	1070	40%

Knowledge Area
135 - Aquatic and Terrestrial Wildlife; 123 - Management and Sustainability of Forest Resources;

Subject Of Investigation
0820 - Wild birds; 0850 - Wildlife habitats;

Field Of Science
1070 - Ecology; 3100 - Management;

Keywords

temperate forest

silviculture

wildlife

motus

migratory bird

biodiversity

conservation

demographics

habitat selection

forest management

Goals / Objectives
My goal is to provide research that enables managers, agencies, and landowners to conserve forest wildlife and their habitats for current and future generations by balancing sustainable use of forest resources with habitat needs of wildlife, particularly species with declining populations.Objective 1: Understand habitat use and selection by conservation priority wildlife species and link these to demographic parameters and forest management practices at multiple spatial scales.Objective 2: Understand how silvicultural systems and forest management practices affect wildlife diversity, particularly for conservation priority species.Objective 3: Understand ecology, habitat use, and demographics of migratory wildlife species through use of new technology and development of research infrastructure.

Project Methods
My approach for accomplishing research toward each of my stated objectives follows:Objective 1) This research involves understanding habitat use and selection of wildlife species in decline and linking this to demographic parameters such as survival. The habitat selected can be related to forest management practices such as use of different silvicultural systems.I will utilize field-based methods to track marked and unmarked individuals of priority species in decline (initially Rusty Blackbird and Bicknell's Thrush) to identify habitats used. To understand habitat use and selection, animals must be tracked using telemetry and the locations mapped. These locations will be compared to randomly available locations. Development of resource selection functions will provide the foundation for analysis of habitat selection. I will use resource selection functions in the form of general linear mixed effects models to compare habitat characteristics at locations (use) to paired random locations (available) to identify within-stand or landscape-scale habitat characteristics associated with selected locations. Estimation of survival metrics particularly for nestlings, fledglings, and adults will inform population models and management practices. Survival analysis will produce daily survival rates that can be used to identify habitat characteristics associated with high survival rates.Habitat metrics can be measured through either field or remotely sensed methods. Depending on the project, either or both methods may be appropriate. For example, Bicknell's Thrush uses high elevation spruce-fir forests including areas with steep slopes and boulder fields. These areas can be difficult or impossible to safely access on the ground. Use of remotely sensed methods allows us to safely measure forest habitat characteristics by minimizing bias caused by access limitations. I will employ use of recently acquired light detection and ranging (LiDAR) data to describe forest habitat used by Bicknell's Thrush and other species of interest. This process will include validation and calibration steps that will utilize field-based data.The expected outcome of this research will be to develop or revise best management practices (BMPs) to improve the quantity and quality of breeding habitat for these declining species. The goal is to provide landowners with meaningful BMPs with the greatest likelihood of successfully aiding wildlife species of interest on their property. The number of landowners or resource managers adopting new BMPs is a measure of success.Objective 2) My primary focus will be collaboration with the Cooperative Forestry Research Unit's (CFRU) Maine Alternative Silviculture Network (MASN). MASN is a network of long-term demonstration and research sites to better understand forest harvest treatments on logging operations, growth-and-yield, and ecological impacts such as bird response (abundance, composition, and diversity). The study design involves site selection based on two factors: 1) stand composition (hardwoods, mixedwoods, and softwoods), and 2) site quality (high, medium, and low biomass growth index values). This results in nine site combinations, each of which will be replicated at least twice across the State of Maine. Forest stands of at least 100 acres are identified and subdivided into four to seven harvest or tending treatment blocks of 25 acres or more. Every site includes the following four required treatments 1) deferred harvest (control/reference), 2) clearcut harvest with no post-harvest vegetation control, 3) crop tree release (promote crop trees), and 4) exploitative harvest such as a diameter limit harvest. Additional pre-defined treatments are selected by the landowner to address their research questions of interest. Details of treatment implementation are determined by the landowner and the supervising forester with guidance from CFRU staff.I will investigate bird density, diversity, and compositional response to these treatments as a core research component within the MASN program with long-term support from CFRU. I will implement bird surveys across study sites by using line-transect surveys with distance sampling to estimate bird abundance and density. Surveys will include at least one year prior to harvest and continue for 10-years post-harvest. Variation in bird metrics (abundance, density, and diversity) will be explained using forest stand structural characteristics (e.g. basal area, proportion of softwoods, etc.) using linear mixed-effects models. Non-metric dimensional scaling ordination can also describe bird assemblage (compositional) patterns and relate them to the same forest characteristics. These modeling approaches are more dependent on a large site sample size that captures a range of forest conditions than replication of initial stand conditions.Objective 3) The research to support this objective has two components. First, I expect to track the migration of multiple species (American Woodcock, Rusty Blackbird, Bicknell's Thrush, Golden-winged Warbler, Blue-winged Warbler, and other wildlife species) by using telemetry technology that provides data on movement routes, timing, and habitat use. Migration ecology research often involves placing tags on individuals to track and map movements over long spatial distances. I will use the tag type that provides data with the highest possible spatial resolution, the greatest number of locations for the battery life of the tag, and the lowest risk to the fitness and survival of the individual carrying the tag. Once individual locations are acquired, analysis of survival rates, habitat use and selection, and migration timing can be conducted to better understand population effects during the migratory periods.The second important component to this objective is promoting development of the infrastructure to better track individuals carrying telemetry tags and to inform development of integrated population models. The Motus Wildlife Tracking System (see motus.org for details) is an automated network of towers used to track movements of animals carrying vhf-radio transmission tags called nanotags. This network has significant spatial coverage gaps for wildlife species of interest to my research. Thus it is in my interest to promote expansion of this network to improve the feasibility, quantity, and quality of the data collected to address my research objectives as well as those of other researchers. The measure of success of this expansion will be demonstrated by an increase in the number of towers and in the researchers and projects able to utilize the tower network.I'm also interested in development of integrated population models that can be used to identify factors resulting in the decline of populations. These factors are often linked to reduction of habitat quality and quantity in one or more locations used during the lifecycle of a species. Obtaining data for all of the parameters needed for these models can be difficult. Bird banding stations collect data on sex and age of individuals captured during migration. This data can lead to estimates of sex and age ratios, recruitment, and fitness for species caught at these stations that can be used to inform population models. Unfortunately banding stations do not use a standard protocol for data collection and do not report effort such that large-scale questions cannot be answered. I'm working with partners to implement a standardized banding protocol and develop reporting infrastructure so that data across banding stations can be collectively analyzed. The measure of success will be measured by the number of banders and banding stations adopting the new protocol. As I learn more about migration connectivity and ecology of my study species, this may generate opportunities to study migration and wintering habitat and demographic characteristics to better address full-annual-cycle conservation.

