Journal of the Southeastern Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies

Catfish are highly regarded by recreational anglers as sportfish in some areas of North America and are intensively managed by fisheries biologists. Accurate population metrics (e.g., growth, mortality, recruitment, age, and size at maturity) are essential to manage these fisheries, which relies on accurate age estimates for fish in these populations. When otoliths are used for age estimation, they are typically sectioned or ground in a transverse plane, but otolith preparation prior to sectioning may differ. Browning otoliths prior to sectioning to help distinguish annuli has been used by some biologists, but there is a need to determine if this technique results in increased precision. Browning otoliths substantially increases otolith processing time; thus, it should only be done if it demonstrably increases aging precision.

Age estimate precision is essential for fisheries managers when evaluating age structure, growth, and mortality rates for fish populations; therefore, establishing the method with the greatest precision for a particular species is critical. We compared ages estimated from broken and whole otoliths of 693 bluegill (Lepomis macrochirus) and 432 redear sunfish (L. microlophus) from five small impoundments (6.5?101 ha) in Oklahoma. Bluegill ages ranged from 0 to 10, and redear sunfish ranged from 0 to 9. We observed high agreement and precision between readers for ages estimated using broken and whole otoliths for bluegill and redear sunfish (percent agreement=88%?100%; mean CV=0?5%; average percent error=0?3.5%). Although rare, when bias was observed, the ages of older fish (≥age 6) of both species were underestimated using whole otoliths compared to broken otoliths, and this was more noticeable when evaluating between-reader precision rather than final consensus ages.

Channel catfish (Ictalurus punctatus) x blue catfish (I. furcatus) hybrid fry production is variable and inconsistent in hatcheries, and there is sometimes an unsatisfactory reduction in the yield of viable fry that occurs during the final weeks of a spawning season. There are several possible reasons for these inconsistencies of production—this study investigates two: hatchery water temperature and the species of the parental male. Regarding water temperature, broodfish are often exposed to 30°-35° C temperature in ponds during the final weeks of spawning season in late spring, resulting in poor egg quality, hatching success, and fry survival. In this study, broodfish were held at optimal temperatures (26.6° C), and fertilized eggs were incubated at either 26.6° C or 32.2° C to approximate water temperatures of peak and latter part of the spawning season.

Research on alligator gar (Atractosteus spatula) has increased during the last two decades; however, assessments of reproduction, growth, and recruitment remain limited for reservoir populations. We collected a total of 562 alligator gar from Falcon Reservoir, Texas, in 2014 and 2018 to estimate onset of maturity, fecundity, timing of spawning, and growth. Additionally, we modeled the relationship between spawning habitat availability and strong year-class occurrence. Age of maturity (50% mature) was 5.6 years for females and 1.2 years for males. Fecundity ranged from 79,518 to 530,398 and averaged 240,183 eggs per female (SE=16,547). Timing of spawning could not be determined because minimal spawning occurred during our study years and only 2 of 191 mature females had spawned. Females grew faster and larger than males. On average, females attained 152 cm TL in 4.5 years, but it took males 9.1 years to reach this length.

Understanding the ability of fishes to tolerate low dissolved oxygen (DO) is important not only to our understanding of the ecology of aquatic systems, but also for flow management in regulated lotic systems. Historical flow management guidelines have been based on critical oxygen concen- trations and incipient lethal levels from just a few species, and data on nongame fish species are lacking. Here we quantify respiration rate, critical DO concentration at routine metabolic rate, and regulatory capacity across temperatures for five nongame fish species. Oxygen consumption patterns rep- resented a continuum between regulation and conformation, as ability to regulate was affected differently by temperature among species, declining with increasing temperature in blackbanded darter (Percina nigrofasciata) and increasing with temperature for banded sculpin (Cottus carolinae).

New supervisory biologists can find themselves tasked with operational responsibilities (e.g., personnel, budgets, procurement, safety) with limited formal training in those areas. This sometimes sudden role change can be jolting, but it need not be debilitating. Here we present information and guidance on various topics ranging from recruiting new personnel and conducting performance evaluations to maintaining a sound safety program as well as confronting legal considerations regarding personal and institutional liabilities for job-related issues. Often, your first task as the new supervisor is to oversee a recruitment effort to fill your old position. This first task is best accomplished by working closely with the designated human resources staff to meet all administrative requirements and deadlines.

