In both strategic land use planning assessments and finer-scale planning for landscape units or watersheds, land managers frequently ask “how much habitat is enough?” To answer this question, the Marbled Murrelet Recovery Team needed to assess the relationships between expected regional population sizes of nesting Marbled Murrelets (Brachyramphus marmoratus) and the area and quality of suitable nesting habitat in the coastal forests of British Columbia (BC). Marbled Murrelets are listed as “Threatened” in Canada, “red-listed” in BC, and designated as an “identified species” under the BC Forest and Range Practices Act.

Services: In collaboration with researchers at UBC and the Ministry of Forests, and the B.C. Marbled Murrelet Recovery Team, Cortex developed a regional demographic model for Marbled Murrelets that was used to assess policy options for regional habitat protection to minimize risk of loss of this species in the six Marbled Murrelet Conservation Regions identified in British Columbia.

Outcomes: Project results helped produce better definitions of habitat quality based on topographic and stand structures and focussed research attention on the contributions of non-forest habitat (e.g., marine food webs) to population fluctuations.

The methodologies used and results of this study are published in two reports:

Policy Implications of an Assessment of Long-term Risks to Marbled Murrelet Populations in British Columbia ( 542 Kb)

Long-term Risks to Marbled Murrelet ( 779 Kb)