The Alaska Science Center - Biological Science Office (ASC-BSO) is conducting a 2-year study concerning the health of spruce forests in the Copper River Basin of Alaska. Within the last 5 years, spruce bark beetles (Dendroctonus rufipennis) have infested and killed mature white spruce (Picea glauca) on over 500,000 acres in this region. Clearcut logging is ongoing on some of the affected lands to salvage the commercial value of the timber and to reduce fire hazard. Much of the beetle-killed timber is within or near Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, and some of the salvage logging is occurring on Alaska Native Corporation lands located within the administrative boundaries of the Park. Effects of beetle infestation and salvage logging on forest health, fish and wildlife resources, and human uses of the region, including subsistence, are not well understood. The ASC-BSO research will focus on how changes in the forest due to beetle-kill affect bird and small mammal abundance, productivity, and survival. The objectives of the bird portion of the study are to (1) document the current relationship between the distribution of breeding birds and the structure and composition of the vegetation in spruce forests of the Copper River Basin with varying levels of beetle infestation and mortality; (2) determine if productivity of breeding birds differs among forest stands with different levels of beetle-associated mortality of spruce; and (3) identify key vegetative features within the forests that influence avian productivity and document how these features are being affected by spruce beetle infestation. The objectives of the small mammal portion of the study are similar: to determine how changes in forest composition due to spruce beetle infestation affect small mammal populations. The primary species of interest is the red-backed vole (Clethrionomys rutilus). The study will compare vole abundance, survival and recruitment on plots of varying levels of spruce mortality due to beetles. The study will also examine changes in vegetative cover and berry and fungi production.