Texas contains 307,752 km of streams, creeks and rivers, including 64,686 km of perennially flowing waters. The state maintains public navigability laws that ensure the rights of paddlers and anglers to wade and float many Texas creeks and rivers. However, private ownership of riverbanks limits the number of locations where the public can legally access those waters from land. To confront this reality, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) and cooperating organizations built partnerships with private riparian landowners to expand fishing and paddling opportunities on publicly navigable creeks and rivers. This was accomplished by securing and leveraging innovative funding sources to establish river access leases with private riparian landowners.

Hurricane Maria, a Category 4 storm with sustained winds of 249 km h?1, made landfall on Puerto Rico on 20 September 2017. The extreme precipitation resulting from this hurricane, combined with already saturated soil and the steep, mountainous terrain of the island, led to historic flooding across most of Puerto Rico. Reservoirs in many of the river systems on the island were preemptively drawn down in an attempt to absorb the volume of floodwaters but were quickly overwhelmed. Since many of these reservoirs had been the focus of previous studies, a rare opportunity arose to evaluate how extreme flooding affects lentic systems. We sampled seven of Puerto Rico?s 13 large reservoirs in April and May 2018 using previously-used, published methodologies to compare pre- and post-hurricane characteristics of water quality and fish communities.

This project sought to classify 108 Oklahoma impoundments based on water quality as well as determine if water-quality parameters in these impoundments influenced the relative weight (Wr) of largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides), white crappie (Pomoxis annularis) and black crappie (Pomoxis nigromaculatus), and channel catfish (Ictalurus punctatus). Agglomerative hierarchical clustering and subsequent discriminant analysis of seven water-quality parameters resulted in the grouping of impoundments into three classes. Chlorophyll-a, salinity, pH, and dissolved oxygen were the most important explanatory variables (83%) in impoundment classification. Class-1 impoundments (primarily located in east central and southeastern Oklahoma) had low salinity and pH values. Class-2 impoundments (spread statewide with a high concentration in the central part of the state) had mid-range pH and mid to low-range salinity values. Class-3 impoundments exhibited higher salinity and pH values.

State fisheries agencies are increasingly conducting habitat enhancement projects due to reservoir aging and associated habitat degradation, and evaluations of the effectiveness of habitat introductions are crucial to ensure desired results. Artificial habitat structures built from plastics may last for decades, yet their effectiveness has been variable?possibly due to construction materials,shape, and placement. During 2014 and 2016, we compared fish use of artificial structures built from two plastic types (PVC and plastic mesh) deployed in clustered or linear configurations in Sam Rayburn Reservoir, Texas, and we also compared methods (scuba versus fixed video camera) for evaluating fish use of the structures. We observed 14 fish species and 11,078 total fish during the study. Six centrarchids (bluegill [Lepomis macrochirus], spotted bass [Micropterus punctulatus], black crappie [Pomoxis nigromaculatus], longear sunfish [L. megalotis], largemouth bass [M.

Trail cameras were deployed from 1 October 2015 through 30 September 2016 to measure angling effort at three lakes on the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission Sandhills Game Lands. Images were quantified via computer software and analyses were conducted to assess total angling effort as well as temporal (e.g., AM vs. PM, weekday vs. weekend, and seasonal effort), angling method (boat vs. bank), and demographic (male vs. female, youth vs. adult) calculations. Indian Camp Lake was the most used site by anglers throughout the study (1640.3 ± 32.2 angler-h) followed by Crappie Lake (675.0 ± 14.9 angler-h) and Kinney Cameron Lake (482.3±11.1 angler-h). Mean angler effort was highest in the spring at Kinney Cameron Lake and Crappie Lake but was equally high at Indian Camp Lake in the spring and summer. At all three lakes, anglers expended more effort on average in the afternoons and weekend days.

Impacts of feral hogs (Sus scrofa) on native plant and animal communities have increased as feral hogs have expanded in geographic range. Wildlife managers use a host of tactics to manage population growth of feral hogs, including recreational hunting with dogs. However, hunting with dogs can cause disturbance and behavioral changes to non-target species. We monitored 161 eastern wild turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo silvestris) over 147 days during 2014-2018 in South Carolina to evaluate turkey movement behaviors and range sizes before, during, and after spring feral hog-dog hunts. The average daily distance traveled per bird in the two-week period preceding hunting was 1940 m (SD = 899; range 158-10,048 m). Average dai- ly distances traveled decreased by 0.3% on days during hunts but increased 15.6% during the two-week period following hunts. Daily distance traveled decreased by 9% on hunted days compared to non-hunted days.

