Clear-cutting and regeneration practices in Quebec boreal balsam fir forest: effects on snowshoe hare

Abstract

We compared utilization by the snowshoe hare (Lepus americanus Erxleben) of recent clearcuts subjected to three regeneration scenarios commonly used in boreal forest: natural regeneration, plantation with herbicide release (glyphosate), and plantation with manual release (brushsaw). Refuges for snowshoe hare, on a landscape dominated by clearcuts, were also investigated. Colonization of regenerating sites by the hare comes late in the humid boreal forest because clear-cut stands take more than 10 years to reach the sapling stage. Our sites were in the seedling stage 7–9 years after cutting, and hares avoided them year round because of an inadequate protective cover. Therefore, regeneration treatments did not affect habitat use by the hare on a short-term basis. During the seedling stage, the snowshoe hare were found in the remaining forest which occupied at least 25% of the area of each home range. The preservation of residual forests is thus essential to maintain local populations on an area dominated by commercial clearcuts.