• Discovery Park Bird Use by Plant Community Types

"In studies in which landscape level forest structure was found to be more predictive of bird occurrence than standlevel forest structure (Saab 1999, Mitchell et al. 2001, Grand and Cushman 2003), a mismatch between extent of bird and vegetation sampling may have influenced conclusions. The role of stand-level structure in providing habitat may therefore have been underestimated. This finding has important implications for conservation planning because it means that the structural conditions (e.g., successional or stand development stage) within a forest reserve or land management unit can influence its suitability for different organisms. Regional or landscape scale conservation planning based on assessment of cover type alone, therefore, may be insufficient to capture important habitat relationships occurring at fine scales. Information at both scales, if available, is relevant and desirable based on our results."