Lewis's woodpecker nesting habitat suitability: Predictive models for application within burned forests

摘要: Abstract Wildfire-generated snags provide key habitat for wildlife associated with recently disturbed forests, offering nesting and foraging resources several woodpecker species. Snag harvest through post-fire salvage logging provides economic value but reduces in burned forests. Managers of forests often must identify suitable within timeframes precluding field surveys. We developed suitability models the Lewis's (Melanerpes lewis)—a species conservation concern potentially impacted by logging—to inform management planning that includes objectives. Using weighted logistic regression, we selected maximized predictive performance measured spatial cross-validation to verify model applicability novel wildfire locations. From 1994 2018, monitored 348 nest sites, ≤5 years post-fire, at four locations across Inland Pacific Northwest, USA. used both exclusively remotely sensed covariates (to support mapping) a combination collected prescriptions). Top proved distribution locations, describing positive relationships local landscape-scale burn severity, open (0–10%) low (10–40%) canopy cover, large nest-tree diameters, locally high snag densities, southeast-facing slopes. The top was more discriminating from non-nest sites compared (RPI = 0.976 vs. 0.733, AUC= 0.794 0.716), indicating vegetation measurements quantifying habitat. Herein is exemplified an effective process developing evaluating models, broadly applicable, useful prioritization forest