Journal of the Southeastern Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies

Previous research conducted at Mississippi State University found that non-industrial private (NIP) landowners in Mississippi can diversify incomes derived from their properties through the development of fee hunting enterprises. In 1998, revenues collected from fee hunting on Mississippi private lands ranged from US$2,964 to $5,254 on average per landowner or $7.50 to $14.28 per ha, depending upon the region. Net revenues averaged from $1,539 to $3,244 per landowner survey respondent or $3.90 to $9.54 per ha. Additionally, fee access wildlife recreation contributed an average increase of $808.73/ha or an increase of 36% in sales proceeds collected on lands sold in Mississippi between 2002-2005. Similar trends in fee access wildlife and fisheries recreation and land sales influenced by outdoor recreation have been documented in other southeastern states.

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. Blitzes are efficient, allowing collection of data in three days that would usually require an entire season of surveys. Blitzes also bring together bat biologists, students, and interested persons from across the nation (>20 states), providing opportunities for participants to work together in teams sharing ideas, information, and field techniques.

The state Wildlife Action Plans provide consolidated information for each state and territory and are a valuable resource for developing much-needed conservation partnerships and programs for natural resources. To better inform bat conservation efforts for the Southeastern region a review of the plans for the 16 Southeastern states was conducted. The goals of the review were to gain a better understanding of the status patterns and trends for priority bats for the region and to identify areas where multi-state and multi-species actions and programs may be developed that will enhance the outcomes for at-risk and imperiled bats. Collectively, over half of the 17 bats that occur widely in the Southeastern region are included in these plans as priority species. Nine species common to the majority of the plans were identified. Four of these are federally listed taxa; Myotis grisescens, M. sodalis, Corynorhinus townsendii ingens, and C. t. virginianus .

As part of the nation-wide state wildlife grants effort, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) created Florida's Wildlife Legacy Initiative to serve the agency's commitment to conserve all native wildlife and their habitats. The Initiative identified sandhill and scrub habitat as the highest priority terrestrial habitats based upon current threats such as development and altered fire regime. Following goals set by the Initiative, we identified an area of remnant sandhill and scrub habitat in southwest Alachua County and northeast Levy County, known as Watermelon Pond, for an ecosystem restoration effort termed the Watermelon Pond Conservation Cooperative. The goal of the Cooperative is to enhance sandhill and scrub habitats and improve ecosystem connectivity by working with private landowners to implement land management activities. The approximately 17,000-acre area contains a mosaic of private and public ownerships.

The Southeast Gap Analysis Project (SEGAP; http://www.basic.ncsu.edu/segap/) is part of the U.S. Geological Survey National Gap Analysis Program. The SEGAP includes nine Southeastern states (Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia). The main focus of this regional GAP is to develop datasets and tools for use in conservation planning efforts such as State Wildlife Action Plans. We present the Gap Analysis process including the use of satellite imagery to map vegetation, developing databases for modeling predicted species distributions, compiling land stewardship data, and identifying conservation “gaps” (areas of conservation interest outside the conservation network). We will highlight the results of the recently completed analyses for over 600 vertebrate species in the Southeast.

Foraging ecology of cerulean warblers (Dendroica cerulea) is not well studied, yet an understanding of foraging behavior and selection of foraging habitat is important for conservation and management. During the 2006 breeding season, 359 foraging observations were collected on eight study plots in West Virginia and four in Kentucky in a mixture of national forests, state Wildlife Management Area (WMAs), and private forests. We analyzed foraging observations to quantify tree species preference based on use versus availability based on a chi-square goodness-of-fit test. Cerulean warblers preferentially foraged in hickory (Carya sp.), northern red oak (Quercus rubra), and sugar maple (Acer saccharum), avoided American beech (Fagus grandifolia), basswood (Tilia americana), and red maple (Acer rubra), and used chestnut oak (Quercus prinus) and tulip poplar (Liriodendron tulipfera) in proportion to availability.

Fragmentation and loss of habitat at local and regional scales have been implicated as important factors contributing to declines of forest bird populations. Large-scale activities such as surface mining can alter the spatial configuration, increase edge:area ratio, and reduce overall patch size of forested habitats. These factors can negatively affect mature-forest dependent species such as the cerulean warbler (Dendroica cerulea). Canopy cover, canopy gaps (or amount of canopy closure), distance from large-scale edge, and aspect were identified as predictors of cerulean warbler presence and abundance in previous models developed for the central Appalachians, upper Midwest, and the Ohio Valley. Using classification and regression trees, we are developing region-specific predictive models for cerulean warbler presence/absence and abundance throughout the Appalachian Mountains Bird Conservation Region (BCR28).

