THE AUTHORS 



RESEARCH SUMMARY 



DEAN E. MEDIN is a research wildlife biologist with the 

 Intermountain Research Station at the Forestry Sciences 

 Laboratory in Boise, ID. He earned a B.S. degree in forest 

 management from Iowa State University in 1957, an M.S. 

 degree in wildlife management from Colorado State Univer- 

 sity in 1959, and a Ph.D. degree in range ecosystems from 

 Colorado State University in 1976. His research has in- 

 cluded studies in mule deer ecology, big-game range im- 

 provement, mule deer population modeling, and nongame 

 bird and small mammal ecology and habitat management. 



GORDON D. BOOTH is leader of the Statistics and Com- 

 puter Sciences Group for the Intermountain Research Sta- 

 tion in Ogden. UT. He received a B.A. degree in 1960 and 

 a B.S. degree in statistics in 1963, both from Brigham Young 

 University. Then he was granted an M.S. degree in 1967 

 and a Ph.D. degree in 1973, both in statistics and both from 

 Iowa State University. From 1963 to 1965, he worked as 

 consulting statistician with U.S. Steel Corporation and with 

 Phillips Petroleum Co. From 1967 to 1981 he worked as 

 consulting statistician with the Agricultural Research Service, 

 U.S. Department of Agriculture. He has been in his present 

 position since 1981. 



ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 



Authors acknowledge James R. Groves, Robert Jordan, 

 Stanley K. Baker, Shiela Donovan, Daniel A. Dolezal, 

 Walter F. Megahan, James L. Clayton, Timothy L. Mosko, 

 Delbert C. Molitor, Kathleen Geier-Hayes, and Russell A. 

 Ryker for their contributions to this research. Gwladys E. 

 Deiss designed the cover illustration. 



Responses of birds and small mammals to logging depend 

 on the cutting methods used and the degree to which forest 

 stands are altered. This study examined short-term changes 

 in the composition and abundance of small mammals and 

 breeding birds following single-tree selection logging in an 

 Idaho Douglas-fir forest. Populations of birds and small 

 mammals were estimated on a logged plot and on a nearby 

 unlogged plot from 1975 (2 years prelogging) to 1979 

 (3 years postlogging). 



Total numbers of breeding birds were relatively stable 

 between years and between logged and unlogged plots. 

 More pronounced patterns of response occurred in the popu- 

 lations making up the breeding bird communities. Species 

 with positive numerical responses to the selection cut were 

 olive-sided flycatcher, Swainson's thrush, yellow-rumped 

 warbler, and chipping sparrow. Species with negative nu- 

 merical responses to logging were red-breasted nuthatch 

 and brown creeper. Fourteen other species showed little 

 numerical response to the timber harvest. 



Birds that forage by gleaning the surface of the bark (tim- 

 ber gleaners) declined in number after logging. Foliage 

 feeders, aerial-sally feeders, and timber drillers were about 

 equally abundant before and after logging. The ground 

 gleaning guild showed a slightly positive pattern of response. 

 Of six nesting guilds represented, only the secondary cavity 

 nesters were adversely affected by logging. Bush and small 

 tree nesters tended to increase after timber harvest. 



Deer mice, yellow pine chipmunks, and boreal redback 

 voles accounted for 93 percent of 815 individual animals 

 trapped during the study. Postlogging estimates of deer 

 mice density were generally similar on both the logged and 

 the unlogged plots. But when results were expressed as the 

 mean number of individual animals trapped each year, sig- 

 nificantly fewer deer mice were trapped on the logged plot. 

 Numbers of yellow pine chipmunks increased on logged 

 sites; it was the most commonly trapped small mammal in 

 postlogging environments. No significant difference was 

 found in the number of redbacked voles trapped in the cut 

 and uncut forest. Other species were trapped irregularly and 

 in smaller numbers. 



The use of trade or firm names in this publication is for 

 reader information and does not imply endorsement by the 

 U.S. Department of Agriculture of any product or service. 



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 Ogden, UT 84404 