Progress 10/01/19 to 09/30/20

Outputs
Target Audience:Audiences reached during this reporting period include: General private forest owners especially those who own industrial/commerical forestlands natural resources professionals especially biologists,foresters, and other land managers (e.g. land trusts) other scientists due to increasedtelemetry tracking infrastructure used in research Specific Maine Cooperative Forestry Research Unit members US Fish & Wildlife Service US Forest Service, Penobscot Experimental Forest New Hampshire Audubon Ruffed Grouse Society/American Woodcock Society Maine Dept. of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources Association des Savaginiers du Saguenay-Lac-St-Jean Club des Becassiers du Quebec Environment and Climate Change Canada Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission Friends of the 500th Friends of Missisquoi National Wildlife Refuge Georgia Department of Natural Resources Maryland Department of Natural Resources Missisquoi National Wildlife Refuge The Nature Conservancy in Vermont New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection New York Department of Environmental Conservation North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission Old Hemlock Foundation Pennsylvania Game Commission Rhode Island Dept. of Environmental Management State University of New York - Cobleskill South Carolina Department of Natural Resources University of Rhode Island Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources West Virginia Highlands Conservancy Wildlife Management Institute Woodcock Conservation Society USGS Bird Banding Lab USGS - Patuxent Wildlife Research Center Department of Defense, Navy Golden-winged Warbler Working Group members International Rusty Blackbird Working Group members International Bicknell's Thrush Conservation Group members Midwest Migration Network members Changes/Problems:COVID-19 Related Delays Field work on the Rusty Blackbird project was canceled in 2020 due to COVID-19 related policies and restrictions on travel. The graduate student on the project focused on data analysis and development of models so will be well positioned to incorporate new data from the upcoming 2021 field season into his research. Field work on the Rusty Blackbird and Bicknell's Thrush migrationprojects using the Motus Wildlife Tracking System were canceled in 2020 due to COVID-19 related policies and restrictions on travel. Multiple field workshops intended as training for banders and outreach events to forest landowners and natural resource managers were canceled due to COVID-19 concerns. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?TRAINING I provided one-on-one training opportunities to both undergraduate and graduate students. I mentored 5 undergraduate students working on the following research projects in my lab: Michaela Kuhn received High Honors for her thesis in Forestry project titled, "Effects of repeated intensive harvesting practices, prescribed burning, and browsing on northern hardwood forest plant communities." Michael Turso completed a thesis in Wildlife Ecology titled, "Comparing the efficacy of passive acoustic monitoring to satellite telemetry and the point-count method to monitor Bicknell's thrush in a non-commercial forest in Maine's Western Mountains." Both my Wildlife Ecology MS student, Kaitlyn Wilson, and I mentored him. This was a great opportunity for Kaitlyn's growth as a scientist and supervisor. Emily Tomak completed a thesis in Ecology & Environmental Science titled, "Temperature and nest parasitism of Rusty Blackbirds (Euphagus carolinus) by bird blow flies (Protocalliphora)." Both my Forest Resources MS student, Luke Douglas, and I mentored her. This was Luke's first opportunity to supervise and mentor a student which resulted in his growth as both a scientist and supervisor. Danielle Wyman completed a capstone research project in Ecology & Environmental Science titled, "Investigating five warbler species' spatial distributions across a 40-hectare oak-pine forest from 2009 - 2019." This project utilized a long-term bird dataset collected at the Holt Research Forest and recently converted to electronic form for easier analysis. Hateya Lavesque, an undergraduate researcher in Forestry, was hired as a field technician during the summer of 2019 who continued to work in my lab in 2020. She digitized and spatially analyzed Bicknell's Thrush survey records that were combined for the first time from multiple data sources in Maine. Both my Wildlife Ecology MS student, Kaitlyn Wilson, and I mentored her. PROFESSIONAL DEVEOLPMENT I participated in the Road 2 Recovery Workshop in July 2020. This is a new inititiative with the goal of improving research and conservation action for declining North American birds to be more effective. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Due to COVID-19 policy restrictions, outreach opportunities were limited during this reporting period. A couple forest landowner workshops that I was planning to co-lead were canceled. Nevertheless, I led the following 2 programs prior to the start of the pandemic: I presented a program to the Herb Society of Maine in Bangor, ME on Oct 10, 2019 titled, "Birdscaping for birds and pollinators." My goal was to present the importance of native plants and creating habitat features to attract and support birds and pollinator species in backyards. On Feb 26, 2020, I presented a program to the University of Maine Student Chapter of the Society of American Foresters titled "Importance of wildlife research in forest management." My goal was to introduce forestry students to wildlife research and why it is important to use this science in forest planning and management. As Coordinator for the Midwest Migration Network (MMN), I helped to communicate new and ongoing migratory bird research through the Network's communication tools: newsletter, blog, website, and social media outlets. With the aid of others on the MMN Leadership Team, we also successfully converted the Network's in-person conference to a remote format in July 2020. The three-day conference attracted more than 300 participants from across the Western Hemisphere and received outstanding participant evaluations. It served as a model for other remote conferences and workshops because of this success. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?My hope is to successfully implement areas of my research program that were postponed due toCOVID-19 in 2020. This primarily relates to field work requiring overnight and out-of-state travel for my Rusty Blackbird,Bicknell's Thrush, and American Woodcock projects.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? GENERAL IMPACT: The economic impact of the forest industry in Maine is $8.5 billion, and tourism is $6.2 billion. Nature and wildlife viewing is in the top 5 reasons why tourists visit Maine and is an area of recent growth. Managing forest wildlife is critical to supporting both industries, and stakeholders need information to improve wildlife habitat. My research increases knowledge of habitat needs for declining species. For example, my lab confirmed that Bicknell's Thrush needs dense, short spruce-fir forests. We learned that commercial forest management creates this breeding habitat at lower elevations than previously thought. As historical habitat is expected to retract due to climate change, commercial forest owners can expand habitat on their lands. This new knowledge is helping forest landowners make informed management decisions. SPECIFIC ACCOMPLISHMENTS Objective 1: Understand habitat use and selection by conservation priority wildlife species and link these to demographic parameters and forest management practices at multiple spatial scales. Major activities completed/conducted: We developed habitat models for Rusty Blackbird and Bicknell's Thrush, declining migratory songbirds, breeding in commercial forests of Maine. We will assess whether adults make habitat selection decisions associated with high survival. Intensive forest management practices could create ecological traps where adults perceive habitat to be high quality when it is actually poor quality resulting in nest failure and fledgling mortality. Bicknell's Thrush data analysis was completed; Rusty Blackbird research is ongoing. Data collected: No field data were collected in 2020 due to COVID-19. We collected remotely sensed or GIS-based datasets for Rusty Blackbird habitat metrics. Summary statistics and discussion of results: Bicknell's Thrush use of commercial forests: Mean home ranges (n=24) were twice as large in an unharvested forest landscape (29 ha) as in a heavily harvested forest landscape (14 ha). At the landscape level, Bicknell's thrushes avoided tall tree canopy and large proportions of hardwood trees. At the home-range level within the harvested area, thrushes selected high numbers of small trees, and selection had a quadratic relationship with canopy height. At the home-range level within the non-harvested area, selection had a quadratic relationship with the number of small trees and canopy height. Bicknell's thrushes used lower elevation forest stands in a harvested landscape than in an unharvested landscape. Commercial forest management created habitat structure similar to high elevation unharvested forests. Rusty Blackbird use of commercial forests: • Nest site selection in Maine and New Hampshire related negatively to canopy height and had a quadratic relationship with wetland cover at the landscape scale. Within stands, Rusty Blackbirds selected nest sites with canopy heights below 5m, canopy cover over 60%, and basal area of small softwoods greater than 40 m2/ha. Fledgling site selection increased