Sustainability of eastern wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo silvestris, hereafter turkey) populations following translocation is dependent on reproductive success. Extensive efforts to restore turkeys to east Texas using translocation have yielded mixed results, leading to low-density, fragmented populations. Dynamics of a translocated turkey population are dependent on the outcome of nesting activity and nest success which can be influenced by vegetative characteristics selected by females when nesting. Because translocated turkeys transition from natal to new habitats, understanding patterns of nesting activity and vegetative characteristics selected by nesting females are important to continued restoration of turkey populations. We translocated 78 female and 23 male turkeys from Iowa, Missouri, and West Virginia to southern Angelina National Forest near Zavalla, Texas, during 2016?2017.

Historically, Rio Grande wild turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo intermedia) in south central Texas have been at lower densities than in other por-tions of the state. Within the Oak-Prairie Wildlife District of Texas, Rio Grande wild turkey regulatory restrictions are different for counties in the east- ern and western portions of the region. Due to perceived increases in turkey density in the eastern portion of the ecoregion, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) considered increasing the bag limit in the Rio Grande wild turkey spring-only 1-bird zone counties to increase hunting oppor-tunities. However, if regulatory changes are to be considered in the absence of estimates of abundance and harvest rate, then estimates of demograph- ic parameters will provide the basis for regulatory decision-making.

The mourning dove (Zenaida macroura; hereafter dove) is among the most iconic symbols for hunting in the southeastern United States. Con-servation and management of this species is a priority for many state wildlife management agencies. Annual banding efforts are one of the main meth-ods used to measure survival and recovery rates, which aid in harvest management recommendations. We examined a number of dove captures using five different bait types over a two-year period in southwestern Louisiana and performed a banding cost analysis. We found milo to be the most efficient bait for banding new doves and total captures (newly banded doves and all recaptures combined), followed by browntop millet. Similarly, milo was least expensive bait per volume, most economical per capture, and yielded the most captures, with a cost of US$1.09 for each new band deployed and $0.25 per capture.

Mottled ducks are typically geographically separated into two sub-species: peninsular Florida (Anas fulvigula fulvigula) and the western Gulf Coastal (WGC) (A. f. maculosa). Between 1975 and 1983, >1,200 mottled ducks were introduced to coastal South Carolina primarily from the WGC range. A late summer banding program was initiated in 2008 within the Santee Delta and the Ashepoo, Combahee, and Edisto Rivers Basin in South Carolina to estimate mottled duck survival and harvest probability. We acquired 3,594 banding and 525 recovery records of mottled ducks banded between 2008-2018. We used the dead recovery model with Brownie parametrization in Program MARK to estimate annual survival (S) and recovery probabilities (f) among combinations of age, sex, year, and band material (aluminum or stainless steel). Annual survival was greatest for adult males (0.60 ± 0.03 [SE]), followed by adult females (0.57 ± 0.04), juvenile females (0.44 ± 0.13), and juvenile males (0.32 ± 0.07).

Species richness, abundance, and genetic variability often decrease in bird populations when their habitats are subjected to anthropogenic activity. Regular and early monitoring of genetic diversity can give researchers and wildlife managers insight into the genetic health of populations so that action can be taken before inbreeding, loss of disease resistance, and population declines occur. We measured genetic diversity in populations of avian species that are increasingly exposed to anthropogenic changes. We analyzed samples from 89 individual birds from three locations in Gwinnett County, Georgia. Samples were collected from a total of seven species, four migratory [myrtle warbler (Setophaga coronata), American robin (Turdus migratorius), American goldfinch (Spinus tristis), and field sparrow (Spizella pusilla)] and three non-migratory [northern cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis), brown-headed nuthatch (Sitta pusilla), and white-breasted nuthatch (S. carolinensis)].

Environmental and anthropogenic stimuli can impact a variety of species' behavioral ecology. White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) re- spond both spatially and temporally to various types of disturbance; however, our understanding of how disturbance impacts deer behavior is typically regulated to studies where white-tailed deer are the targeted species. We used GPS data collected from female white-tailed deer (n=10) to evaluate space use in response to small game hunting activities based on whether an individual was within the hunted area (actively disturbed) or outside (passively disturbed). We found that deer movements per 20-minute period did not differ between actively (59 m, SD=26.21) and passively (57 m, SD = 52.82) disturbed individuals. We also found no difference in home range (99% utilization distributions) or core range (50% utilization distribu- tions) size between actively and passively disturbed individuals.