Science-based monitoring of biological resources is important for a greater understanding of ecological systems and for assessment of the target population using theoretic-based management approaches. When selecting variables to monitor, managers first need to carefully consider their objectives, the geographic and temporal scale at which they will operate, and the effort needed to implement the program. Generally, monitoring can be divided into two categories: index and inferential. Although index monitoring is usually easier to implement, analysis of index data requires strong assumptions about consistency in detection rates over time and space, and parameters are often biased—not accounting for detectability and spatial variation. In most cases, individuals are not always available for detection during sampling periods, and the entire area of interest cannot be sampled.

In September 2005, Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) was confirmed in a 2.5-year-old male white-tailed deer in central Hampshire County as part of routine surveillance initiated in West Virginia in 2002. While awaiting confirmation of this first known occurrence in the state, the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources (WVDNR) initiated its CWD Response Plan. The goal of this plan is to guide decision-making in defining distribution and frequency of the disease in deer populations and attempt to prevent the spread of CWD to cervids in uninfected areas. In late September 2005, 206 deer were killed by sharpshooters and sampled for CWD within an 8-km radius of where the initial positive case was found. Four additional deer tested positive during this sampling period. Sampling 2170 hunter-killed bucks taken during the 2005 and 2006 hunting seasons resulted in one deer testing positive.

Hunting white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) with dogs is a 400-year-old tradition in the Southeastern United States. Today, this method of hunting involves using dogs, vehicles, and public roads to trail deer. Frequently, deer and dogs cover vast acreages requiring large consolidated tracts to keep dogs off neighboring lands. Conflicts among landowners, still hunters, and dog deer hunters in ascending order of intensity are: blocking of public roads, trespass to recover dogs, and trespass by deerhounds. During the 2002-03 hunting season, these conflicts escalated in four counties and resulted in regulatory proposals which eliminated hunting deer with dogs in those counties. Six other counties were likely to follow. Combined, this represented 25% of the opportunity for hunting deer with dogs. Faced with this reality, the Georgia Dog Hunters Association successfully sought a statutory change to mutually protect landowners' and dog-deer hunting interests.

Methylmercury is the predominant chemical form of mercury reported in the eggs of wild birds. The embryo is the life stage at which birds are most sensitive to methylmercury. Protective guidelines have been based largely on captive-breeding studies done with chickens (Gallus domesticus), mallards (Anas platyrhynchos), and ring-necked pheasants (Phasianus colchicus). Typically these studies are cost and time prohibitive. In the past, researchers have used either egg injections or the “sample egg” technique to determine contaminant effects on bird eggs. Both techniques have their limitations. As an alternative to the above methods and because most of the methylmercury is found in the albumen we have developed a novel, less invasive technique, to micro-sample the albumen of eggs in the field. An albumen sample would be analyzed and then compared to the hatching success of that egg. Using the micro-sampling procedure, the egg is oriented with the blunt end up and the pointed end down.

The National Park Service is dedicated to controlling exotic species if they interfere with natural processes or natural habitats, disrupt the accurate presentation of cultural landscapes, or hamper the land management. Morrow's honeysuckle (Lonicera morrowii) had invaded a 20-acre wet meadow at Fort Necessity National Battlefield in Farmington, Pennsylvania, providing breeding habitat for American woodcock (Scolopax minor). American woodcock populations in the northeastern United States have declined more than 45% since the late 1960s. This decline has mostly mirrored the loss of early successional habitat. In 2004 we began a project to develop a plan to remove invasive Morrow's honeysuckle from Fort Necessity National Battlefield, restore the native and historic vegetation, and at the same time maintain the woodcock and other wildlife species that occur on site.

The cerulean warbler (Dendroica cerulea) is one of the highest priority bird species in the eastern United States because populations have declined 4.3% annually during 1966-2005 based on Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) data. Habitat loss and fragmentation due to land use changes is thought to be one of the major factors contributing to the decline. BBS routes, the primary source for monitoring bird population trends, include 50 sampling stops every 0.8 km. Although data from BBS routes are extrapolated to determine regional trends in bird populations, it is important to understand the effects of habitat changes at the stop-level along BBS routes. Route-level analysis of habitat changes may mask important changes that are occurring at a smaller scale particularly for the cerulean warbler which displays several micro-scale habitat preferences.

The Appalachian Regional Reforestation Initiative (ARRI) is a broad-based citizen/industry/government program working to encourage the planting of productive trees on active coal mine lands and abandoned coal mine lands. Using a combination of private and governmental resources, the program will facilitate and coordinate citizen groups, university researchers, the coal industry, corporations, the environmental community, and local, state, and federal government agencies that have and interest in creating productive forestland on reclaimed mined lands. Forestry research conducted by various academic institutions has confirmed that highly productive forestland can be created on reclaimed mine land by using a Forestry Reclamation Approach (FRA). The Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSM) and the Appalachian region states have determined that this technology can be implemented under current state and federal regulations.

Coverboards are being used more frequently as an efficient method to inventory and monitor terrestrial salamanders. In summer 2006, we established a study to inventory and monitor salamanders at Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont, a residential environmental learning center located in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee. Our goals were to: 1) compare the effectiveness of two different types of coverboards in attracting salamanders; 2) compare salamander diversity and abundance between hardwood and eastern hemlock (Tsuga canadensis) forests; 3) establish a long-term salamander monitoring project; and 4) create a wildlife research project that engages children and adult volunteers as citizen scientists. We selected two hardwood and two eastern hemlock sites. We established five rows of eight coverboards, for a total of 40 coverboards per site.

We have developed a user-friendly geographic information system (GIS)-based, spatially-explicit decision support system (DSS) using red-cockaded woodpecker (RCW; Picoides borealis) habitat and population information to help land managers identify and prioritize critical habitat patches. Using state-of-the-art spatial modeling and GIS technologies, we coupled an existing, validated, and peer-reviewed individually-based, spatially-explicit RCW population model with actual landscape features in a user-friendly DSS format. Users can assess the effects of landscape fragmentation, habitat loss, habitat restoration, and “no management” action on RCW populations, now and into the future. The value of habitat patches is assessed through simulations of the RCW population through time, and value is measured in terms of each patches' projected contribution to RCW population parameters.

Using pentosidine levels in bird skin to determine how old they are is a relatively new method of aging. Up until now, previous studies have focused on analyzing skin from the breast. Current research is being done on analyzing patagium skin samples so that wild birds can be sampled without causing much harm to them. Fallon et al. (2006) suggested that the level of pentosidine is different in various locations of a bird's body. Forty milligram skin samples from the breast and patagium of 25 monk parakeets (Myiopsitta monachus) and 25 double-crested cormorants (Phalacrocorax auritus) were analyzed. There was a significant difference in the level of pentosidine when comparing breast and patagium skin. This suggests that it is important to consistently obtain samples from the same part of a bird's body when working on an aging project.

Riparian ecosystems provide many ecological functions critical to both aquatic and terrestrial vertebrates. Many anecdotal field observations indicate that upland forest harvesting may effect riparian ecosystem functions, yet the relationship has not been well documented, especially for wildlife. As part of the collaborative Dry Creek watershed study at International Paper's Southlands Forest in Decatur County, Georgia, we evaluated the effects of Best Management Practices (BMP) timber harvesting on avian communities occupying riparian corridors/streamside management zones (SMZs) in headwater streams of the Gulf Coastal Plain of Georgia. Using repeated visits to established line transects, we collected data during the breeding seasons from 2003 to 2006 to assess the relative conservation value of treated and reference watersheds and the spatial distribution of select riparian zone avifauna .

Canada warbler (Wilsonia canadensis), a woodland breeding songbird of special concern in West Virginia, has been declining throughout its range at a rate of 3.5% since 1980 (0.5% within West Virginia and 4.6% in the Allegheny Plateau Physiographic Region). While Canada warblers use primarily moist mixed coniferous-deciduous forest, they can be disturbance specialists at higher elevation locations in the southern portion of their range, including West Virginia, suggesting timber harvests might be an effective management option. The objectives of this study were to determine whether timber harvests are a viable management tool in an actively harvested industrial forest in West Virginia and to determine the effects of different timber harvest intensities.

