Spotted owl foraging patterns following fuels treatments, Sierra Nevada, California

摘要: Western dry conifer forests continue to experience increased severe, stand‐replacing wildfire that is outside of historical precedent. Fuels treatments, landscape‐scale modifications forest fuels and structure, are likely remain a management tool modify fire behavior restore ecological resilience. The impacts treatments listed species such as spotted owls (Strix occidentalis) uncertain contested because limited available information. To evaluate owl foraging habitat selection in landscape recently modified by fuels‐reduction we radio‐marked tracked 10 California (S. o. for 2 years immediately following treatment installation the northern Sierra Nevada, California, USA. We categorized into 3 types: mechanical thin, installed within study area breaks characterized even tree spacing, open understory, low canopy cover, or group selections; understory hand‐removal small trees shrubs; thin followed underburn, controlled surface‐fuel burn left overstory intact. described post‐treatment using structural metrics derived from Light Detection Ranging (LiDAR) dataset was collected 1 year after were completed. 436 locations during breeding seasons evaluated season home range size composition resource function. assessed possible contributors patterns comparing priori hypotheses an information‐theoretic approach randomly generated points estimated habitat. Spotted ranges contained proportion their availability on averaged 17.1% treated area. Within range, best predicted lower proportions gaps than anticipated at random, steeper slopes, minimized distance owl's site center. Our results suggest moderate high gaps, typically feature reduction restoration may reduce probability foraging.