Impacts of Short-Rotation Early-Growing Season Prescribed Fire on a Ground Nesting Bird in the Central Hardwoods Region of North America

<div><p>Landscape-scale short-rotation early-growing season prescribed fire, hereafter prescribed fire, in upland hardwood forests represents a recent shift in management strategies across eastern upland forests. Not only does this strategy depart from dormant season to growing season prescriptions, but the strategy also moves from stand-scale to landscape-scale implementation (>1,000 ha). This being so, agencies are making considerable commitments in terms of time and resources to this management strategy, but the effects on wildlife in upland forests, especially those dominated by hardwood canopy species, are relatively unknown. We initiated our study to assess whether this management strategy affects eastern wild turkey reproductive ecology on the Ozark-St. Francis National Forest. We marked 67 wild turkey hens with Global Positioning System (GPS) Platform Transmitting Terminals in 2012 and 2013 to document exposure to prescribed fire, and estimate daily nest survival, nest success, and nest-site selection. We estimated these reproductive parameters in forest units managed with prescribed fire (treated) and units absent of prescribed fire (untreated). Of 60 initial nest attempts monitored, none were destroyed or exposed to prescribed fire because a majority of fires occurred early than a majority of the nesting activity. We found nest success was greater in untreated units than treated units (36.4% versus 14.6%). We did not find any habitat characteristic differences between successful and unsuccessful nest-sites. We found that nest-site selection criteria differed between treated and untreated units. Visual concealment and woody ground cover were common selection criteria in both treated and untreated units. However, in treated units wild turkey selected nest-sites with fewer small shrubs (<5 cm ground diameter) and large trees (>20 cm DBH) but not in untreated units. In untreated units wild turkey selected nest-sites with more large shrubs (≥5cm ground diameter) but did not select for small shrubs or large trees. Our findings suggest that wild turkey have not benefited from the reintroduction of prescribed fire to the WRERA.</p></div

Estimated harvest of Eastern wild turkey (<i>Meleagris gallopavo silvestris</i>) in Arkansas from 1975 to 2010 [J. Honey, unpublished data, Arkansas Game & Fish Commission].

<p>Estimated harvest of Eastern wild turkey (<i>Meleagris gallopavo silvestris</i>) in Arkansas from 1975 to 2010 [J. Honey, unpublished data, Arkansas Game & Fish Commission].</p

Mean (± 95% CI) for habitat variables collected at nest-sites and available sites in units treated with short-rotation prescribed fire (solid lines) and units not treated (dashed) at the White Rock Ecosystem Restoration Area, U.S. Forest Service Boston Mountain Ranger District of the Ozark National Forest, Arkansas, USA.

<p>Mean (± 95% CI) for habitat variables collected at nest-sites and available sites in units treated with short-rotation prescribed fire (solid lines) and units not treated (dashed) at the White Rock Ecosystem Restoration Area, U.S. Forest Service Boston Mountain Ranger District of the Ozark National Forest, Arkansas, USA.</p

R Scripts for Analysis & Figures

R scripts to reproduce the analysis and recreate the figures included in the paper

csv files

the comma separated value file, including raw data and formatted data to run the model

scripts for figures and tables

scripts to recreate the figures and table

Figure 1 input files

Input files for creation of Figure 1. One input file is not included, but a citation to where to find the data is included in the figure 1 script

scripts for analysis

R scripts to reproduce our analysi

.Rdata files

.Rdata files of model objects and data sets for use in reproducing our R analysi

Habitat Use of Autumn Migrating Sora in the Mississippi Flyway

<p>Sora (<i>Porzana carolina</i>) habitat use during autumn migration has been poorly studied resulting in limited information upon which to base wetland management decisions that consider rails and other waterbirds. We performed nocturnal distance-sampling surveys from ATVs on eleven state and federal wetland properties in Missouri from 2012-2015. We examined covariates related to vegetation species percent cover, horizontal structure and water depth to explain Sora density using hierarchical distance sampling models in R package ‘unmarked’. Sora density was related to average water depth, percent interspersion and percent cover of non-persistent moist soil plants. Questions still remain about how the timing of water impacts Sora during autumn migration since peak water depths are not reached till late in migration in the Mississippi Flyway. </p