Avian response to post-fire salvage logging in mixed-evergreen forest, Oregon, USA

Following high-severity wildfire, post-fire (salvage) logging is a frequently implemented forest management practice in conifer-dominated forests of North America. Considerable controversy surrounds this practice. From 2005-2006, we examined bird communities in southwestern Oregon following post-fire logging of the 2002 Biscuit Fire, a landscape-scale (200,000-ha) mixed severity wildfire. Logging occurred in high-severity (stand-replacement) patches. Using point counts in logged and unlogged stands, we examined changes in densities and occurrence for 17 bird species at two spatial scales (20-ha and 2-ha) relative to two measures of salvage logging: proportion of area logged and logging intensity (proportion of basal area removed). The 20-ha scale comprised logging units as well as edges and surrounding unlogged areas while the 2-ha scale comprised only logging units. At the 20-ha scale, we found a positive response in the density of shrub-associated species and edge-associated species and little evidence of negative responses. At the 2-ha scale, shrub-associates again responded positively but not edge-associates. The lack of a strong negative response to salvage logging suggests that the small logging unit sizes relative to the burn area, as well as extensive snag retention intended to retain most bird species in the burn landscape.