Effects of roads on elk: implications for management in forested ecosystems.

Abstract

The effects of roads on both habitat and population responses of elk (Cervus elaphus) have been of keen interest to foresters and ungulate biologists for the last half century. Increased timber harvest in national forests, beginning in the 1960s, led to a proliferation of road networks in forested ecosystems inhabited by elk (Hieb 1976, Lyon and Christensen 2002). Among disturbances to elk habitat, roads have been viewed as a major factor influencing distributions of elk across the landscape (Leege 1984, Lyon 1984, Lyon et al. 1985, Roloff 1998, Lyon and Christensen 2002, Wertz et al. 2004). Evidence from a variety of studies, such as those conducted at the Starkey Experimental Forest and Range (Starkey) in northeastern Oregon, has corroborated this view (Lyon 1983, 1984; Witmer and deCalesta 1985; Cole et al. 1997; Johnson et al. 2000; Rowland et al. 2000; Ager et al. 2003).

Citation

Rowland, Mary M.; Wisdom, Michael J.; Johnson, Bruce K.; Penninger, Mark A. 2004. Effects of roads on elk: implications for management in forested ecosystems. In: Transactions of the 69th North American Wildlife and Natural Resources Conference: 491-508