This Undark article says Pinyon jays are proposed for ESA listing because of forest restoration thinning:
“some bird biologists... are sounding the alarm that even today’s thinning methods degrade pinyon jay habitat. These woodlands are already under extreme drought stress, especially in New Mexico, with predictions for widespread loss due to climate change. And some studies suggest thinned piñon-juniper forests are less resilient to beetle infestation and drought.
I participated in a 10-year monitoring study of thinned and unthinned Pinyon-Juniper woodlands in the Manzano mountains. Our findings were different from those discussed in the study; we found increased soil moisture at thinned plots, which led to richer pinyon nut crops and an increase in pinyon jays.
However, I'm not arguing that the cited studies are wrong; there may be important site-specific differences between different restoration treatments in different areas. Some restoration can actually help pinyon jays, we just need to figure out which treatments, and how!
Hopefully, we can all agree that if a treatment isn't making things better for native plants and animals we need to rethink it; just because something is called "restoration" doesn't mean its automatically good. That's why we need science like this.
No comments:
Post a Comment