1. Habitat Management What is wildlife habitat management?
What is succession?
How do wildlife habitat requirements & succession relate?

2. Habitat Management
Habitat management & restoration, what’s the difference?
How do landscape factors affect habitat management?
What effects do exotic species & climate change have on habitat management?

3. Habitat Management What is Wildlife Habitat Management?
The deliberate act of manipulating wildlife habitat for the benefit of wildlife and people. (Yarrow & Yarrow 1999)
Credit:stpaulcareers.umn.edu

4. Habitat Management What is Wildlife Habitat Management?
The manipulation of the successional stage and physical structure of vegetation to benefit particular species, or assemblages of species, considered to be of high conservation priority, or other intrinsic value. (Ausden 2007)

5. Habitat Management What is Wildlife Habitat Management?
Habitat management also includes:
Manipulations to increase prey
Provision of nest sites
Control of unwanted plants
Minimizing effects of damage by humans
Herbivore control
Other artificial improvements
Conditions & the physical environment
Credit: naturalsciences.org
(Ausden 2007)

6. Habitat Management Wildlife Habitat Management
Succession
Process by which assemblages of plants and animals change over time in the absence of disturbance (Ausden 2007)

7. Habitat Management Succession Predictions possible
Progressive development/change of a biotic community
Replacement of species
Modification of the physical environment
Advances through a series of seres
Terminates in a climax community
Predictions possible

8. Habitat Management Succession Types of succession Primary Secondary
Credit: discovermagazine.com
Credit: forestryimages.com

9. Habitat Management
Succession
(City University of New York, 2008)

10. Habitat Management Succession Occurs in terrestrial & aquatic systems
Xerarch - on land; towards a wetter state
Hydrarch – in aquatic habitats; towards a drier state
Oligotrophic & eutrophic
Credit: fed.fs.us
Credit: erie-county-ohio.net

11. Habitat Management Succession Retrogression Acceleration
Opposite of succession
Replacement towards earlier conditions
Acceleration

12. Habitat Management Succession
Factors affecting succession & seral stages
Current vegetation
Surrounding vegetation
Past vegetation
Resource levels
Conditions
Disturbance levels
Stochastic factors

13. Habitat Management Rate & Direction of Succession Vegetation & soil*
Removal & disturbance
Herbivores (and Omnivores)
Credit: wildlifemanagementpro.com

14. Habitat Management Rate & Direction of Succession
Vegetation removal & disturbance
Physical disturbance events
Periodic large scale herbivory by insects
Outbreaks of disease in plants
Habitat management can mimic natural processes

15. Habitat Management Succession Mimicking natural processes
Prescribed burning
Grazing
Application of chemicals
Mechanical treatments
Credit: forestryimages.org
Credit: eih.uh.edu
Credit: E. Willcox
Credit: E. Willcox

16. Habitat Management Succession
Wildlife habitat requirements & succession
(Yarrow & Yarrow 1999)

17. Habitat Management Prescription
Succession
Classifying wildlife based on habitat requirements & succession
Class
Examples
Habitat Management Prescription
I: Climax-adapted species
Spruce grouse
Snowshoe hare
Pileated woodpecker
Protection
II: Species adapted to developmental stages of succession
Bobwhite quail
Cottontail rabbit
Grasshopper sparrow
Disturbance: logging, fire, mechanical treatments etc.
III: Species requiring a mixture of successional stages
Ruffed grouse
White-tailed deer
Mule deer
Protect or disturb to increase limiting habitat type
(Adapted from Bailey 1984)

18. Habitat Management Succession Class I: Climax-adapted wildlife species
More specialized in habitat requirements
Less adaptable to habitat change
Many rare and endangered
Hindered or extirpated by disturbance
Habitat management emphasizes protection

19. Habitat Management Succession
Class II: Species of developmental stages
Require temporary vegetation
More generalized in habitat requirements
Adaptable to habitat change
Credit: audubon.org
Credit: claycountyquail.com
Credit: uoguelph.ca

20. Habitat Management Succession
Class III: Species using a mix of successional stages
Most species in this class
Require habitat disturbance & protection
Credit: forestryimages.org
Credit: forestryimages.org

21. Habitat Management Wildlife Habitat Management
Habitat Management v. Restoration

22. Habitat Management Other habitat management considerations
Landscape factors (space & scale)
Area of habitat
Fragmentation
Edge effects
Surrounding habitats

23. Habitat Area Needed to Reach 50% Incidence (Ha)
Habitat Management
Landscape Factors
Area of habitat
Area sensitivity
Minimum requirements
Cost to manage
Species
Habitat Area Needed to Reach 50% Incidence (Ha)
Upland Sandpiper
200
Grasshopper Sparrow
100
Savannah Sparrow 10
(Vickery et al. 1994)

24. Habitat Management Landscape Factors Fragmentation
The disruption of extensive habitats into isolated and small patches (Meffe et al. 1994)
Credit: uwrf.edu
Credit: fs.fed.us

25. Habitat Management Landscape Factors Fragmentation types
Perforation - making holes in a habitat
Dissection - sub-dividing with lines
Fragmentation - breaking up into smaller parts

26. Habitat Management Landscape Factors Fragmentation type cont.
Shrinkage - decrease of size of patches
Attrition - loss of existing patches
(apc.tamu.edu 2008)

27. Interior to edge ratios
Habitat Management
Landscape Factors
Fragmentation
Spatial effects
Increase
Decrease
Patch density
Connectivity
Inter-patch distance
Interior to edge ratios
Boundary length
Core size
Total interior area

28. Habitat Management Landscape Factors Fragmentation Species effects
Increase
Decrease
Isolation
Dispersal of interior specialists
No. of generalists
Large home range species
No. of multi-habitat species
Richness of interior species
Exotics
Nest predation