Over 1 million people participated in wildlife-associated recreation in 2001 in Mississippi, spending a total of US $974 million. Research conducted at Mississippi State University (MSU) documented net revenues averaging from $1,539 to $3,244 (varied regionally) per landowner in 1998 for Mississippi non-industrial private landowners operating fee-hunting enterprises. Habitat management activities associated with fee access wildlife recreational enterprises benefit wildlife when integrated with existing land management activities. MSU research documented that bird species richness and abundance is higher on conservation agriculture field buffers (51 spp.) as to mowed agriculture field buffers (25 spp.; P < 0.05). Enterprises based on natural resources can enhance Mississippi's economy, help landowners diversify their revenue base, and help conserve the state's natural resources.

Osprey (Pandion haliaetus) pose a significant risk to safe military flight operations. A multi-agency research project was initiated to quantify the risk of osprey-military aircraft collisions in the Mid-Atlantic Chesapeake Bay Region. During the 2006 nesting season, six adult osprey (three males and three females) were fitted with satellite transmitters near Langley Air Force Base, Virginia. We monitored satellite-tagged osprey movement patterns and obtained the location of each osprey at two-hour intervals during 0500-2300 hours during the breeding and fall migration periods of 2006. During the breeding season, adult osprey flew at an average altitude of 63 m above the ground and were active (i.e., flying) relatively equally throughout daylight hours. During the fall migration period, four osprey completed their migration to their wintering grounds, traveling an average distance of 4,828 km. We lost contact with two osprey during their fall migration.

Various techniques are available to enhance wildlife quality in coastal wetlands. A new technique is terrace construction. Terraces are constructed by dredging shallow open water areas and piling the dredged material to form an exposed surface that are planted with wetland vegetation. Unlike spoil banks, which are continuous and rise above normal tides, terraces are discontinuous and flood at high tide. Constructing terraces gained popularity as a restoration and mitigation technique since the first terraces were constructed in 1993 on Sabine National Wildlife Refuge. Since then, terraces have been constructed in marsh ponds of coastal Louisiana and Texas to slow erosion of adjacent marsh as part of restoration and mitigation projects. Here we present the results of the first comparison of waterbird richness, waterbird density, and water quality between terraced and unterraced ponds.

Several studies have proposed the creation of seasonal wetlands for ensuring habitat diversity and providing connectivity for herpetofaunal populations. However, few published studies have addressed differences in faunal communities between constructed and naturally occurring wetlands and the role they play in supporting pool-breeding amphibians. We measured larval amphibian diversity within temporary pools of public forested lands in north-central Mississippi. We quantified larval amphibian species richness, abundance, and community similarities between four isolated, upland ephemeral pools constructed as water sources for livestock and wildlife species (>40 years ago) and six stream-connected floodplain pools. We conducted aquatic sweepnet surveys twice monthly for 27 sample periods over a two-year period. Fourteen amphibian species (1,038 individuals) were captured at upland sites and 12 amphibian species (1,141 individuals) were captured at floodplain sites.

Expenditures by hunters, anglers, and wildlife enthusiasts represent an important segment of income potential to most rural economies from natural resource-related activity. Research conducted at Mississippi State University (MSU) found that non-industrial private (NIP) landowners in Mississippi could diversify incomes derived from their properties through the development of fee hunting enterprises. In 1998, revenues collected from fee hunting on Mississippi private lands ranged from US$2,964 to $5,254 on average per landowner or $7.50 to $14.28 per ha while net revenues averaged from $1,539 to $3,244 per landowner or $3.90 to $9.54 per ha. Nationally these expenditures are echoed in direct sales from wildlife-associated recreation, which grew to $108 billion in 2001.

Spatial requirements and resource selection can influence home range size and use patterns. We examined seasonal patterns of home range size in adult fox squirrels (Sciurus niger) and gray squirrels (Scuirus carolinensis) at Piedmont National Wildlife Refuge in central Georgia. We used radio-telemetry locations (n = 3442) and fixed kernel methodology to estimate size of 40 seasonal home ranges of fox squirrels and 42 of gray squirrels. We determined site fidelity of an individual as the percent overlap between home range estimates in successive seasons (n = 17 fox, 19 gray). Males of both species had larger home ranges than females in all seasons. Male fox squirrel home ranges were largest in summer (26.5 ha) and smallest in winter (12.7 ha). Male gray squirrel home ranges were largest in winter (26.1 ha) and smallest in fall (4.6 ha).