| Habitat restoration is a crucial component of ecosystem management in degraded areas. At the McIlroy Madison County Wildlife Management Area, managers initiated selective cuts and prescribed burns. I investigated effects of manipulations using thirteen plots treated with four management regimes: three cut but not burned, three burned but not cut, three both burned and cut, and four neither burned nor cut. With two years of data before and after manipulations, I examined effects on vegetation community, small mammal abundance, thermal environment, and physiological properties of individual timber rattlesnakes (Crotalus horridus).;I surveyed vegetation communities and estimated stem densities annually. Although communities did not initially differ among treatments, harvested sites exhibited increases in early successional annual vegetation after treatments. I estimated abundances of small mammals using biannual live-trapping. Abundances of white-footed and deer mice at harvest sites increased after manipulations, marking enhancement in rattlesnake prey density.;Habitat use data for timber rattlesnakes was collected over 14 seasons. Snakes selected deciduous forest with tall understory plants and small trees, rocks, and logs. For foraging, snakes selected areas with dense canopy and few rocks or understory plants. Preferred foraging habitat therefore included characteristics of burn sites after manipulations.;I also examined thermal characteristics of habitat using operative temperature models and temperature-sensitive radio-telemetry of individual rattlesnakes. While activity of snakes using all sites was thermally constrained, constraint was much stronger in manipulated areas. However, snakes using manipulated habitat did not exhibit higher body temperatures than snakes avoiding manipulated areas, indicating the likelihood that snakes in cut or burned areas select habitat more carefully for thermal properties.;Finally, I measured effects of manipulations on energy expenditure, growth rate, and body condition of rattlesnakes tracked using radio-telemetry. Both growth rate and body condition index were elevated in snakes using manipulated areas after cuts and burns. The net effect of improvement in resource environment coupled with deterioration in thermal environment was increased growth and body condition. Changes in physiological properties of individual timber rattlesnakes can therefore provide information about multiple elements of change in forest communities, making timber rattlesnakes potentially important as indicator species for restoration ecology. |
