Fire and Avian Ecology in North America

About this book

Many North American ecosystems evolved under the influence of wildfire. Nevertheless, for much of the twentieth century, land managers concentrated their fire management activities on minimizing the amount of land that burned. The 1980s saw wider acceptance of fire with both wild and managed fire commonly incorporated into land management plans. Interest in this topic grew over the course of several years during informal discussions between the editors and organizers of the Third Intemational Partners in Flight Conference in Asilomar, Califomia in 2002. Those discussions led to a half-day symposium organized by Victoria Saab that was held during the Partners in Flight Conference.

The focus of the symposium was to evaluate patterns in the way humans have altered fire regimes and to examine the consequences on populations of birds and their habitats throughout North America. The symposium was intended from the onset to serve as the basis for a volume of Studies in Avian Biology. Most of the 11 chapters contained in this volume are based on symposium presentations, although not all topics discussed in the symposium are represented here (e.g., Mexico).

Contents

List of Authors   v-vi  
Preface   vii

- Fire and avian ecology in North America: process influencing pattern / Victoria A. Saab and Hugh D. W. Powell   1
- Fire and birds in the southwestern United States / Carl E. Bock and William M. Block   14
- Changing fire regimes and the avifauna of California oak woodlands / Kathryn L. Purcell and Scott L. Stephens   33
- Fire and birds in maritime Pacific Northwest / Mark H. Huff, Nathaniel E. Seavy, John D. Alexander, and C. John Ralph   46
- The role of fire in structuring sagebrush habitats and bird communities / Steven T. Knick, Aaron L. Holmes, and Richard F. Miller   63
- Variation in fire regimes of the Rocky Mountains: implications for avian communities and fire management / Victoria A. Saab, Hugh D. W. Powell, Natasha B. Kotliar, and Karen R. Newlon   76
- Bird responses to burning and logging in the boreal forest of Canada / Susan J. Hannon and Pierre Drapeau   97
- Fire regimes and avian responses in the central tallgrass prairie ? Dan L. Reinking   116
- Fire ecology and bird populations in eastern deciduous forests / Vanessa L. Artman, Todd F. Hutchinson, and Jeffrey D. Brawn   127
- Influence of fire and other anthropogenic practices on grassland and shrubland birds in New England / Peter D. Vickery, Benjamin Zuckerberg, Andrea L. Jones, W. Gregory Shriver, and Andrew P. Weik   139
- Effects of fire regime on birds in southeastern pine savannas and native prairies / R. Todd Engstrom, Peter D. Vickery, Dustin W. Perkins, and W. Gregory Shriver   147

Literature Cited   161

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