Project Code:	MW-01-033
Area:	Applied Research
Sponsor:	Millar Western Forest

The overall goal of this Project was to generate a detailed avian bio-diversity information base for the Boreal Forest, focusing on upper canopy species.

Specific objectives included –
* providing a more complete account of avian biodiversity and structural habitat requirements of forest bird species;
* comparing data collected in the fall migration season from mid- and upper-canopy nets with the standard ground-level nets;
* evaluating habitat usage within vertical strata by breeding adults during the early summer and by young dispersing through to fall migration;
* assessing the importance of microhabitats;
* identifying possible impacts on the avian community from the loss of vertical strata and structurally complex forest ecosystems; and
* reviewing literature and data collected to produce a profile for each species that will include their spatial requirements in three dimensions for the Boreal Forest.

This Project was conducted in essentially two parts – an initial pilot Project carried out in the year 2000 at/near the Lesser Slave Lake Bird Observatory; and a followup study carried out in 2002 on Grizzly Ridge approximately 20 km south of the Town of Slave Lake, Alberta.

Project results are contained in two separate reports identified as follows –
* Northern Boreal Canopy Project: Results from the Pilot Year 2000, prepared by Rainer Ebel & Jonathan Martin-DeMoor, and dated April 2002; and
* Northern Boreal Forest Canopy Project: 2002 Year End Report, prepared by Rainer Ebel & Jonathan Martin-DeMoor, and completion date not specified.

Keywords
Lesser Slave Lake Area
Avian Biodiversity
Millar Western Forest Products
Upper Canopy Species
Structural Habitat Requirements
Northern Boreal Forest