Journal of the Southeastern Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies

Since the 1987 federal listing as threatened of western populations of gopher tortoises (Gopherus polyphemus), tortoise population recovery and habitat restoration efforts have been implemented at Camp Shelby Joint Forces Training Center, Mississippi. We studied plant community and edaphic features around tortoise burrows and at non-occupied locations in 2007. We investigated relationships between burrow presence and habitat characteristics through decision tree and logistic regression analyses. Burrow occurrence was positively related to stem counts of woody plants and species richness of native legumes and negatively related to overstory canopy coverage and maximum tree height. Cross-validation procedures predicted presence of burrows for 91% of observed outcomes. Tortoise burrows were most often found on side slopes of sand ridges where overstory canopy coverage was <60% and conditions were adequate for burrowing, nesting, basking, and establishment of food plants.

We used camera traps to estimate detection and occupancy of radio-collared and non-collared red wolves, coyotes, and red wolf-coyote hybrids (Canis rufus, C. latrans, and C. rufus x C. latrans) in Hyde County, North Carolina. This pilot study was to determine these variables among species and compare them between private and public lands. Large canids occurred throughout the public lands sampled, but occupancy of radio-collared individuals was low (0.41). Estimated occupancy of large canids throughout the study area was 0.74 with an estimated detection of 0.05. Occupancy of non-collared canids was twice that of radio-collared canids, but detection was similar. Results of these pilot efforts suggest that our sample sizes (i.e., number of cameras) were too low.

Despite the research on lead (Pb) shot deposition and ingestion by mourning doves (Zenaida macroura), there has been no research to determine how management practices may be used to effectively reduce Pb shot concentrations in fields managed for dove hunting. For instance, no-till cropping systems could potentially lead to accumulation of lead shot in upper soil layers compared to conventional tillage practices. We measured shot concentrations in five publicly managed mourning dove fields in North Carolina to determine if concentration levels were significantly affected by tillage. We used a complete block design with 12 plots, each of which received a combination of the following planting and management treatments: three crops (sunflower (Helianthus annuus), millet (Setaria italica or Brachiaria ramosa), or corn (Zea mays)) and two treatments (till or no-till).

The number of studies evaluating the quality and content of many types of plans have grown in recent decades. Natural resource conservation plans have been included in some of these plan evaluation studies; however, no meta-analysis of natural resource planning literature has been conducted. This focus is needed because natural resource conservation planning differs from other types (e.g., hazards mitigation, urban planning), in that planners often come from natural resource backgrounds, must plan in compliance with federal and state planning mandates, and typically operate under the assumption that natural resources have a use value and are shared resources. We selected 10 natural resource conservation plan evaluation studies in peer reviewed literature, identified the plan components being evaluated and the methods used in each study, and compared our findings to two other plan evaluation meta-analyses in the literature.

Elk were introduced in 2001 to the Cataloochee Valley area of Great Smoky Mountains National Park (GRSM). In 2008, the National Park Service transferred responsibility for elk management outside GRSM to the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission (NCWRC). Expansion of elk outside of GRSM boundaries presents recreational opportunities for residents and tourists but also increases human-elk conflict and associated property damage, cost of preventive action, and administrative burden for NCWRC staff. Therefore, NCWRC commissioned an integrated biological, economic, and social assessment of the feasibility and value of maintaining a sustainable, hunted elk population outside GRSM in North Carolina. Biologically, we found that the projected population of elk would likely grow in areas where they currently exist, even with modest harvest rates of 4 to 6 males per year. This is probably because of a nearby source herd and large, less developed landscapes.

Reservoirs provide recreational opportunities along with water supplies, flood control, and hydroelectricity. Although recreational values are often considered in water management plans, reservoir regulators often lack data to evaluate the impacts of operations on fish habitat and recreational access. We partnered with the Brazos River Authority (BRA) and used reservoir bathymetry and side-imaging sonar data to investigate the effects of reservoir water-level changes on littoral habitat characteristics and boat access in 11 BRA reservoirs. Littoral area, coarse substrate, and submerged aquatic vegetation generally declined with decreasing water level. Availability of large woody debris in the littoral zone was stable as water levels declined. The magnitude of these responses varied among reservoirs, likely due to differences in reservoir morphology.

Increasing interest in conservation and management of alligator gar, a species considered at risk of imperilment by the American Fisheries Society, has made it important to ascertain angling effort and harvest for this species. Bowfishing is believed to constitute the majority of the recreational harvest of alligator gar, yet little is known about bow anglers and their fishing practices. To obtain baseline demographic and fishing information from bow anglers in Texas, we distributed surveys to 173 participants at three Trinity River bowfishing tournaments in 2011. We received 15 completed surveys for a response rate of 9%. In addition, we conducted an online survey of Texas Bowfishing Association members in 2012 and received 82 returned surveys, resulting in a 46% response rate. All survey responses were pooled for a total sample size of 97 bow anglers.

