What should we do to protect known populations?

Short answer

In this case the long answer is very close to the short answer. We know so little about the habitat requirements of individual lichen species, that prescription of buffer widths and other protection measures is mainly guesswork.

We do, however, have some general principles that can be applied to many situations of epiphyte habitat protection:

• Most rare epiphytic lichens are poor dispersers, needing relatively stable habitats.
• Many lichens thrive in "open shade," areas with plenty of diffuse light but with only partial direct sunlight.
• Many of the best lichen microhabitats are on the edges of "enforced openings," small- to medium-sized, more-or-less permanent openings enforced by areas of rock, water, wetlands, sand, or thin soil.
• Most epiphytes are suppressed by excessively dense young stands.
• Lichens in more exposed topographic positions (ridges, south slopes) tolerate more dense stands than in sheltered topographic positions (e.g. bottoms of narrow valleys, north slopes)

These principles need to be applied on a case-by-case basis.

To better protect the listed species we need long-term data on case studies and controlled experiments that contrast population performance in treated vs. control sites. Epiphyte experiments should not be an excuse for logging, but it makes sense to incorporate experiments into areas being logged anyway.

Based on observational and experimental results, we can continue to assemble information on listed species, expanding the list of protection principles (above), and refining them for particular species.

See long answer (Note: not much difference from long answer because of shortage of information.)

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