Journal of the Southeastern Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies

Radio telemetry has been an invaluable technique to study waterfowl ecology, but impacts of radio packages on ducks have not been experimentally assessed during the non-breeding season. We tested the hypothesis that backpack-style radios with 2 body harness loops influenced the body mass dynamics of 8-week-old captive-reared mallards (Anas platyrhynchos) released in Maryland in August. We attached mock radio packages and visual markers to 477 experimental ducks and visual markers only to 582 control birds. Half of experimental and control birds were released on a tidal marsh and received no additional care. Mean body mass of both experimental and control birds released at the tidal marsh decreased over a 3-week interval after release, but mass loss of experimental birds (10.2 g/day) was greater than controls (4.5 g/day). We released the remaining birds on a private Regulated Shooting Area (RSA) where grain was provided for several weeks after release.

Shrews are an abundant and important component of the mammalian fauna in central and southern Appalachian forested habitats. Because most soricids are small, cryptic, and difficult to survey, they typically have been underrepresented in research examining effects of forest management on small mammals. To assess shrew response to clearcutting northern hardwood forests in the Allegheny Mountains of West Virginia, we conducted a pitfall trapping survey during the late spring and early summer of 1998 and 1999 across a chronosequence of northern hardwood stand-ages from recently clearcut to those >60 years old. Capture frequency of masked shrews (Sorex cinereus), smoky shrews (S. fumeus), and northern short-tailed shrews (Blarina brevicauda) did not differ among stand-ages. Shrew captures were influenced more by differences in weather conditions between years and pitfall type.

The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission's Law Enforcement Division has been using covert law enforcement operations since 1981. Due to documented increases in illegal commercialization of fish and wildlife resources in the state, the Commission's administrators restructured the covert unit increasing the number of full-time and part-time officers assigned to perform covert tasks. Renewed covert emphasis resulted in an increase in funding and training for covert officers, concentrating efforts to identify, apprehend, and prosecute violators. From initial planning stages the need developed to create a search warrant team consisting of selected officers from wildlife law enforcement districts around the state. All Arkansas wildlife officers had experienced training in this area. But it was felt that the development of a special unit would result in a more effective and cohesive effort while hopefully creating a corresponding esprit de corps.

The role of conservation law enforcement officers in the last half of the 20th Century expanded from enforcement powers used to ensure proper wildlife and fishery management to that of fully-certified state peace officers. Today, Florida Conservation Law Enforcement Officers are responsible for enforcing all state laws and applicable federal statutes. Officers have traditionally been provided latitude on when and where to work, largely because of the limited number of available positions to patrol vast geographic areas. Urban sprawl and public expectation for prompt service are causing managers to question the traditional stance of allowing such latitude. To further explore this issue, 50 state conservation and marine law enforcement agencies were asked to provide information on their specific shift philosophy. Thirty-eight responded and provided further insight regarding shift assignments and effective conservation law enforcement.

A survey was developed and administered to a population of Mississippi conservation law enforcement officers in order to elicit demographic characteristics and satisfaction with weaponless tactics training. One hundred and four of 253 (41%) surveys were returned for analysis. Respondents were classified based on having <5 years, 5-15 years, or >15 years service. In general, officers with more experience were likely to find weaponless tactics training important but only moderately so. More experienced officers were less likely to find weaponless tactic techniques easy to learn and remember. Additionally, more experienced officers found the techniques for weaponless tactics to be less efficient at controlling aggressively assaulting subjects. Officers felt the number of hours received in firearms training and pressure point control techniques were satisfactory whereas training in other defense areas was less than adequate.

On 25 March 2002, an Alabama Conservation Enforcement Officer died of complications from a gunshot wound received while serving a search warrant. The Enforcement Section had no formal guidelines related to line-of-duty deaths at the time the officer died. Agencies should be prepared to deal with line-of-duty deaths and have formal guidelines in place to aid the agency in effectively managing the multitude of issues involved. Fish and wildlife enforcement is a high-risk profession and every agency has faced or will have to face this reality. According to the organization Concerns of Police Survivors (COPS), over the last decade an average of between 150 to 165 law enforcement officers died in the line of duty each year. By sharing these guideline for handling line-of-duty deaths, agencies will be better prepared to deal with this traumatic event in a manner which will minimize the trauma and aid in the recovery process.

In the 20th Century, white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) populations in the United States increased dramatically. In many states, management objectives for deer have changed from conserve and increase to control and decrease. Diversity among stakeholder's objectives for deer populations has made management difficult. Many states in the northeastern and midwestern United States began struggling with urban deer management in the 1980s, whereas southeastern states have only recently encountered this challenge. We reviewed written policies from Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia to compare urban deer management programs among these states. Our review was conducted via requests for written policies, telephone interviews, and website searches. There was substantial variation among these states in their policies regarding urban deer. Georgia and Virginia have developed management plans specifically designed to deal with urban deer.

