Midwest Fish & Wildlife Conference 2019

AUTHORS. Madison T. Nadler, Brittany A. Shelton-Dooley – Wittenberg University; Kimberly A. Piccolo, Scott A. Warsen – US Forest Service; Richard S. Phillips, Wittenberg University

ABSTRACT.      Snags have great ecological value because they may have cavities, which provide critical habitat for many animals. In the Huron-Manistee National Forest, snags are created in red pine timber plantations to simulate the number of snags typically found in naturally growing forests. This study compares the value of snags created by topping in 2011 to snags created during a prescribed burn in 2010. GIS/GPS was used to locate and mark snag clumps. Height, DBH, decay class (1-5), and cavity presence was recorded for each clump and compared between and across snag creation type. The burned snags were planted in 1936 or 1938 and the topped snags were planted in 1936 or 1965 but the average DBH of each was similar (burned x¯ = 10.8in; topped x¯ = 10.5in). The presence of cavities below 20ft was compared between burned and topped snags. The average height for burned snags was 42.5ft and topped snags were cut at 20ft, but cavities appeared to be located near the tops of snags regardless of their height. The majority of cavities (83.8%) in topped snags were in decay classes one (59.1%) and two (24.5%). In burned snags, the majority of cavities (87.5%) were in decay classes one (18.8%), two (37.5%) and three (31.3%) with decay classes two and three containing the majority of the cavities (68.8%). Below 20ft, topped snags had a greater percentage of cavities (14.9%) than burned snags (6.7%), although there was a greater percentage of cavities in burned snags overall (burned = 24.8%). Creating snags via topping appears to be worth the investment as wildlife appears to use topped snags as much as snags created in a prescribed burn (topped = 49 cavities; burned = 59 cavities). In the future, studies will also compare snags created during the Meridian wildfire of 2010.