Utah State University DigitalCommons@USU
U.S. Government Documents (Utah Regional Wildlife Conservation and Management Depository)
1990
Bird Populations in and Adjacent to a Beaver Pond Ecosystem in Idaho
United States Department of Agriculture, Forest Service
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Recommended Citation United States Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, "Bird Populations in and Adjacent to a Beaver Pond Ecosystem in Idaho" (1990). Wildlife Conservation and Management. Paper 6. https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/govdocs_wildlife/6
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Un ited Slates Department THE AUTHORS RESEARCH SUMMARY of Agticuhure Bird Populations in and DEAN E. MEDIN is a research wildlile biologist with We compared breeding bird populations and com· Forest Service Ihe IntermoUniain Research Station at the Forestry mun~y organization between a beaver pond habitat Intermountain Adjacent to a Beaver Sciences LabOratory in Boise. 10. He earned a B.S. dominated by willows (Salix spp.) and an adjacent Research Station degree in forest management from Colorado State nonwillow riparian habitat on Summit Creek in east· Research Paper Pond Ecosystem in Idaho Univers~y in 1957, an M.S. degree in wildlife manage· central Idaho. For the previous 14 years bOth habitats INT·432 ment from Cotorado State Univers~y in 1959. and a had been protected from livestock grazing by a fenced Ph.D. degree in range ecosystems from Colorado exclosure (122·ha) . Bird populations were determined OcIob.r 1990 Dean E. Medin State Univers~y in 1976. HiS research has included by spot·mapping on 9·ha plots in spring 1989. Struc· Warren P. Clary studies in mule deer ecology. big·game range im· tural (physiognomic) differences in vegetation between provement, mule deer population modeling, and the two habitats and the availability 01 impounded nongame bird and small mammal ecology and habitat water on the beaver pond s~e were reflected in associ· management. ated breeding bird populations. Total bird density in the beaver pond habitat was three times that of the WARREN P. CLARY is project leader of the Inter· adjacent riparian haMat. Similarty, our estimates of mountain Station's Riparian·Stream Ecology and total bird biomass. bird species richness. and bird spe· Management research work unit at Boise, 10. He cies divers~y were 3.49, 3.25, and 1.67 times higher, received a B.S. degree in agricuhure from the Univer· respectively, in the beaver pond habitat. Further, there s~y of Nebraska and an M.S. degree in range man· were more foraging and nesting guilds represented on agement and a Ph.D. degree in bOtany (plant ecology) the beaver pond plot than elsewhere. Our findings from Colorado Sfate Univers~y . He joined the Forest suggest that beaver pond ecosystems can provide Service in 1960 and has conducted research on important haMats for nongame breeding birds. forested and nonforested rangelands in Arizona, Louisiana, Utah, Idaho, Oregon, and Nevada.
COMPLETED beaver pond (willow ) habitat and the adjacent no n· fo rb, shrub) and recorded as the midpoi nt of one of Bird Populations in and willow ri parian habitat. Nearly ha lf of the pl ot en· eight perce ntage cover classes (0·1, 1·5,5·10, 10·25, compassing the beaver po nd habitat wa s made up of 25·50, 50· 75, 75·95, 95·100 perce nt). Percent..1 ges Adjacent to a Beaver Pond will ow/mesic herbaceous communi ties. The ce nsus of litter, rock, ba re ground, and lichen-moss were plots, 600 by 150 m, we re ori ented lengthwise along si mila rly estimated. The vegetative height (excluding Ecosystem in Idaho Sum mit Creek and incl udcd both sid es of the creek. fl owe r and seed-head heights) of each graminoid, forb, Plots we re survcyed and gridded with poin ts nagged and sh..-ub nearest the center of each quadra t was Dean E. Medin and marked with numbe red stakes at 25-m in terval s. recorded. Warren P. Clary Eleven census visits we re made to each pl ot from Biomass of graminoids, forbs, and small shrubs was May 17 Lo June 29, 1989. Most or th e bird registra· determined by clipping vegetation from ground level tions were reco rded from sunrise to early aftern oon upward within a vertical projection from the 0,25-m2 when birds were most active. To ensure complete quadrats. Clipped materia ls were bagged, ovendried, INTRODUCTION Four major vegetation comm uni ty types were de cove rage, the plot was ce nsused by wa lking wi thin and weighed. A 3· by 3·m (9·m' ) plot, concentric to fin ed on the study site. These we re: willow/mesic 25 m of all poin ts on the grid. Census routes were each 0.25-m2 quadrat, was used to sample biomass Beavers (Castor canadensis) a lter ripa rian-stream herbaceous, sagebrush {A rtemisia spp.)/upland, mat va ri ed. Recorded bird observations extended a mini oflarge shrubs. Basal diameter, ma ximum height, ecosystems through their woodcuttin g and dam muhly (Muhlen bergia richardsonis)/h ummock, and mum of 50 m beyond pl ot boundari es. and spec ies were recorded for each shrub stem rooled buil ding activities. The resultant habitats ca n be mesic herbaceous. The upland co mmunities occ u At the end or the sampling peri od, clusters of within the plot. For willow clumps, average sLem benefi cial to some forms of wil dlife and detrim enta l pi ed the gentle slopes and terraces th at bo rdered observations on species maps we re circled to defin e diameter and average stem height were recorded to others (reviewed in Hill 1982; J enkins and :'oth the beaver po nd co mplex and the no n ponded breeding bird territories. Fractional parts of bound instead of individual stems. Equations provided by Busher 1979). But to date, little in fo rmation is a rea. The willow/mesic herbaceous co mm un ity type a ry territori es were in cluded in the results. The recip Brown (1976) were used to estimate biomass of the avail able on the importance of beaver pon d habitats was found only in the immedi ate vicinity of the bea rocal of Simpson's index (D = If'i.p?, where Pi is the large shrubs. for nongame birds. This study co mpared breedi ng ve r pond. The mat muhlylhummock, and mesic proportion of the sampl e belongi ng to the ith s pecies) Pl ant names follow Hitchcock and CronquisL(1973). bird populations and bird co mmu nity organ izati on herbaceous co mmunities we re considered elements was used to calculate species diversity (Hill 1973). Bird nomenclature is from the 1983 AOU checklist between a willow (Sal ix spp.)-dominated beaver of the riparian zo ne a nd were found on both the Vegetation a nd other features of the ce nsus plots (Am erican Ornithologists' Union 1983). pond habitat and an adjacent non willow ripa rian wi ll ow and non willow study sites. were measured from July 17 to August 30, 1989. A habitat un Summit Creek in east-central Idaho. Upla nd vegetation was shrub-steppe. The most 50· by 50·cm (O.25·m') quadrat was located at each of Beavers built both 8 primary da m and several RESULTS AND DISCUSSION co mm on shrubs were low sagebrush (A. arbuscula >, 20 systematically positioned sample locations in each seconda ry da ms in a previously unoccupied section threetip sagebrush (A. tripartita), and green rabbit major vegetation community type on the study plots. Major structural (physiognomic) differences in the of Summit Creek in the summer and fall of 1979 brush (Chrysolhamnus viscidi{loru",). The under· Canopy cover