Density Increases in Clearcuts Restored with Fire in the Largest Remaining Population of Florida Scrub-Jays

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Abstract Managers often use mechanical disturbance in conjunction with, or in place of, prescribed fire to maintain pyrogenic plant communities in the southeastern United States. However, information on the effects of mechanical fire-surrogates on disturbance-dependent wildlife is lacking. The Florida scrub-jay Aphelocoma coerulescens is an endemic bird species reliant on Florida scrub, a pyrogenic shrubland plant community narrowly distributed on sandy ridges in peninsular Florida. Ocala National Forest in north-central Florida supports the largest remaining population of Florida scrub-jays, and historically, most scrub habitat at the site was maintained through the commercial harvest (clearcutting) of mature sand pines Pinus clausa. Recently, Scrub-Jay Management Areas were established as part of a habitat restoration program, in which clearcut stands were converted to scrub maintained in an early-successional condition by prescribed fire. We studied Florida scrub-jays in Scrub-Jay Management Areas (2016‒2023) to better understand how family-group density changed over time since fire management compared to time since harvest in clearcut stands. In scrub treated with prescribed fire, Florida scrub-jay family-group density increased more rapidly post-disturbance and was consistently higher than in clearcut stands. Based on model predictions, the maximum mean density of family groups occurred at 8.5 years post-fire (11.8 family groups/41 ha) in Scrub-Jay Management Areas and 6.2 years post-harvest (5.5 family groups/41 ha) in clearcut stands. Our study provides the first quantitative data on the response of Florida scrub-jay populations to new forest management practices in this large and critically important population. These data provide an essential component for developing population models for Ocala National Forest under current conditions and for modeling the potential effects of future management decisions.