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Mule Deer Management in Southeastern Montana
Get PDFIn 1982, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Region 7 implemented a five week regionwide general license either-sex plus additional antlerless B license harvest structure for mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus). This harvest strategy implemented three important changes from previous years. First, the regionwide harvest structure eliminated the use of small hunting districts and allows the law of diminishing returns to operate: hunters tend to avoid areas with low deer numbers and focus on areas with higher densities. Second, general licenses were made either-sex, rather than antlered-only for mule deer. Third, following natural population declines (e.g., due to severe natural stressors), biologists began increasing antlerless quotas soon after populations began to recover, rather than waiting until populations were at or above long-term averages. This management system has maximized opportunity and flexibility for hunters while simplifying regulations and enforcement. In the 30-plus years since implementation, Region 7 has seen a reduction in game damage complaints, and an increase in buck-to-doe ratios. Mule deer populations and harvest have been stable long-term, and population fluctuations have decreased in magnitude. This harvest strategy has produced similar results in both Region 7 as a whole (75% private lands) and on the Custer National Forest, a 436,000-ac block of public land
Grizzly Bear Restoration in the North Cascades of Washington
Get PDFThe North Cascades of Washington was one of 6 recovery areas where grizzly bears were known or believed to exist at the time of listing under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) in 1975. The North Cascades recovery plan identified the need for a National Environmental Policy Act process to evaluate a range of alternatives to restore this grizzly bear population. In January of 2017 the Draft Grizzly Bear Restoration Plan for the North Cascades Ecosystem was released for public comment by the National Park Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. This plan evaluated four alternatives for population restoration. Alternative A was “No Action” with continued existing management practices focused on improved sanitation, poaching control, motorized access, education, and monitoring to evaluate natural restoration. Alternative B was “Ecosystem Evaluation Restoration” which would transplant up to 10 grizzly bears to the North Cascades and monitor those individuals for 2 years before deciding whether to proceed with additional releases. Alternative C was “Incremental Restoration” in which 5-7 grizzly bears per year would be transplanted to the North Cascades to achieve an initial population of 25 individuals. Monitoring would determine success of the program and the need for additional releases of bears. Alternative D was “Expedited Restoration” in which 5-7 grizzly bears/year would be transplanted to the North Cascades until a population of approximately 200 individuals was achieved. All action alternatives possess an experimental (ESA 10j) population option. The draft document is available for review and comment through March 14, 2017 at: https://parkplanning.nps.gov/projectHome.cfm?projectId=4414
Restoration Plan for Sharp-Tailed Grouse Recovery in Western Montana
Get PDFSharp-tailed grouse are abundant east of the continental divide in Montana, however western populations were extirpated during the last century. Previous translocations of sharp-tailed grouse to prevent the collapse of western populations were unsuccessful. Interest in restoring sharp-tailed grouse to western Montana has persisted and spurred preliminary habitat evaluations of potential restoration sites. However, information is needed to inform recovery goals and develop a restoration program for the species in western Montana. At the request of Montana FWP, we developed a restoration plan that 1) evaluates the potential of identified restoration sites to support a reintroduced population of sharp-tailed grouse, and 2) describe actions needed to establish and manage a successful reintroduction of populations in western Montana. Our analyses of ecological and demographic requirements, suitability of available and potential habitat conditions, and population viability of sharptailed grouse indicated that a viable population of sharp-tailed grouse is likely not possible at identified recovery sites under current habitat conditions. However, population restoration in western Montana is possible with a concerted and sustained effort by multiple entities, and that the most suitable site for initial recovery efforts is within the Blackfoot Valley. We identified habitat limitations that should be addressed prior to reintroductions and developed prescriptions for population translocations and recovery, including protocols that minimize translocation-related mortalities, reduce movements away from the initial release sites, facilitate the quick establishments of leks, and assure sufficient genetic variation of founders to prevent genetic bottlenecks and inbreeding
Using Emerging Technologies to Bolster Long-Term Monitoring of Wetlands
Get PDFFreshwater wetlands support a disproportionately high diversity of species relative to other ecosystems and they are particularly vulnerable to climate change. Across Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks, wetlands represent just 3% of the landscape, yet 70% of Wyoming bird species and all native amphibians in the region use wetlands for some stage of their life. The Greater Yellowstone Inventory and Monitoring Network has monitored amphibians in wetlands since 2006 and found that over 40% of the region’s isolated wetlands are dry in years with above average temperatures and reduced precipitation. Adding novel technologies to these monitoring efforts will increase our understanding of species diversity in wetlands susceptible to drying. We outfitted three wetland sites in Grand Teton National Park with acoustic (i.e., audible and ultrasonic) monitoring technology and wildlife camera traps in summer 2016. We collected data over a four-week period to test the efficacy of automated technology for wetland monitoring. Based on preliminary results from the ultrasonic monitoring and wildlife cameras, we detected four times more species with these tools, when compared to visual surveys of amphibians alone. Additionally, automated methods allowed us to detect species over a longer time window than feasible with visual surveys. We will continue our work in 2017, using environmental DNA, acoustic monitoring, and wildlife camera traps to capture information about a broader diversity of taxa using wetlands, to expand and enrich current monitoring efforts
