Quantifying loss and degradation of former American marten habitat due to the impacts of forestry operations and associated road networks in northern Idaho, USA

• Main Authors: Cushman, Samuel A., Wasserman, Tzeidle N.
• Format: Book
• Language: unknown
• Published: Oxford University Press 2018
• Subjects: American marten
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198759805.003.0012

American marten are associated with extensive and unfragmented late seral forest habitats, and are often considered to be particularly vulnerable to habitat loss and fragmentation. This chapter evaluates the impact of road building and timber harvest on habitat suitability for marten in northern Idaho, USA, using an empirically derived, multi-scale habitat suitability model, reconstructing key predictor variables (elevation, forest type, road density, canopy cover, landscape fragmentation and the extensiveness of late seral forest in the landscape) as they appear to have existed prior to harvest, and applying the model to both current and pre-harvest conditions. Calculating changes in the extent and pattern of habitat in the landscape indicate that timber harvest and road construction together reduced marten habitat quality considerably across the study area, which is likely responsible for current patterns of reduced detection rates and lower genetic diversity in areas that have experienced the largest amounts of habitat loss.