Benefit or ecological trap? Monitoring the effects of small clear‐cuts on capercaillie <i>Tetrao urogallus</i> and its mammalian predators

The shift to ‘close to nature forestry' as the dominating forestry regime in western‐European forests has resulted in increasing timber volume and denser forests with negative effects on photophilic species. Hence, there is an increasing focus on active habitat management measures to support these species. To guarantee that the measures prove beneficial to the target species, it is essential to evaluate both their benefits as well as possible negative effects. However, while species' population trends are often well‐studied, rigorous monitoring schemes for management interventions are often lacking. Here we applied a before‐after‐control‐intervention (BACI) study design over multiple years to study the effects of actively creating small clear‐cuts of up to 1 ha on the occurrence of western capercaillie Tetrao urogallus and its mammalian predators. While habitat management measures had immediate positive effects on the probability of capercaillie presence that remained constant during the five years after the intervention, predator presence did not increase in the years after clear‐cutting. Assuming that predator activity density is related to predation risk, this would refute the hypothesis that the intervention created an ecological trap. Our study confirms correlative studies indicating that the creation of small clear‐cuts in a closed forest matrix represents an effective measure for improving capercaillie habitats in Western‐European lower mountain forests, and contributes to a solid basis for science‐based, large‐scale management strategies to comply with international species conservation legislation.