29. Habitat Management Landscape Features Fragmentation Metapopulations
Importance of connectivity
Ability of species to disperse
Use of habitat corridors
Metapopulations

30. Habitat Management Landscape Factors Edge effects
Occur at margins of habitat patches
Invasion of exotics
Disease spread
Increased predation
Increased parasitism
Change in water levels & humidity (conditions)
Pesticide drift & fertilizer runoff

31. Habitat Management Landscape Factors Surrounding habitat
Interchange of individuals
Predation & parasitism
Proximity of other suitable habitats
Credit: mo.gov
Credit: forestryimages.org
Credit: fws.org

32. Habitat Management
Other considerations
Exotic species
Climate change

33. Habitat Management Exotic Species (plants & animals)
Compete with native vegetation & wildlife
Reduce habitat quality
Benefits & costs of control
Spread
Replacement
Re-colonization

34. Habitat Management Climate Change Effects on wildlife
Changes in climatic conditions at sites
Alterations to habitat requirements
Changes in the timing of biological events
Effects of adverse weather during migration
Loss of coastal habitats due to sea-level rise

35. Habitat Management
Climate Change
Mitigation & compensation

36. Habitat Management Climate Change Mitigation & Compensation
Facilitate wildlife spread to future climate envelopes
Linking habitats
Translocation
Changes in management practices
Credit: ia.nrcs.usda.gov

37. Habitat Management Habitat Management Management of succession & other
Meet wildlife habitat requirements
Compared to restoration
Effects of landscape factors
Effects of exotic species & climate change

38. Philosophy For what degree of naturalness should we manage habitat?
Habitat management approaches
To what extent should habitat management be integrated with other interests and values?
What consideration should be given to the cost of habitat management?

39. Philosophy What Degree of Naturalness? What is possible?
Increasing
Human Influence
Original Natural State
Absolutely Artificial State
Cultural Habitats

40. Philosophy
“We might, if we chose to spend the money, release each year millions of artificially reared birds, and thus “maintain” a supply of game in the quantitative sense. But would we thus maintain value? I think not.”
Aldo Leopold

41. Philosophy “How shall we conserve wild life
without evicting ourselves”
Aldo Leopold

42. Philosophy What Degree of Naturalness? Depends on goals
Effects on species present
Increases
Decreases
Colonization's
Extirpations
Credit: briansmallphoto.com

43. Philosophy Habitat Management Approaches
Featured (single) species management
Multiple species management
Biodiversity management
Ecosystem management
Intervention & naturalness

44. Philosophy Habitat Management Approaches
Featured (single) species management
Credit: wordpress.com
Credit: ebird.com
Credit: action.earthpress.com

45. Philosophy
Habitat Management Approaches
Multiple species management

46. Greater level of intervention
Philosophy
Featured & multiple species management
Level of Intervention & naturalness
E.g., Increasing food supply for wintering waterfowl
Artificially manipulate water levels
Sow favored foods within wetlands
Plant food plots on adjacent arable lands
Feed with grain
Greater level of intervention

47. Philosophy Habitat Management Approaches Biodiversity management
Level of Intervention & naturalness
Same as Ecosystem Management?

48. Philosophy Habitat Management Approaches Ecosystem management
Level of Intervention & naturalness
Preservation
E.g., Sandhill

49. Philosophy Habitat Management Approaches Ecosystem management
Resource management systems designed to produce essential commodities and other values to meet human needs and desires, and to maintain and enhance soil productivity, gene conservation, biodiversity, landscape patterns, and the array of ecological processes common to healthy ecosystems (UF SFRC 2009)

50. Philosophy Habitat Management Approaches Ecosystem management
Any land-management system that seeks to protect viable populations of all native species, perpetuate natural disturbance regimes on the regional scale, adopt a planning timeline of centuries, and allow human use at levels that do not result in long-term ecological degradation (MSU 2009)

51. Philosophy Habitat Management Approaches Ecosystem management
Integrates scientific knowledge of ecological relationships within a complex sociopolitical and values framework toward the general goal of protecting native ecosystem integrity over the long term (Grumbine 1994)

52. Philosophy Habitat Management Approaches Ecosystem management
Maintain viable populations of native species
Represent all native ecosystem types
Maintain evolutionary & ecological processes*
Maintain evolutionary potential
Accommodate human use*

53. Philosophy Habitat Management Approaches Ecosystem management
Ecological integrity
Restore or maintain key natural processes
Encourage keystone species
- Human dimensions issues
Credit: animals.nationalgeographic.com
Credit: maxwaugh.com
Credit: fs.fed.us
Credit: animals.nationalgeographic.com

54. Philosophy Habitat Management Approaches Ecosystem management
Ecological Integrity
Restore or maintain key natural processes
Disturbances (e.g., fire, herbivory, disease, etc.)
- Natural vs. artificial (mimic)
- Human dimensions issues
Level of control over grazing regimes
- Discrete periods
- Naturalistic
- Rewilded
Credit: travelblog.com
Credit:dreamsofafricsafaris.co.ke

55. Philosophy Habitat Management Approaches Ecosystem management
Ecological integrity
Restore or maintain key natural processes
Systems dissimilar to natural state – is it possbile?
- Land-use history & change
Credit: dnrc.mt.gov
Credit: tour.com.au

56. Philosophy Integrating Habitat Management with Other Interests
Recreation
Education & research
Landscape & aesthetic considerations
Cultural history
Resource use
Wider environmental benefits

57. Philosophy Cost of Management
Level of intervention & degree of naturalness

58. Philosophy Habitat Management Degree of naturalness
Habitat management approaches
Extent of integration
Consideration of cost