Darren A. Miller

Fire's stochastic behavior caused by vegetation, topography, and weather has caused concern and reduced use among landowners and managers. To better understand fire behavior in fire-absent forest stands, we examined fire characteristics relative to vegetation conditions manipulated with or without a prior herbicide application. We used six replicate stands with four randomly-assigned treatment plots (burn, herbicide, burn*herbicide, control) to assess dormant season burns with a three-year fire return interval. We measured fuel moisture and weather variables pre-burn, residence time, rate...

The “Bat Blitz” is a program of the Southeastern Bat Diversity Network (SBDN; www.sbdn.org). Blitzes are intensive surveys that sample the bat community in an extensive area. The first Bat Blitz was held in 2002 at Great Smoky Mountains National Park as part of the All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory organized by the Park. Since then, SBDN has sponsored five additional blitzes on national forests in five states (Arkansas, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee). The value of survey efforts at all Blitzes combined (175 sites) is over $262,000....

Recently, concern has arisen regarding possible effects of site preparation treatments, particularly herbicide use, on availability and quality of browse for white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus). To examine this concern, we quantified species-specific plant biomass of browse for deer in clearcuts site prepared with either prescribed fire (N = 5) or a combination of imazapyr with triclopyr and prescribed fire (N = 5) in eastern Louisiana during 2003-2005. Total biomass of quality browse did not differ between treatments, but was higher in years 1 and 2 post-treatment. However, stands...

The area of longleaf pine (Pinus palustris) forests have declined whereas intensive pine (Pinus spp.) silviculture has increased on the southeastern landscape. Because effects of differing pine management scenarios on bat community structure and activity are largely unknown, we used mist nets and acoustic surveys to examine these factors on mature longleaf pine and intensively managed loblolly pine (P. taeda) landscapes in southwestern Georgia. We placed mist nets over ponds, small streams, and roadside ditches and placed bat detectors in replicates of four vegetation types (open, closed...

Eastern wild turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo silvestris) are an important recreational resource throughout their range. Previous research has shown that intensively managed pine forests can sustain huntable populations of eastern wild turkeys. However, little research has examined patterns of spatial use of turkeys within these systems. An expected increase in acreage of intensively managed pine forests over the next half century requires a basic understanding of wild turkey ecology in these systems. Therefore, we used a long-term (1986-1993) data set to estimate annual and seasonal home...

Importance of invertebrates to growth and development of eastern wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo silvestris) poults has been well documented. However, few studies have investigated direct invertebrate use by poults, specifically in relation to alternative forest management regimes. Therefore, we measured invertebrate selection by turkey poults in thinned, mid-rotation loblolly pine (Pinus taeda) plantations, treated with factorial combinations of prescribed burning and a selective herbicide, in east-central Mississippi in 2000 and 2001. Using suction sampling and humanimprinted turkey...

Prescribed burning and/or herbicide applications are performed in managed pine (Pinus spp.) forests to control non-pine vegetation. Little research has examined small mammal or herpetile community response to these treatments in mid-rotation pine stands. Therefore, our objective was to determine prescribed burning and herbicide treatments effects on small mammal and herpetile communities within mid-rotation pine plantations in Mississippi. We established 4 treatments (herbicide only, herbicide/burn, burn only, control) with 6 replicates within thinned, mid-rotation (18-22 years old)...

Understanding space use patterns of wildlife may be useful to spatially plan habitat management options and understand how species use resources on a landscape. Spatial fidelity can be defined as the tendency of an animal to maintain similar space use patterns among periods of interest and can be described in terms of differences in dispersion of points and shift in central tendency. However, little information is available concerning spatial fidelity in wild turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo). Therefore, we investigated seasonal spatial fidelity of male and female eastern wild turkeys (M. g....

Nest success strongly influences wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) reproduction. Understanding selection of nesting habitats may provide information for management opportunities to increase turkey nest success. Therefore, we examined the landscape scale habitat selection of wild turkey hens during nesting. A logistic regression model with 89 nest locations and 89 random locations indicated an intercept term, elevation, and distances to mature pine burned ≤3 years ago and mature pine not burned within 3 years differed significantly (P<0.04) between used and random sites. Nest success was...

Home range size is an important component of wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) ecology. We estimated 95% convex polygon home ranges for gobblers and hens within biological seasons in central Mississippi. Mean home range size of gobblers (N = 97) varied from 607.1 ha (subadults during spring) to 809.9 ha (subadults during fall/winter). Mean home range size of hens (N = 127) varied from 97.2 ha (early brood) to 541.9 ha (fall/winter). Male home range size did not differ among seasons (P >0.05). However, gobblers tended to have larger home range sizes than hens, which likely reflected...