Low-density spruce plantations increase foraging by moose in a northeastern temperate forest Mathieu Leblond a,⇑ , Christian Dussault b , Martin-Hugues St-Laurent c a Département de biologie, chimie et géographie, Centre for Northern Studies, Université du Québec à Rimouski, 300 allée des Ursulines, Rimouski, QC G5L 3A1, Canada b Direction de la faune terrestre et de l’avifaune, Ministère des Forêts, de la Faune et des Parcs du Québec, 880 chemin Sainte-Foy, Québec, QC G1S 4X4, Canada c Département de biologie, chimie et géographie, Centre for Northern Studies and Centre for Forest Research, Université du Québec à Rimouski, 300 allée des Ursulines, Rimouski, QC G5L 3A1, Canada article info Article history: Received 28 January 2015 Received in revised form 13 March 2015 Accepted 14 March 2015 Keywords: Ecosystem-based management Intensive timber production area Moose Plantation Silviculture Thinning abstract Several North American jurisdictions are adopting new forest management practices that favor sustain- able development and biodiversity conservation, but that are also expected to reduce timber yield. In many regions, forest managers have identified areas of intensive timber production where spruce planta- tions and thinning treatments are to be used extensively. Concomitantly, wildlife managers are con- cerned that intensive silvicultural treatments will have a negative impact on sport hunting by modifying the behavior and abundance of game species. We evaluated whether an experimental low- density spruce plantation (1350 stems/ha) could increase habitat suitability for moose Alces americanus compared to standard high-density plantations currently used throughout eastern Canada (2000 stems/ha). We evaluated the effects of plantation type, pre-commercial thinning, and age class of plantations on proxies of habitat suitability and use by moose in a northeastern temperate forest of Bas-Saint-Laurent, Québec (Canada). We also considered various environmental characteristics measured locally and within 3.14-km 2 landscape contexts to explain spatial variations in use by moose among 540 sampling plots. Our results show that the proportion of stems browsed by moose increased with the number of available stems and decreased with vertical cover. The number of moose feces, an index of time spent by moose in sampling plots, was similar in both plantation types, but was lower in thinned and young (5 years old) stands as compared to unthinned and 15 years old stands. Variations in the pro- portion of browsed stems and the number of feces were not explained by broad-scale indices of food availability, density of edges between stands offering good cover and foraging opportunities, road den- sity, elevation, or the area occupied by plantations and naturally regenerated stands around sampling plots. Moose used low-density plantations significantly more than standard plantations for browsing, and these stands supported higher stem densities and vertical cover than standard high-density planta- tions on average. Low-density plantations offered good foraging opportunities for moose by allowing a large variety of palatable deciduous species to grow between planted coniferous stems. However, we found high inter-site variability in environmental characteristics following plantation, even among equivalent treatments. This suggests that forest managers should aim for particular stand characteristics (i.e. high availability of stems and low vertical cover) in situ rather than prescribing specific post-harvest silvicultural treatments (e.g., plantation types) to favor moose. We recommend the use of unthinned low- density plantations in northern temperate regions where the management objective is to maintain high moose hunting success. Ó 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction During the 20th century, the goal of most North American forest services has been to maximize annual allowable timber yield. In many jurisdictions, including Québec, Canada, this practice has persisted throughout the beginning of the 21st century, leading to a relative homogenization of forest structure and composition, particularly in intensively managed areas (Coates and Burton, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2015.03.034 0378-1127/Ó 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. ⇑ Corresponding author at: Département de biologie, Centre for Northern Studies, Université Laval, 1045 Avenue de la Médecine, Québec, QC G1V 0A6, Canada. Tel.: +1 418 656 2131/6917. E-mail addresses: mathieu_leblond@uqar.ca, mathieu.leblond.5@ulaval.ca (M. Leblond), christian.dussault@mffp.gouv.qc.ca (C. Dussault), martin-hugues_ st-laurent@uqar.ca (M.-H. St-Laurent). Forest Ecology and Management 347 (2015) 228–236 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Forest Ecology and Management journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/foreco