A Method for Rapid, Spatially Explicit Habitat Assessment for Forest Songbirds

Abstract

Abstract The management of forest ecosystems for sustainabil-ity requires knowledge of the abundance and distribution of all resources, including wood and wildlife, and the ability to predict the impact of management on these resources. Spatially explicit inventories for wildlife are lacking for the vast majority of species. We propose, with example, a method of rapid habitat assessment which can be conducted with available data to produce a spatially explicit inventory of habitat for a species. Information from the literature and some census data were used to construct a simple model of potential habitat for a boreal forest songbird. Available spatial data, including landcover from Landsat TM data, and a digital elevation model, were used to map the distribution of key habitat characteristics onto the landscape. We argue for the development of these preliminary wildlife habitat models using habitat characteristics that are map-pable with currently available remotely sensed data. Given the current trend t...