Fisher Inventory at Yosemite, Sequoia, and Kings Canyon National Parks
Martin ME, Matthews SM, McGregor E, Green R, Townsend A, Mackey HL, Mackey H, Stock S , Smith TR, Anderson C, Anderson J. Fisher Inventory at Yosemite, Sequoia, and Kings Canyon National Parks. 2019-2024. National Park Service
Many forest-dependent species evolved in disturbance-prone landscapes, with intermittent, low-severity disturbances producing heterogeneous conditions to support their persistence. However, fire suppression and shifting climate conditions have altered disturbance regimes and drought cycles, resulting in larger, higher severity wildfires and extensive drought-induced tree mortality. The fisher (Pekania pennanti) is a forest-dwelling species often associated with late-seral, complex forests and sensitive to losses in canopy and forest cover resultant from landscape disturbance. In the southern Sierra Nevada, fishers occur within a federally -endangered distinct population segment and recent landscape-scale tree mortality and increasing risk of high-severity wildfire are persistent threats to their recovery. Here, we estimated the contemporary abundance, density, and distribution of fishers in the southern and central Sierra Nevada, in the area encompassing Sequoia, Kings Canyon, and Yosemite National Parks. We incorporated live-capture, remote camera, and telemetry data into integrated spatial-capture recapture models to estimate fisher abundance and density, and simulated the effects of 1) prescribed fire intended to restore ecosystem function and 2) stochastic wildfires at varying severities and spatial extents. We further incorporated these data and detection-nondetection monitoring data into an integrated species distribution model to estimate structural and landscape features that shape the contemporary distribution of fishers. Through this work, we identify forest structure and landscape conditions associated with the distribution of imperiled fishers, and elucidate the putative, differential effects of prescribed and stochastic fire on their persistence
- Type
- Project
- Authors
- Martin, Marie; Matthews, Sean; McGregor, Eric; Green, Rebecca; Townsend, Andria; Mackey, Heather; Mackey, Heather; Stock, Sarah; Smith, Tessa; Anderson, Chad; Anderson, Jenn
- Publisher
- National Park Service
- Units
- SEKI , YOSE
- Keywords
- GPS collar, hierarchical modeling, IMD, integrated, integrated occupancy model, National Park Service, noninvasive sampling, NPS, NPS Inventory and Monitoring Division, NPS Species Inventory Program, Pekania pennanti, prescribed fire, remote camera, SEKI, Sequoia Kings Canyon National Park, Sierra Nevada, spatial capture-recapture, wildfire, YOSE, Yosemite National Park
Program
Products
- Density and Distribution of an Endangered Mustelid (Fisher: Pekania pennanti) Population Relative to Current Forest Structure and Simulated Prescribed Fire and Wildfire
- Fisher Non-Telemetry Inventory Data at Yosemite National Park and Sequoia Kings Canyon National Park 2019-2024 - Open Format Dataset
- Fisher Telemetry Inventory Data at Yosemite National Park and Sequoia Kings Canyon National Park 2021-2024 - Open Format Dataset