Philippe Cadieux

I study the effect of forest age on the diversity and abundance of cavity nesters. A forest is kind of like a big living organism: over time, it ages. Over the years, the forest changes. The trees and plants of a young forest are not the same as those of an old-growth forest. We call this process forest succession. Some animals prefer young forests, while others prefer older forests. This is what I evaluate: how this change is experienced by cavity nesters.

My playground is in Abitibi, 45 km north of Rouyn-Noranda. It's the teaching and research forest at Lac Duparquet. I look for nests of this forest's cavity nesters. I observe ducks, owls, flying squirrels and woodpeckers there. The latter have excavated the majority of the cavities used by the other animals. I value all these cavity nesters, because they represent an important part of the biodiversity of Quebec's forests.