Understanding the effects of forest management on avian species

We reiterate the general problems of small scale and lack of rigorous exper imental design that reduce the ability of wildlife studies to offer concret e recommendations for forest management. We emphasize the need to increase our understanding of mechanisms during the translation of forest structure, composition, and function into avian population abundance, distribution, a nd viability. Mechanistic understanding increases the manager's likelihood of correctly predicting prescription outcomes and gives him increased flexi bility to balance competing demands of resource production and wildlife con servation. Until detailed mechanistic relationships are determined, we will have to manage forests with incomplete knowledge. Managers and researchers should embrace these uncertainties and form partnerships to adaptively man age forests. This relationship will Likely increase the scale and relevance of research but may carry costs of reduced statistical rigor (poor replica tion, low power) and suboptimal short-term management. The costs of large-s cale research and management are great, but partitioning large projects int o small, connected ones, forming funding and research cooperatives, and dev eloping new funding sources will help offset the costs. Researchers and man agers should clearly articulate priorities. We urge scientific societies to cooperate to develop conservation priorities, encourage data collection to support prioritization, and assess progress toward meeting conservation go als. The Wildlife Society is in a unique position to take the lead in such an effort and objectively guide wildlife conservation's future direction.