Avoiding common pitfalls in the implementation of adaptive forest wildlife management

Abstract

Forest management planning requires the evaluation of tradeoffs in proposed management actions to meet multiple objectives, including providing the habitat required to sustain wildlife populations. However, various species-specific life history strategies and ecological uncertainties complicate our understanding of the responses of wildlife to disturbances, such as wildfires and forest management. We believe that adaptive management processes, applied through the close collaboration of researchers and managers (e.g., coproduction), will be valuable in this effort. Although adaptive management programs have been touted in the past, we stress that many of these programs have fallen short of the requisite steps to complete the learning cycles of this process (i.e., single- and double-loop learning). Thus, we provide guidance on what we believe to be the missing components of these efforts in hopes to guide future coordination of local and regional adaptive management programs for forest wildlife.

This chapter is part of a larger synthesis; additional chapters will be published as completed. When all chapters are finished, the entire synthesis will be published as general technical report PNW-GTR-1044.

Citation

Duarte, Adam; Peterson, James T. 2026. Avoiding common pitfalls in the implementation of adaptive forest wildlife management. In: Wright, Vita; Keville, Megan, tech eds. Wildland fire and fuels science synthesis: supporting landscape and community resilience in the Pacific Northwest. Gen. Tech. Rep. PNW-GTR-1044. Portland, OR: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station.