Effects of precommercial thinning on snowshoe hare habitat use during winter in low-elevation montane forests

We assessed snowshoe hare (Lepus americanus L.) habitat use during winter on two precommercial thinning treatments in sapling stands in northwestern Montana, USA. One treatment type retained 0.2-ha patches of unthinned saplings, representing 8% of the total stand area, and the second retained 0.8-ha patches of unthinned saplings, representing 35% of the stand area. Snowshoe hare habitat use was also estimated within a nearby control sapling stand and mature conifer stands. We used snow tracking and fecal pellet counts to estimate use before and after thinning treatments were applied. Although we did not find a conclusive trend in hare use of sapling stands after thinning, use within the control stand and adjacent mature stands suggested there was considerable movement of hares to nearby untreated stands after thinning. Hares used retention patches regardless of size, even though large retention patches were four times larger than small retention patches. Because hares demonstrated an affinity for dense patches of residual forest, any retention of untreated saplings may be beneficial for hares during winter when applying precommercial thinning treatments in areas where stand sizes are relatively small (10–14 ha), and the resulting thinned matrix is less harsh than in larger thinned stands. Use within thinned portions of the stand and unthinned remnant blocks suggests that over the winter hares may also benefit from a connectivity of dense cover.