Northern Goshawk (Accipiter Gentilis Atricapillus): a Technical Conservation Assessment
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Northern Goshawk (Accipiter gentilis atricapillus): A Technical Conservation Assessment Prepared for the USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Region, Species Conservation Project January 2, 2003 Patricia L. Kennedy1 Department of Fishery and Wildlife Biology and Graduate Degree Program in Ecology Colorado State University Fort Collins, CO 80523 1 Current Address: Eastern Oregon Agricultural Research Station, Oregon State University, P.O. Box E, Union, OR 97883. Peer Review Adminitered by Sustainable Ecosystem Institute Kennedy, P.L. (2003, January 2). Northern Goshawk (Accipiter gentiles atricapillus): a technical conservation assessment. [Online]. USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Region. Available: http://www.fs.fed.us/r2/ projects/scp/assessments/northerngoshawk.pdf [date of access]. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Greg Hayward (USDA Forest Service, Region 2) provided invaluable conceptual and logistic support. I could not have completed this document without the excellent assistance of Sharon Baruch-Mordo [Department of Fishery and Wildlife Biology, Colorado State University (FWB/CSU)] who collated and summarized much of the regional information on goshawk distribution, demography, habitat, and diet. She also assisted with literature searches on some of the non-regional data. Jennifer Courtemanche, Brian Dick, Jana Dick, Andrea Lueders, and Micah Wells reviewed the document and their comments greatly strengthened it. Claudia Regan (USDA Forest Service, Region 2) provided guidance on the regional landscape information and Joan Friedlander (USDA Forest Service, Region 2) provided key information on goshawk management in Region 2. Ellen Paul (Ornithological Council) did an outstanding job of summarizing the complex history of goshawk litigation. Vicki Dreitz (CSU) introduced me to PopTools and helped develop the population models. Jennifer Ross (USDA Forest Service, Region 2) provided invaluable GIS and graphics support. John Marzluff and an anonymous reviewer reviewed the manuscript carefully and provided numerous helpful suggestions for improving the clarity and utility of the manuscript. Len Paur provided emotional and logistic support throughout the project and tolerated my long hours at the computer. Finally, the information presented in this assessment represents the combined research and ideas of many scientists and managers, and the field efforts of countless technicians. The technical knowledge presented here really belongs to them. AUTHOR’S BIOGRAPHY Patricia Kennedy (Pat) received her B.A. in Biology from Colorado College in 1975, her M. S. in Zoology from the University of Idaho in 1980 and her Ph.D. in Biology/Ecology from Utah State University in 1991. After completing her graduate work Pat was hired as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Fishery and Wildlife Biology at Colorado State University in Ft. Collins, Colorado. She was promoted to Associate Professor in 1997. In January 2002, Pat moved to northeastern Oregon where she is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife at Oregon State University. She is stationed at the Eastern Oregon Agricultural Research Center in Union, Oregon. Pat’s current research interests are focused on understanding the effects of livestock grazing and timber management practices on avian populations and communities. She has authored and co-authored over 35 publications, book reviews and reports. Nineteen of these publications are on the goshawk and she received a USDA Forest Service Meritorious Award for her role as adviser to the Goshawk Scientific Committee which developed national guidelines for managing the goshawk. COVER PHOTO CREDIT 2S6986 Northern Goshawk (Accipiter gentilis). Western, US. © Tom & Pat Leeson, Photo Researchers, Inc. LIST OF ERRATA 2 3 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Status The northern goshawk (Accipiter gentilis atricapillus; hereafter referred to as goshawk) has been proposed for listing several times under the Endangered Species Act and its status has been (and still is) the object of considerable litigation. It is currently not listed as a threatened species but is considered a sensitive species or a species of concern by most governmental agencies and non-governmental organizations within Region 2. Currently, there is no demographic evidence in North America (including Region 2) that the goshawk is declining. This lack of evidence can be interpreted in two ways: 1) the goshawk is not declining; or 2) it is declining but I don’t have sufficient information to detect the declines. In Region 2, there is clearly insufficient data to determine population status. However, within Region 2, Partners in Flight suggest the goshawk may be declining in the Central Rocky Mountain Physiographic Region, which occurs in the extreme northwest section of the region. The basis for this conclusion is unknown but is likely based on the threat of habitat alteration to the goshawk’s preferred breeding season habitat. Primary Threats The primary threat to goshawk populations is alteration of its preferred habitat from timber management practices. Biologists and land managers have raised concerns over destruction and modification of goshawk nesting, post-fledging, foraging, and wintering habitat. Although the goshawk uses a wide range of forest communities during the breeding season, it prefers mature and old-growth forest for nesting and hunting. Its winter habitat preferences in North America are poorly understood but the limited data from North America and Europe suggest the bird can use the same habitats year-round as well as non-forested habitats at lower elevations. Although there is some evidence goshawks are resilient to forest fragmentation and can re-establish when cleared areas are reforested, the thresholds for population persistence have not been identified. The issues cited by researchers, agency personnel, and others as potential threats to habitat caused by various silvicultural treatments include forest fragmentation, creation of even-aged and monotypic stands, potential increase in area of younger age classes, and loss of tree species diversity. The degree to which habitat alteration is impacting goshawks in Region 2 is unknown. This is primarily due to a paucity of regional data on the spatial and temporal trends of habitat change due to current management practices. However, a recent landscape study conducted in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado suggests significant changes in landscape structure and fragmentation of mature forest have occurred in this area between 1950-1993. During this period, roughly half of the mature conifer forest has been converted to young stands and there has been a 3-fold increase in road density. If this area is representative of Region 2 forest lands, these results suggest landscape structure has changed dramatically on forest lands in Region 2 since the 1950s. The degree to which these landscape changes impact regional goshawk persistence is unknown. However, if the trend in the San Juan Mountains is representative of regional trends, goshawk habitat is probably declining in Region 2. Primary Conservation Elements, Management Implications and Considerations The most effective approach for managing breeding populations of goshawks is to manage goshawks at a variety of spatial scales. This requires a landscape management plan of goshawk preferred habitat. To the extent that goshawk management is a priority, most goshawk guidelines recommend Region 2 develop a landscape management plan rather then continuing to establish small buffer zones around nest trees. One approach that could be used in Region 2 is the approach developed in the Management Recommendations for the Northern Goshawk in the Southwestern United States (Reynolds et al. 1992). This approach is focused on developing desired forest conditions within goshawk home ranges and for developing an implementation plan to obtain those desired conditions. Reynolds et al. (1992) cannot 2 3 be applied as a “cookbook” to Region 2 because the habitat types and forest conditions differ. However, the approach could be modified for regional conditions by a team of biologists and silviculturists with regional expertise. For effective goshawk management to occur in the region, I have identified several information needs which include both information on goshawks and regional databases that clearly summarize vegetative trends in Region 2. 4 5 TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS............................................................................................................................................2 AUTHOR’S BIOGRAPHY............................................................................................................................................2 COVER PHOTO CREDIT .............................................................................................................................................2 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY.............................................................................................................................................3 Status..........................................................................................................................................................................3 Primary Threats..........................................................................................................................................................3 Primary Conservation Elements, Management Implications and Considerations.....................................................3 LIST OF