06/12/2026
Project Highlight! 🪶
UNBC Masters student Alexa Wiebe is in her second summer of data collection at JPRF. Here’s an introduction to her project:
Traditional clear-cut forest harvesting methods can reduce available habitat for forest-dependent species. This is the case for the Pacific wren, a common songbird in BC known for their long, complex songs. Pacific wrens typically forage and breed in mature, structurally complex forests, particularly in lower story vegetation and woody debris. Rather than traditional clear-cuts, partial retention harvesting methods preserve structural integrity in the lower canopy, and promote the use of cut blocks by Pacific wrens. Using autonomous recording units in clear-cut (CC), partial retention (PR), and control forest (CF) habitats, we found that wrens were detected equally in control forest and partial retention sites, and not in clear-cut sites. This year, we are conducting playback experiments on male wrens in control forests and partial retention sites to compare singing behaviours and territorially between the two habitats. If partial retention harvesting methods can provide habitat for Pacific wrens, then other forest-dependent species may benefit from them as well.
