Assessing cumulative impacts of forest development on the abundance and distribution of furbearers.

• Other Authors: Bridger, Michael C. (Author), Johnson, Christoper (Thesis advisor), University of Northern British Columbia (Degree granting institution)
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: University of Northern British Columbia 2015
• Subjects: Fur-bearing animals > Effect of habitat modification on > British Columbia; Central Interior; Forests and forestry > Environmental aspects > British Columbia; SF403.5.C2 B75 2015; Canada; British Columbia; American marten; Martes americana; Lynx
• Online Access: https://arcabc.ca/islandora/object/unbc%3A16933; https://doi.org/10.24124/2015/bpgub1069

Furbearer populations across the central-interior of British Columbia, Canada, are exposed to the cumulative impacts of landscape change, particularly as a result of forest harvesting. I elicited knowledge from furbearer experts to develop habitat models for three furbearer species: fisher (Pekania pennanti), Canada lynx (Lynx Canadensis), and American marten (Martes americana), and applied the models to reference landscapes to quantify changes in habitat availability and quality from 1990 to 2013. Where forest harvesting was extensive, the models predicted substantial declines in habitat for each focal species. I used trapping records and negative binomial count models to investigate the relationship between habitat change and population abundance of lynx and marten. The top-ranked count models identified combinations of trapping effort, trapline area, and habitat availability and quality as having significantly positive effects on capture success. These results demonstrate the utility of expert knowledge for studying cumulative impacts of landscape change on furbearers. --Leaf ii. The original print copy of this thesis may be available here: http://wizard.unbc.ca/record=b2006850