logging and butterflies (fwd)

Amy E. M. Waltz Amy.Waltz at nau.edu
Fri Feb 27 10:00:23 EST 1998


In response to Norbert Kondla's request for literature on logging 
effects on butterfly populations.  I haven't found much, but am
also looking.  Sherri Mann (also from Northern AZ U.)presented a poster at
the Entomological Society of America's meeting on butterfly abundance and
diversity sampled in 3 different Ponderosa pine forest types, including
old-growth, catastrophic burn (crown kill), and thinned and burned.  She
didn't address specific effects of logging, and did not have anything
close to a clear-cut forest.  But, she found highest abundances in the
catastrophic burn site, hypothesizing that the release of nutrients from
the burn resulted in increased herbaceous production.  Highest 
diversity was in the old-growth forest, however.  Thinned and burned
forests had lowest abundance and diversity.

My research is examining how butterfly communities respond to
ponderosa pine restoration, which involves thinning tree density to
pre-euro american settlement tree densities, retaining all old-growth
trees and younger, replacement trees for the stumps and snags, and
then re-introducing fire.  More like Sherry's thinned and burned, but
even lower resulting tree densities.  I've only done one field season
of work, so this should be chaulked up to anecdotal.  I've noticed
higher abundances of butterflies in a "restored" area, although I'm
not sure if they are responding to abiotic variables (more light,
higher ground temps), or the herbaceous
community.  The herbaceous is taking a while to come in (there was not
much to start with under the dense forest conditions before restoration).

Ponderosa pine (as you may know) is primarily a monoculture forest, and
all diversity is in the herbaceous community.  Because of this, I'm 
hypothesizing increased diurnal butterfly abundance and diversity with
restoration.  I'll keep you posted on my results (can you wait 4 or 5
years??)



Amy Waltz, Research Specialist               Phone: (520)523-7528
Northern Arizona University                  E-mail: amy.waltz at nau.edu
School of Forestry


---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 26 Feb 1998 14:47:11 -0800
From: "Kondla, Norbert FOR:EX" <Norbert.Kondla at gems3.gov.bc.ca>
To: 'lepsl' <leps-l at lists.yale.edu>
Subject: logging and butterflies

i would appreciate citations for any literature (formally published and
also government or institutional reports) on the topic of forest
harvesting and effects on butterflies in temperate and boreal
ecosystems. heck, even anecdotal observations would be welcome (eg. i
have been watching/collecting butterflies in area x with y habitats for
z years and when the loggers cut the trees i found that the following
things happened to the butterflies)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Norbert Kondla  P.Biol., RPBio.
Forest Ecosystem Specialist, Ministry of Environment
845 Columbia Avenue, Castlegar, British Columbia V1N 1H3
Phone 250-365-8668
Mailto:Norbert.Kondla at gems3.gov.bc.ca
http://www.env.gov.bc.ca



More information about the Leps-l mailing list