Talk on Pollinators and Forests

Landscape ecologist Matt Betts.\Photo courtesy of Matt Betts.

MidCoast Watersheds Council invites the public to a talk on how Intensive Forest Management (IFM) affects biodiversity and ecosystem services, with a special focus on pollinators, taking place Thursday, Nov. 2, 6:30 p.m., at the Newport Visual Arts Center (777 N.W. Beach Dr.), Room 205.  The event is free and open to all; refreshments will be served. 

Presenters will be Matt Betts and Urs Kormann, researchers at Oregon State University.  They will discuss how IFM affects native wildlife.  IFM practices are commonly used to increase timber yield. IFM often applies herbicides to reduce competition from non-crop plants, but the effects of such practices on wildlife in general, and pollinators and their pollination service in particular, have received little attention so far. Addressing this question is timely, given the recent, widespread decline of pollinators worldwide. In this talk, the speakers will present results from a large-scale experiment in the Oregon Coast range, where they experimentally manipulated the herbicide intensity applied to Douglas Fir stands. They will show how these herbicides affect pollinators and the plants they feed on, and how this translates into plant pollination. Further, the speakers will give a short overview of effects on wildlife in general.

Matt Betts is a professor of landscape ecology in OSU’s Department of Forest Ecosystems and Society. He studies the ways that forest landscape composition and pattern influence animal behavior, species distributions and ecosystem function. Much of his work is applied and focused on management and conservation, particularly the question of ways of optimizing potential trade-offs between biodiversity and human forest uses. In 2011, he initiated a large experiment looking at the effects of herbicide application on wildlife, yield and ecosystem services in the Pacific Coast Range.

Urs Kormann is originally from Switzerland, now working as a postdoctoral scholar with the forest biodiversity research network at OSU. He has earned a PhD in Ecology in Germany, investigating how tropical deforestation alters bird communities and pollination services of hummingbirds. At OSU, he is now coordinating the "Intensive Forest Management Project,” and looking at tradeoffs between herbicide application, pollinators, wildlife and yield.

For more information, contact Evan Hayduk of MidCoast Watersheds, (541) 265-9195, evan@midcoastwatershedscouncil.org.