The AFR Partnership is recording changes in population size and habitat use of key wildlife species throughout the course of the project.

The Pacific fisher, a sensitive species and candidate for Federal Listing in 2014, is of special interest to wildlife biologists. Radio tracking efforts here in the Ashland Watershed have given insight to how these animals behave, including their response to forest thinning operations, guiding how buffer areas are created to limit deleterious impacts from operations. Read here about efforts to protect this species during AFR operations.

94 people assisted the Forest Service in monitoring of the Pacific fisher from 2010 to 2013, contributing roughly 1800 volunteer hours over the last three years. Roughly 10 people assisted with flying squirrel trap monitoring, equivalent to about 80 volunteer hours.

In early spring, 2012, The Klamath Bird Observatory (KBO) was contracted by The Nature Conservancy to conduct bird point-count transects in areas where commercial thinning was to occur later in the year. These observations build on KBO’s annual mist netting and banding of songbird populations to monitor population trends, breeding success, health, and longevity allowing evaluation of treatment impacts on bird habitats and communities.

Volunteers from the community work with USFS scientists to monitor population size and habitat use of Northern Spotted Owl, Pacific Fisher, and arboreal rodents including the Northern Flying Squirrel. These wildlife species are dependent on late succesional forests, and help inform partners about how forest treatments impact wildlife.