This study assessed South Carolina youths' attitudes toward, opinions on, knowledge of, and priorities toward South Carolina aquatic resources and recreational fishing. A telephone survey was administered to youth between the ages of 8 and 18 in South Carolina during April 2001 to examine fishing initiation, motivation, and fishing participation rates among South Carolina youth. Overall, a majority of youth (91%) in South Carolina had fished at least 1 time in their lives and a majority (53%) of youth would go fishing more often if they could. More male youths participated in fishing than female youths in the past 12 months, and fishing participation and interest decreased as grade cohort increased. There was also a steady decline in interest level in learning about fishing as grade level increased.

Recognizing the need for a statewide plan to guide its future programs, Texas Parks and Wildlife (TPWD) commissioned this study to develop a comprehensive plan for TPWD to meet the natural and cultural resources and recreation needs in Texas through the year 2030. This publication focuses on Phase I of the study, which consisted of holding a series of 13 formal focus groups and 7 telephone surveys to understand Texans' opinions on and attitudes toward the outdoors, on natural and historical resources, and on Texas Parks and Wildlife and its programs. In addition to the general population, 8 specific constituent groups were surveyed: anglers (saltwater and freshwater), hunters, boaters, park users (day and overnight), outdoor recreation enthusiasts, and landowners.

Most studies examining salmonid diets and their relationship to invertebrate drift are confined to periods from spring through early fall. Invertebrate drift generally decreases from spring through summer and fall seasons and is greatest during diel periods of low light. Salmonid feeding efficiency is reduced under low light conditions and several studies have found them to feed primarily through the daylight hours. Drift feeding salmonids are also size selective. The purpose of this study was to determine if patterns of invertebrate drift and brook trout feeding seen during warmer times of the year hold during the post-spawning fall and winter for brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) in the central Appalachians. The general diel pattern of invertebrate drift and salmonid feeding found during spring and summer months in other studies was less obvious during the post-spawning fall and winter for brook trout. Total invertebrate drift density did not follow a diel pattern.

The objective of this study was to evaluate the use of a 508-mm minimum length limit in conjunction with a 1-fish-per-day creel limit to determine its effectiveness in improving the size structure of the brown trout (Salmo trutta) fishery resource in the Lake Cumberland Kentucky tailwater. The ultimate goal is to increase the number of trophy (>508 mm) brown trout within the tailwater. When sample sites were combined, a significant increase in brown trout CPUE was seen across years for all size-classes. The time required to detect this increase in trophy brown trout was approximately 4 years and was dependent on growth. On a site-by-site basis, however, variability between sites tended to mask findings of significance. Such variability may lead to important management implications when planning a large tailwater-stocking regime. This study has shown that the trophy regulation resulted in increased numbers and sizes of brown trout within the Cumberland tailwater.

In many Appalachian headwater streams brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) are the only fish species present. Land use practices or global warming can have a significant effect on the production and survival of brook trout in these streams. Managers must be able to evaluate the potential impact of thermal changes upon these streams and bioenergetics models represent a valuable tool in this effort. Here we present a bioenergetics model for brook trout and conduct a laboratory validation of the model. Model validation experiments showed the model to adequately predict the growth, final weight, and consumption of fish in the experiments. Growth and final weight were estimated within -1.4% (not significantly different than 0) and consumption was slightly underestimated, within -19.7% (± 7.5%) of observed values.

Brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) is the only salmonid native to the southern Appalachian Mountains. The range of brook trout within this region was greatly reduced during the 20th century due to environmental degradation and the introduction of non-native rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) and brown trout (Salmo trutta). Efforts to supplement trout populations and to repopulate streams in which trout had been extirpated also included stocking of hatchery-reared brook trout, the stocks for which originated from northern populations. Recently, molecular genetic analyses have demonstrated there to be distinct differences between brook trout native to the southern Appalachians and those found north of this region. In the present study, the genetic origin was determined for wild brook trout populations within 37 streams in the upper French Broad River system, Transylvania and Henderson counties, North Carolina.

Twenty-eight populations of brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) in Georgia were genetically compared using isozymes and their genetic relatedness determined. Eight populations (29%) were classified as southern based on fixation for CK-A2*122 allele, 2 (7%) populations were classified as northern based on fixation for CK-A2*100 allele, and the remaining 18 (64%) were northern-southern hybrid populations. All 8 southern populations shared some variant alleles with northern populations. Northern brook trout in Georgia had much greater genetic variation than southern brook trout, and hybrid populations were intermediate. Among the 8 southern populations and hybrid populations that are strongly southern, 2 major genotypes exist based on fixed or large differences at the sAAT-3* locus. Combinations of migration, non-random mating and selection are occurring, as many loci were not at Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium.

Brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) populations in the upper Shavers Fork, a high elevation watershed in eastern West Virginia, have been severely impacted by a loss of quality habitat. Successful restoration of these populations will require a comprehensive understanding of current habitat conditions at a watershed scale. We describe a statistically based habitat survey designed to quantify physical habitat conditions within the watershed at a range of spatial scales. Our study also addresses the following specific objectives: 1) to describe discrete hydraulic channel units that commonly occur in our study area, and 2) to identity statistical differences in the microhabitat characteristics among each of the channel unit types. We identified 5 recurring channel unit types within the basin: bluff pool complexes, riffle-run complexes, intermediate gradient riffles, low gradient riffles, and glides.

On 11 October 2000, approximately 946.25 million liters of coal slurry waste spilled from a Martin County Coal Corporation impoundment into 2 stream drainages in Martin County, Kentucky. On the same day of the spill occurrence, water quality was assessed and periodic monitoring has continued to the present by state personnel from Kentucky and West Virginia. The resulting damage to fish in the streams was the focus of intensive investigation by both the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources and the West Virginia Department of Natural Resources. In addition to water quality measurements (pH and dissolved oxygen) an assessment of the fish kill in Coldwater Fork, Panther Fork, Wolf Creek, and the Tug Fork River, was conducted. The loss of fish resources from the streams were calculated based on existing data, and American Fisheries Society monetary values were utilized for assessed value.

Many fisheries management agencies incorporate benthic macroinvertebrate metrics in stream assessment, yet concern exists over regional variability in metric sensitivity and the reproducibility of results over time. Two field experiments were conducted in Mullenax Run, Pocahontas County, West Virginia during summers 1999 and 2000 to investigate the sensitivity of benthic macroinvertebrate metrics to fine sediment and annual variation. Substrate composition of fine sediment (< 2mm) was manipulated from 0%-40% in 10% increments in 0.3-m2 circular trays arrayed in 2 sections of the study stream. The trays were allowed to colonize for 5 weeks in each year. In 1999, Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera, and Trichoptera, (EPT) taxa richness (R2=0.144, P=0.0031) was negatively related to increasing fine sediment while % Climber (R2=0.217, P=0.0019) was positively related to increasing fine sediment.

Benthic macroinvertebrates were sampled in July 2000 and April 2001 at 12 sites in the Smith River below Philpott Dam in southwestern Virginia. One riffle in each site was stratified into upstream, middle, and downstream transects and Surber samples were collected at 2 randomly-selected locations on each transect. Macroinvertebrates were identified to family and each sample was measured for wet weight. Family richness was calculated and simple linear regression was used to evaluate longitudinal trends in mean abundance and wet weight with increasing distance from the dam. We found low values of family richness near the dam but richness more than doubled by 4.2 km downstream. Mean wet weight and abundance of macroinvertebrates were higher in April than in July and Ephemerellidae proportionately dominated the samples in April. Overall, abundance of aquatic invertebrates in this tailwater was lower than expected for a stream of this size in Virginia.

Ozark hellbenders (Cryptobranchus alleganiensis bishopi) are large aquatic salamanders found in flowing waters. The abundance of this species is thought to have declined over the long term. What had been the most abundant population, in Spring River, Arkansas, appears to have declined precipitously in the last decade. The possibility of supplementing the population through captive propagation has been suggested, raising concerns about genetic issues. Random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) was evaluated for assessing genetic variability among and within populations of Ozark hellbenders from Spring River (Ark.), Eleven Point River (Ark.), and North Fork White River (Mo.). Six primers were tested, and all generated reproducible RAPD profiles. Forty RAPD bands were generated of which 20% exhibited within-population variation and an additional 5% exhibited between-population variation.

The voltage gradients of electric fields produced by electrofishing boats are important in determining sampling efficiency and the potential for injuring fish. We evaluated 10 electrofishing boats and found that 3 boats had malfunctions that could impact sampling or operator safety. The in-water voltage gradients were measured for the remaining 7 boats to make comparisons among boats and to determine the voltage gradients present during electrofishing. For all boats evaluated, the cathode was the aluminum boat hull, and the 2 anode arrays each consisted of 3-11 droppers (cables, chains, or rods; 0.6-1.2 m long) suspended from a boom in front of the boat. A grid (1.5 x 2.0 m) was attached to the anode support booms between the anodes and the bow of the boat; this grid facilitated measurements of voltage gradients in the portion of the electric field where most fish are captured.

We analyzed relationships between largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides) recruitment and environmental characteristics in Skiatook Lake, Oklahoma, from 1997 through 1999. Catch rates of young-of-year (YOY) were positively associated with inflows into the reservoir during the spawning season (April-May), whereas juvenile catch rates were positively related to reservoir releases during the post-spawning period (Jun-Nov). Abundance of juvenile fish in fall electrofishing samples increased from 1997 through 1999. No evidence of over-winter mortality was detected. Estimated swim-up dates for young-of-year largemouth bass were later each year from 1997 to 1999. Growth of YOY largemouth bass was not correlated with any of the measured environmental variables.