U.S. Department of Agriculture: Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service

 

Authors

Gavin M. Jones, USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, AlbuquerqueFollow
R. J. Gutiérrez, University of Wisconsin Madison
William M. Block, USDA Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station Flagstaff
Peter C. Carlson, Colorado State University Fort CollinsFollow
Emily J. Comfort, Oregon State University
Samuel A. Cushman, USDA Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station Flagstaff
Raymond J. Davis, USDA Forest Service Region 6 Corvallis Oregon
Stephanie A. Eyes, US Fish andWildlife Service Sacramento
Alan B. Franklin, USDA NationalWildlife Research Center Fort CollinsFollow
Joseph L. Ganey, USDA Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station Flagstaff
Shaula Hedwall, US Fish andWildlife Service Arizona Fish &Wildlife Conservation Office Flagstaff
John J. Keane, USDA Forest Service Pacific Southwest Research Station Davis California
Rodd Kelsey, The Nature Conservancy Sacramento California
Damon B, Lesmeister, USDA Forest Service Pacific Northwest Research Station Corvallis
Malcolm P. North, USDA Forest Service Pacific Southwest Research Station Davis California
Susan L. Roberts, Mammoth Lakes California
Jeremy T. Rockweit, Colorado State University Fort Collins
Jamie S. Sanderlin, USDA Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station Flagstaff
Sarah C. Sawyer, USDA Forest Service Region 5 Vallejo California
Ben Solvesky, Sierra Forest Legacy Garden Valley California
Douglas J. Tempel, University of Wisconsin Madison
Ho Yi Wan, University of Montana Missoula
A. LeRoy Westerling, University of California Merced CA
Gary C. White, Colorado State University Fort CollinsFollow
M. Zachariah Peery, University of Wisconsin Madison

Date of this Version

11-2020

Citation

Jones, G. M., R. J. Gutiérrez, W. M. Block, P. C. Carlson, E. J. Comfort, S. A. Cushman, R. J. Davis, S. A. Eyes, A. B. Franklin, J. L. Ganey, S. Hedwall, J. J. Keane, R. Kelsey, D. B. Lesmeister, M. P. North, S. L. Roberts, J. T. Rockweit, J. S. Sanderlin, S. C. Sawyer, B. Solvesky, D. J. Tempel, H. Y. Wan, A. L. Westerling, G. C. White, and M. Z. Peery. 2020. Spotted owls and forest fire: Comment. Ecosphere 11(12): e03312.

doi:10.1002/ecs2.3312

Comments

Copyright: © 2020 The Authors. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License,

Abstract

Western North American forest ecosystems are experiencing rapid changes in disturbance regimes because of climate change and land use legacies (Littell et al. 2018). In many of these forests, the accumulation of surface and ladder fuels from a century of fire suppression, coupled with a warming and drying climate, has led to increases in the number of large fires (Westerling 2016) and the proportion of areas burning at higher severity (Safford and Stevens 2017, Singleton et al. 2018). While the annual area burned by fire is still below historical levels (Taylor et al. 2016), some forest types in the west are burning at higher severities when compared to pre- European settlement periods (Mallek et al. 2013, Safford and Stevens 2017). As such, they face an increased risk of conversion to non-forest ecosystems (e.g., shrublands, non-native grasslands) following large, severe fires because of compromised seed sources, post-fire soil erosion and loss, high-severity re-burn, and climatic thresholds (Coppoletta et al. 2016, Stevens et al. 2017, Rissman et al. 2018, Shive et al. 2018, Wood and Jones 2019). Restoration methods such as mechanical thinning and prescribed and managed wildland fire that reduce accumulated surface and ladder fuels (e.g., removal of smalland medium-sized trees, especially non-fire adapted species) may reduce the spatial extent of severe fires and increase forest resilience to fire in a changing climate (Agee and Skinner 2005, Stephens et al. 2013, Hessburg et al. 2016, Tubbesing et al. 2019) and, in doing so, promote key ecosystem services (Hurteau et al. 2014, Kelsey et al. 2017, Wood and Jones 2019). ...

The existing body of evidence suggests that spotted owls respond largely in a neutral or positive manner to lower-severity fire and smaller patches of high-severity fire that fall within the historical range of variability but that spotted owls can respond negatively to larger patches of high-severity fire. Thus, management actions that can demonstrably reduce the extent of severe fire within spotted owl habitat in a changing climate may contribute to owl conservation if those actions do not remove critical structural habitat elements positively associated with spotted owl vital rates (e.g., large, old trees) (Jones et al. 2016, 2018, Jones 2019). It is critical that future analyses examining the effects of fire on spotted owls provide sufficient context and nuance to ensure they will be beneficial to scientists and managers seeking to understand how to minimize the loss of essential owl nesting and roosting habitat to the increasing threat of high-severity fire in a changing climate.

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