with the proportion of low slope soils and decreased with low numbers of small trees. • Nest survival at the stand-scale increased with young softwood cover and decreased with canopy cover. Nest survival within-stands increased with canopy cover suggesting that adults selected nest sites associated with high survival. Key outcomes realized: Bicknell's Thrush use of commercial forests: New knowledge gained about telemetry tag methods and remotely-sensed habitat metrics have been shared with the International Bicknell's Thrush Conservation Group. Rusty Blackbird use of commercial forests: Preliminary results will aid the International Rusty Blackbird Working Group with their revision of the Guidelines for Managing Rusty Blackbird Habitat in New York and northern New England. Objective 2: Understand how silvicultural systems and forest management practices affect wildlife diversity, particularly for conservation priority species. Major activities completed/conducted: Long-term effects of an expanding gap silvicultural system on birds University of Maine's Acadian Forest Ecosystem Research Program consisted of 2 harvest treatments and unharvested controls. The goal for this unique, ecologically based silvicultural system was to determine if post-harvest bird composition, following large-gap and small-gap expanding-gap treatments, differs from controls and prior surveys. Bird surveys are ongoing. Effects of repeated intensive harvesting practices, prescribed burning, and browsing on northern hardwood forest plant communities The goal was to assess if plant density and ecological integrity are affected by strip-cut harvesting silvicultural practices, prescribed burning, and mammalian browse. A summer 2019 inventory tree/plant species was conducted on a long-term study unit on the Penobscot Experimental Forest in Bradley, Maine. This unit was harvested the year prior to this study for the second time in 55 years and utilized whole-tree harvesting, stem-only harvesting, and stem-only harvesting with prescribed burning. This study phase was completed in 2020. Data collected: Long-term effects of an expanding gap silvicultural system on birds Territory mapping and time-activity budget data for forest birds were collected in the field in May-July 2020 and organized for analysis. Effects of repeated intensive harvesting practices, prescribed burning, and browsing on northern hardwood forest plant communities No data were collected. Summary statistics and discussion of results: Long-term effects of an expanding gap silvicultural system on birds No preliminary results were available. Effects of repeated intensive harvesting practices, prescribed burning, and browsing on northern hardwood forest plant communities Unharvested reference plots had high stem densities per hectare but featured low species diversity, abundance, and ecological integrity in comparison to harvested plots. Slash removal in conjunction with burning reduced softwood tree density but did not negatively impact ecological integrity. Mammalian browse did not impact arboreal stem density but influenced diversity indices and floristic quality within stem only harvests and harvests with burning. Key outcomes realized: Long-term effects of an expanding gap silvicultural system on birds New information were proposed for use in a new effort to develop outreach products targeting forest stakeholders in the Northeast. Effects of repeated intensive harvesting practices, prescribed burning, and browsing on northern hardwood forest plant communities Successional forest composition, plant density, and ecological integrity changed in response to biomass harvesting, prescribed burning, and mammalian browsing. Given that 2020 represented Maine's worst fire season in 10 years due to drought conditions, understanding effects of burning on forest communities is increasingly important. This is a rare investigation of the effect of a repeated, experimental burning on the same forest unit. Objective 3: Understand ecology, habitat use, and demographics of migratory wildlife species through use of new technology and development of research infrastructure. Major activities completed/conducted: In collaboration with Dr. Erik Blomberg, data collection was ongoing but substantial data was available to address questions of American Woodcock migration phenology and stopover habitat selection in eastern North America. Data collected: GPS-satellite tags were deployed on 183 new birds in Fall 2019 and Winter 2020. Summary statistics and discussion of results: Models were in development to estimate migration initiation date, termination date, duration, number of stopovers, and distance travelled based on 212 fall migration tracks. Key outcomes realized: Federal, state and provincial wildlife agencies are gaining valuable information to inform future hunting season decisions.