Hunting white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) with dogs (herein, dog-deer hunting) has been steeped in tradition and controversy. Today in the United States, dog-deer hunting for white-tailed deer only occurs in nine states of the Southeast. We reviewed hunting regulations and primary literature, interviewed state-agency biologists, and simulated deer movements on national forests to investigate the current status of dog-deer hunting and develop recommendations for best practices to manage methods associated with the tradition. We recommend: 1) developing plans for consistent communication among agencies and stakeholders, 2) allowing dog-deer hunting where the practice is accepted culturally, 3) developing and enforcing permit systems to ensure hunter accountability, and 4) encouraging or requiring tracking and correction collars on dogs to reduce trespass.

Wild pig (Sus scrofa) populations have exploded across much of the southeastern United States. In order to combat increasing wild pig num- bers in an effort to reduce both ecological and economic damage caused by wild pigs, toxicant baits are being investigated as a possible method to reduce wild pig numbers at the local scale. In fall 2017, we tested the HogStopper? feeder to ascertain if this feeder design would deliver bait to wild pigs while preventing non-target species from accessing bait. We examined visitation rates at feeders for wild pigs and non-target species using both digital and video cameras. We had a three-week acclimation period (feeder doors remained open allowing free access to bait) followed by a three-week activation period (feeders were closed). Wild pigs visited eight of 10 feeders but fed from only one of these feeders during the activation period.

Te Central Georgia Bear Population (CGBP) is of special conservation concern due to its relatively small population size and isolation from other bear populations in the southeastern United States. Plans to widen Georgia State Route (SR) 96, which bisects the CGBP, have potential to negatively impact the population. Highway underpasses are being planned to mitigate these impacts. During 2012-2015, we captured and ftted 63 American black bears (Ursus americanus) with global-positioning-system collars and used remote, infrared cameras to document bear crossings along SR 96. We evaluated landscape characteristics associated with 212 bear crossings (210 documented via global-positioning-system collars, two with cameras) using a resource selection function approach and generalized linear mixed-models. We noted that bears were more likely to cross SR 96 where the highway bisected upland habitats.

Recruitment and retention of future conservationists are key issues for many natural resources agencies and organizations. Engaging chil-

We conducted a survey to evaluate 2003-2008 sales of private rural lands in Mississippi that were purchased for wildlife-related recreational

uses. Land parcels purchased (n=800; totaling 102,611 ha) were predominately forested (45%), followed by agricultural lands (26%), early successional habitats and recently planted pine forests (25%), and other lands (>3%). Hunting (99%) and motorized vehicle use (65%) were common uses reported on properties. Wildlife-related recreation accounted for an estimated 34% (US$1,566/ha) of overall value of rural lands sold. Cover types such as forests, and amenities, such as lodging and roads, increased potential recreational use and prices paid for rural properties. We speculate that demand and prices

paid for managed, high-quality properties that support wildlife populations for recreational use will increase with time. To better estimate value of rural

Each year the number of recreational visitors to southeastern national forests increases which brings new challenges for wildlife managers related to visitor activity and their potential effects of visitors on natural resources. This increasing visitation and recreation may affect species inhab-iting streams if these habitats are modified by visitors. North Carolina includes some of the last stable populations of a fully aquatic salamander, the eastern hellbender (Cryptobranchus alleganiensis alleganiensis). Few studies have assessed instream recreation (e.g., fishing, tubing, swimming) and

Aeration can circulate waters by disrupting thermal density differences associated with stratification, allowing homogenization of tempera- ture, oxygen, and other physicochemical characteristics within the water body. Use of lake and pond destratification as a management tool has been increasing in recent years, yet data are limited regarding its effects on fish communities. This case study examines the response of a largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides) population to destratification in a 2.4-ha pond over nearly a decade. Biomass (35.8–42.8 kg ha–1) and density (51–93 fish ha–1) of stock-sized (≥200 mm TL) largemouth bass were consistently low prior to installation of the system; however, biomass tripled (129.8 kg ha–1) and density quadrupled (334 fish ha–1) 3.5 years after system initiation and remained high for the duration of the study.