Subject: Fw: I thought everyone might be interested in reading these thoughts?
Date: Oct 6 18:26:00 2000
From: Laurinda Anglin - RindaA at worldnet.att.net


I received this from a fella who is on to Inlanders.

Laurinda
Mountlake Terrace WA
RindaA at att.net



Fire and Black-backed Woodpeckers


An extraordinary example of that was discussed in the Winter 1999 issue of
Seasons, published by the Federation of Ontario Naturalists. Nick Escott, a
physician who lives in Thunder Bay, reported that he and two companions had
made an estimate of the number of Black-backed Woodpeckers to be found in a
large burned area about 85 miles north of that city. Walking kilometer-long
sections along a highway, counting woodpeckers, and extrapolating for the
102-square-mile burn, they estimated 20,000 Black-backs in the area.
Dr. Escott?s story was told by author Margaret Carney, who explained that an
insect known as the White-spotted Sawyer (Monochamus scutellatus) is drawn
to damaged trees by the smell of woodsmoke. These insects have egg-laying
peaks in July and August. Spring and Summer forest fires produce ideal
conditions for them. The resulting hatch of grubs 9 to 14 days later
produces ideal conditions for woodpeckers.

A more recent and smaller burn, 170 acres in Douglas County, Wisconsin, also
has produced Black-backed Woodpeckers. The fire occurred in May 2000.
Checked by birders in July, eight woodpeckers of that species were found one
day, three on another. Neither search came close to covering the entire
burned area.

The beetles are attracted to the burned area by volatile resins given off as
a
tree dies along with increasing beetle pheromone concentrations.

How long does a Black-backed Woodpecker typically utilize a burn before
being drawn off to greener (blacker?) pastures?

Given a solid burn with immediate tree death, a good guess would be three to
four years based on the life cycle of the beetles involved, Mr. Weinhagen
said. ?Remember though, that assumes all trees affected died quickly during
the burn. The number of years could increase if many trees were stressed but
not killed and proceeded to die in the following years,? he said.
Jeff Hoyt, currently completing his master?s thesis at the University of
Alberta in Edmonton, offered that his work in Alberta has shown that
Black-backed Woodpeckers are present in equal numbers in three- and
eight-year post-burn forests, with numbers decreasing drastically between
eight and 16 years after the fire.

?Remember that the Black-back is NOT necessarily a burned forest obligate,?
added Mr. Weinhagen. ?Many recent authors have suggested this is the case.
However, much of the research has been focused in the West where fire
communities are more common. Here in the Northeast (Vermont), we have
Black-backs making a living within mature forests thanks to smaller scale,
non-fire disturbances (e.g., windthrow, senescence, insect damage, like
spruce budworm, etc.) which provide the necessary prey base. I'm inclined to
think Black-backs are so frequently associated with burned areas NOT because
they are tied to these areas by an evolutionary dead-end, but because they
are an opportunistic species where individuals range widely enough to find
and take advantage of prey hotspots.?


INTERESTING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!