Publications

• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Elmore, J.A., S.B. Hager, B.J. Cosentino, T.J. OConnell, C.S. Riding, M.A. AguilarG�mez, M.L. Anderson, M. Bakermans, T.J. Boves, D. Brandes, M.W. Butler, E.M. Butler, N.L. Cagle, R. Calder�nParra, A.P. Capparella, A. Chen, K. Cipollini, A.A.T. Conkey, T.A. Contreras, R.I. Cooper, C.E. Corbin, R.L. Curry, J.J. Dosch, M.G. Drew, K.M. Dyson, C. Foster, C.D. Francis, E. Fraser, R. Furbush, N.D.G. Hagemeyer, K.N. Hopfensperger, D. Klem Jr, E. Lago, A. Lahey, K. Lamp, G. Lewis, C.S. Machtans, J. Madosky, T.J. Maness, K.J. McKay, S.B. Menke, K.E. Muma, N. OcampoPe�uela, R. Ortega�lvarez, A.L. Pitt, A.L. PugaCaballero, J.E. Quinn, C.W. VarianRamos, A.M. Roth, P.G. Saenger, R.T. Schmitz, J. Schnurr, M. Simmons, A.D. Smith, D.R. Sokoloski, J. Vigliotti, E.L. Walters, L.A. Walters, J.T. Weir, K. WinnettMurray, J.C. Withey, I. Zuria, and S.R. Loss. 2020. Continental assessment of species and life historyrelated variation and correlates of bird-building collisions in North America. Conservation Biology. https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.13569
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2020 Citation: Feb 12, 2020Roth, AM. Climate change & 2 forest birds. Invited oral presentation at the Forest Climate Change Science & Practice Forum, Orono, ME
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2020 Citation: May 2020Douglas, L., AM Roth, and C Foss. Rusty Blackbird use of commercial spruce-fir forests of northern New England. Invited presentation to the Penobscot Valley Chapter of the Audubon Society.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2020 Citation: May 6, 2020Wilson, K. and AM Roth. Bicknells Thrush Habitat Use on Commercial Forests in Maine, Invited oral presentation to the Cooperative Forestry Research Unit, virtual.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2020 Citation: Jul 14, 2020Roth, AM, R. Rohrbaugh, S. Barker, and R. Bennett. Golden-winged Warbler Conservation Plan Review, Invited oral presentation to the Golden-winged Warbler Working Group Steering Committee remote meeting.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2020 Citation: Jul 21, 2020Roth, AM. Building on our past successes to make a brighter future for our migratory birds. Invited oral presentation to the Midwest Migration Network: Connecting Birds & People in the Midwest Virtual Conference.