The goal of this experimental study was to investigate the immediate effects that canopy reduction treatments have on spotted owls.
The harvest treatments are relative in size and magnitude of those proposed under the Sierra Nevada Framework management plan. Radio telemetry was used to monitor the nighttime movements of birds over a 2 year time span, with treatments occurring in the fall of the first year of monitoring.
We have been studying the demographics of California spotted owls in the central Sierra Nevada since 1986. The Eldorado Study Area is located within the Eldorado and Tahoe National Forests between Georgetown, CA, and the Lake Tahoe Basin. The vegetation is primarily mixed-conifer forest, but red-fir forest, chaparral, and oak woodlands are also present.
Our ultimate goals are to assess the factors that affect spotted owl population dynamics and to provide recommendations for spotted owl conservation based on our study results. In conjunction with the basic demographic study, we have conducted many ecological studies of the California spotted owl regarding habitat use, life-history strategy, genetics and phylogeny, stress physiology, and the effects of other owl species on spotted owl response rates during surveys. In 2001 and 2004, individuals from our research project participated in meta-analyses that examined spotted owl population vital rates throughout its range.
SIERRA NEVADA ADAPTIVE MANAGEMENT PROJECT (SNAMP)
In December 2006, Dr. Gutiérrez was invited to join a multi-disciplinary team of University of California scientists on the Sierra Nevada Adaptive Management Project (SNAMP). The SNAMP will examine the effects of U.S. Forest Service fuel reduction treatments on fisher and spotted owl populations, forest health, wildfire behavior, and water quality. The SNAMP also has a public participation component, which will use the scientific findings to inform future Forest Service management actions under an adaptive management framework.
The SNAMP has two study sites: a northern site on the Tahoe N.F. and a southern site on the Sierra N.F. At each site, the Forest Service will implement fuel reduction treatments on a portion of the study site, while the remainder of the site will serve as a control. Dr. Gutiérrez will specifically study the effects of Forest Service fuel reduction treatments on spotted owl territory occupancy and reproduction at the northern study site on the Tahoe N.F.
For more information about SNAMP: http://snamp.cnr.berkeley.edu/
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GOALS OF RESEARCH
Our research activities focus on spotted owls in California and the southwestern United States. We have past and ongoing demographic studies on the northern subspecies (Strix occidentalis caurina), the California subspecies (S. o. occidentalis), and the Mexican subspecies (S. o. lucida). Our research provides the following products:
1. We help provide the scientific basis for spotted owl management. In particular, our research refines adaptive management by linking demographic processes to habitat and environmental conditions, estimating trends in spotted owl populations, and providing land management agencies with recent information on spotted owls.
2. We communicate our results in the form of peer-reviewed papers in scientific journals, chapters in published books and symposia, technical reports to various agencies, and graduate student theses.
3. We disseminate our most recent information through oral communication in the form of presentations at scientific meetings and invited lectures at symposia, academic institutions, land management, and public forums.
At present, we are concentrating on studies which provide information on the population trends and dynamics of spotted owls. Our research efforts are concentrated in five main locations: northwestern California, the central Sierra Nevada, southern California, central Arizona, and west-central New Mexico. By examining the population structure and demographic trends of spotted owls in these areas, we are attempting to integrate information about the factors that may influence these populations, particularly climate, landscape habitat patterns, and site-specific habitat structure. Our past research has provided us with a strong understanding of spotted owl life history characteristics; this knowledge helps us to form specific testable hypotheses for future research. In addition, we currently collaborate with scientists from Colorado State University and the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) who provide us with advanced analytical expertise and a state-of-the-art molecular genetics laboratory. Our collaboration with Dr. George Barrowclough at AMNH has provided us with insight into the evolutionary history and relationships of spotted owls.
PERSONNEL
Principal Investigator: Dr. R.J. Gutiérrez
Co-Principal Investigator: Dr. Alan B. Franklin
PROJECTS
NORTHERN SPOTTED OWL
CALIFORNIA SPOTTED OWL
MEXICAN SPOTTED OWL
Collaborators:
Project Leader:
Assistant Project Leaders:
Research Fellows:
Graduate Students:
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R.J. Gutiérrez | SPOTTED OWL RESEARCH | ||||||||
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Dept. of Fisheries, Wildlife,
and Conservation Biology · College
of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences |