%0 Research article
%T Green-tree retention and life after the beetle: stand structure and small mammals 30 years after salvage harvesting
%A Sullivan, Thomas P.
%A Sullivan, Druscilla S.
%A Lindgren, Pontus M. F.
%A Ransome, Douglas B.
%D 2010
%J Silva Fennica
%V 44
%N 5
%R doi:10.14214/sf.451
%U https://silvafennica.fi/article/451
%X We report on a retrospective investigation of the impacts of salvage  harvesting of lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta var. latifolia Engelm. ex  S. Wats.), killed by an outbreak of mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus  ponderosae Hopk.) in the 1970s, with variable retention of Douglas-fir  (Pseudotsuga menziesii (Mirbel) Franco). Our inference to biodiversity  was coniferous stand structure and four mammal species: the southern  red-backed vole (Myodes gapperi Vigors), common shrew (Sorex cinereus  Kerr), red squirrel (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus Erxleben) and northern  flying squirrel (Glaucomys sabrinus Shaw). We tested hypotheses that, at  30 years after salvage harvest of beetle-killed lodgepole pine trees,  (1) abundance and diversity of stand structure, and (2) abundance of  mammal species, will increase with higher levels of green-tree retention  (GTR).  Stand structure attributes and small mammals were sampled  during 2005–2008 in young pine stands, with a range of GTR seed-trees  (none, dispersed, and aggregated Douglas-fir), and uncut forest in  south-central British Columbia, Canada. Diameters and heights of  Douglas-fir and lodgepole pine and basal area of total conifers  supported hypothesis (1). Mean abundance of the red-backed vole was  consistently higher (2.3 to 6.4 times) in the uncut forest than other  stands. Overall mean patterns of abundance for common shrews, red  squirrels, and northern flying squirrels were similar among treatment  stands. Mean abundance of the red-backed vole supported hypothesis (2),  but numbers of the other three species did not. There is “life after the  beetle” at 30 years after salvage harvesting, and this was enhanced by  GTR.