Population Viability as a Measure of Forest Sustainability

Eric T. Linder (Presenter), University of Tennessee

Dave Buelher

Randy Dettmers

John Bartlett

Nathon Klaus

Most definitions of forest sustainability include some measures of sustaining the flow of good and services provided by forests over some specific time frame.  In this manuscript, we assert that the conservation of biological diversity should be explicitly contained in any definition of sustainable forestry.  In addition, we explore the use of wildlife population viability as a measurable standard of sustainability.  We have developed wildlife habitat suitability models using GIS-based data for several species of Neotropical migrant songbirds.  Numerous landscape-level and stand-level forest metrics are included as explanatory variables in the models.  Based upon these habitat relationships and known densities of breeding birds, we can estimate current population sizes for target species.  From these models, then, we predict how population viability will change if different forest management scenarios are enacted.  Using this approach, we determine potential habitat-related bottlenecks for target species that potentially influence sustainability.  For forests to be sustainable as habitat, it is necessary that we understand how changes to the forest, such as condition, composition, quantity, and age, might impact the wildlife that depends upon it. 

Workshop IV: Terrestrial Ecosystems

Online presentation

Sustaining
Southern
Forests

a conference sponsored by the Southern Forest Resource Assessment