Blog Archives for adamswitalski

By adamswitalski - May 18, 2009    Greg Peters, our Field Coordinator, and I began to set up Wildlands CPR’s wildlife monitoring field sites on the Clearwater National Forest this weekend.  After a week of rain and snow, the skies cleared and we had a sunny first day in the field.   Our first site was a recontoured road.  It was pretty steep and rocky at the entrance and made for some difficulty carrying the track plate and roof

By adamswitalski - April 27, 2009    This past week, Wildlands CPR assisted The Nature Conservancy in hosting a workshop entitled, “Improving road systems in the context of watershed restoration” in Astoria, OR.  The workshop was attended by a diverse group of about 25 watershed restoration specialists from around the region.  Representatives from the Forest Service, Oregon Department of Forestry, Washington Department of Natural Resources, NGOs, and private consultants exchanged information about planning, prioritizing, and implementing road system treatments including road decommissioning.  

By adamswitalski - February 5, 2009    There is great debate over postfire logging.  While some argue timber should be “salvaged” following a fire, an increasing amount of scientific literature has documented the ecological consequences of postfire logging (for review see Conservation Biology journal volume 18 issue 4).  One such study recently published in Forest Ecology and Management and conducted in Alberta examined the impact of post fire logging on elk, deer, and moose.   Hebblewhite et al.

By adamswitalski - November 3, 2008    Grizzly bears are on the decline in Alberta, Canada.  Human-caused mortality such as over-hunting, poaching, and collisions with vehicles have dramatically reduced this population in recent years.  While the decline of bears has resulted in a suspension of hunting of grizzlies in the province, other sources of mortality due to access continue to threaten grizzly bear persistence. 

By adamswitalski - October 22, 2008    It has been well established that some bird species will avoid roads.  Scientists believe that noise created from highways may disrupt bird communications which are important for establishing territories and advertising their breeding status to potential mates.