Timber-management and natural-disturbance effects on moose habitat:landscape evaluation.

We used 16 years of survey data for a moose population, and 3 Landsat satellite scenes, spanning 19 years, to evaluate the hypotheses that Ontario's Moose Habitat Guidelines for timber harvest: (1) mitigate the effects of unmodified clearcuts on moose populations, and (2) create enhanced habitat with greater interspersion of forage with cover and higher habitat suitability indices than areas dominated by unmodified clearcuts. The 5 study landscapes compared were 16,000-91,000 ha, and included landscape disturbance from timber-management and wildfire-burn, and landscapes with and without hunter access. Moose density differed among landscapes, but while neither main effects of hunter access (P = 0.083), nor landscape disturbance (P = 0.31) were significant, their interactions were (P = 0.003), with density increasing if disturbance occurs without hunter access. The habitat suitability index in the wildfire burn was similar (0.80) to both the modified and unmodified clearcut (0.85 and 0.83), and population rate of increase was positive in both the burn (B = 0.153, P < 0.0001) and the unmodified clearcut (B = 0.127, P < 0.0001). The population did not increase in the modified clearcut (B = -0.016, P = 0.9907) because hunter access increased as a consequence of high road density.