Mentorship: Making It Work
Get PDFThis article is based on a presentation given at the 2016 Pacific Northwest Library Conference in Calgary, Alberta. The authors examined mentoring best prac-tices and provided analysis of a mentoring program offered through a small library association in Alberta, Canada
Editor's Column
Get PDFThis is my first issue as PNLA Quarterly Editor; please allow me to introduce myself. I am a Past Pres-ident of PNLA and frequent PNLA Conference presenter and this association is dear to me. PNLA has a ‘vibe’ unlike any other group I have belonged to, and when the call for editor applications went out shortly after I moved away from a position at the University of Montana to a new job in coastal Wash-ington State, I had some time to fill and the drive to serve the association. I have been writing and edit-ing throughout my career in librarianship and am thoroughly enjoying the opportunity to engage with authors across the region in this new role
Physical Literacy in the Library Or, how we ended up loaning out rubber chickens
Get PDFWe must consider the reality: most Canadian children are not receiving the required amount of daily physical activity for healthy development. Seven percent of five- to eleven-year-olds and four per cent of 12- to 17-year-olds in Canada meeting recommended guidelines of 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous activity daily. Canadian adults are not participating in the required amount of weekly physical activity to maintain health (150 minutes per week). Canadian children have insufficient skill levels to participate in everyday physical activity (biking, running, jumping, playground games and equipment). WE have a public health issue -- and the PUBLIC library can help
Who Needs Public Libraries? A community-based approach to a decades old debate
Get PDFThis paper explores the common and long-held idea that public libraries will soon become irrelevant in the digital age. Unlike the majority of the literature published about this subject, however, it does not argue that libraries need to “lose the books” (Lafrance, 2015), nor that librarians need to become “become a hipper crowdof shushers” (Jesella, 2007). Instead, it contends that public libraries and librarians need only look to their communities in order to remain relevant through any societal or technological changes
Genetic Population Structure of Mule Deer Odocoileus Hemionus Across Montana
Get PDFWe conducted a genetic assessment of mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) population structure across Montana in an effort to understand dispersal routes across the landscape. To assess genetic structure we genotyped 14 microsatellite loci in 359 individuals sampled primarily within Montana. Smaller samples were included from Wyoming, Colorado and Utah in order to provide a regional context for the levels of population structure observed within Montana. Additionally, we sequenced the control region of the mitochondrial genome of 76 individuals subsampled from our original samples across Montana. To avoid potential influences of a priori population designations, individual based analyses were used to test relatedness across the landscape. Weak isolation by distance characterized mule deer individuals across this region. In addition, we did not detect any evidence of spatial autocorrelation in discrete distance classes as small as 10 km. Female mule deer had higher average individual pairwise genetic distances than males, indicating the presence of a contemporary male bias in dispersal rates. Mitochondrial DNA indicated the potential for either reduced overall or female-specific dispersal between a subset of the sampling regions within Montana. Finally, we were unable to detect a genetic signature of past translocations of mule deer across Montana. Taken together these results indicate that within this landscape mule deer populations are characterized by high levels of connectivity and experience few, if any, barriers to dispersal
How Well Can We Predict Wildlife Corridors? Tests of Alternative Modeling Approaches in Migratory Elk and Dispersing Wolverines
Get PDFLandscape connectivity has become a key focus of conservation biology as natural habitat is increasingly fragmented by human land use. Several landscape modeling approaches are now relied upon to identify likely dispersal and migration corridors and guide conservation planning. However, the predictive accuracy of these methods has seen limited testing against empirical movement data, which limits confidence in their utility and confuses selection of appropriate methods for a given application. To address these issues, we used GPS collar data from migrating elk and dispersing wolverines to evaluate the ability of common modeling approaches (cost-distance/least-cost path models and circuit theory models) to predict observed movement routes. While both methods made generally similar predictions, cost-distance models consistently outperformed circuit theory models, and predictive success was much higher for elk than for wolverine movements. Furthermore, the form and complexity of underlying landscape resistance maps influenced model performance and revealed unforeseen differences between models. These findings illustrate that corridor model performance depends greatly on focal species and landscape characteristics as well as selection of appropriate methods for the application at hand