Paddlefish (Polyodon spathula) angling is popular among Kansas anglers, but limited to a few areas in the state. The most popular fishery, both in terms of angler effort and harvest, is located at Chetopa Dam, a low-water bridge on the Neosho River in southeast Kansas. This fishery, as well as other paddlefish fisheries in Kansas, is only open to recreational angling. As such, maintaining accurate records of recreational harvest are important for management purposes. We summarized data from the Chetopa Dam fishery as part of a mandatory check system for harvested paddlefish from 1992 to 2006. A total of 8892 paddlefish were harvested by 5882 anglers during the study period. Angler participation in this fishery was predominately by Kansas residents (94.5%). Total number of harvested fish and mean length of harvested fish differed among years, but no trends were detected.

Paddlefish (Polyodon spathula) contribute to recreational fisheries in 14 U.S. states, including Kansas. They are found in six major river basins in southern and eastern Kansas (Arkansas, Kansas, Marais des Cygnes, Missouri, Neosho, and Verdigris) during spring spawning migrations and are thought to persist in four of those (Kansas, Marais des Cygnes, Missouri, and Neosho) throughout the year. However, most data pertaining to paddlefish in Kansas exist in internal documents or institutional knowledge. Desire to best manage Kansas fisheries has resulted in a need to consolidate this information and develop a statewide paddlefish management plan. Recreational paddlefish snagging was first designated as a fishing season in Kansas in 1972 on a short stretch of the Neosho River below Chetopa Dam. Snagging seasons were initially unregulated but have since evolved to address various management considerations.

Increasingly, new innovative management approaches are being used in small ponds that contain largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides) and bluegill (Lepomis macrochirus) to increase the quality of largemouth bass fisheries. One approach is to stock additional forage fish. Threadfin shad (Dorosoma petenense) were stocked into two small Alabama ponds (1.9 and 5.3 ha) in 2007, 4 yrs after renovation and restocking with largemouth bass and bluegill (1:15 stocking ratio) to improve largemouth bass relative weight (Wr) and length distributions. Threadfin shad inhabited these two ponds for about 2.5 yrs before being eliminated by severe winter temperatures in January 2010. After threadfin shad became established, Wr increased for stock- and quality-length (203-380mm) largemouth bass, but not for preferred-length and larger (>380 mm) fish.

Age-0 fish sampling is an important tool for predicting recruitment success and year-class strength of cohorts in fish populations. In Puerto Rico, limited research has been conducted on age-0 fish sampling with no studies addressing reservoir systems. In this study, we compared the efficacy of passively-fished light traps and actively-fished push nets for sampling the limnetic age-0 fish community in a tropical reservoir. Diversity of catch between push nets and light traps were similar, although species composition of catches differed between gears (pseudo-F = 32.21, df =1,23, P < 0.001) and among seasons (pseudo-F = 4.29, df = 3,23, P < 0.006). Push-net catches were dominated by threadfin shad (Dorosoma petenense), comprising 94.2% of total catch. Conversely, light traps collected primarily channel catfish (Ictalurus punctatus; 76.8%), with threadfin shad comprising only 13.8% of the sample.

North Fork Hughes River, West Virginia, is a native muskellunge (Esox masquinongy) stream and is impounded by North Bend Lake, a 12.4-km long, 123-ha impoundment that serves as an important brood source for the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources. Muskellunge movement was monitored from 26 March 2010 through 2 January 2014 to monitor seasonal movements and to verify muskellunge migration through the outlet structure of the dam. Twenty-four fish were collected using pulsed DC boat-mounted electrofishing equipment and surgically implanted with acoustic trans- mitters. Six submersible data loggers were stationed throughout the lake. Data logger data were downloaded monthly throughout the study, resulting in 1,256,046 detections of implanted fish. Seasonal movement of marked fish was consistent during the four years of the study. Most fish moved throughout the entire length of the lake, and seven implanted fish left the lake through the outlet structure of the dam.

Rapid growth of black bass (Micropterus spp.) tournaments in the 1960s and 1970s caused concern among fisheries managers and anglers about the impacts of tournament-caused mortality on bass populations. Tournament organizers voluntarily implemented live-release events in the early 1980s. As catch-and-release practices became more common, procedures to improve the survival of tournament-caught fish were developed and have evolved. The objectives of this paper are to review education and outreach efforts to improve survival of tournament-caught black bass, suggest research needs and opportunities to achieve greater survival, and show the relevance of high survival to contemporary black bass management. Since 1985, a succession of informational products describing those techniques have been developed and distributed to anglers.

Historical eradication efforts, increasing fishing pressure, and growing anthropogenic impacts have resulted in decreased abundance or extirpation of the alligator gar (Atractosteus spatula) throughout much of its historic distribution. Current population status has prompted states to actively manage stocks; however, efforts are hindered by a lack of data necessary to make informed management decisions. To begin addressing these data needs, we investigated alligator gar population dynamics and exploitation in Choke Canyon Reservoir, Texas. A total of 754 fish (total length [TL] range, 678 to 2275mm) was collected with multifilament gill nets from 2008 through 2013; 656 individuals collected from 2011 through 2013 were tagged and released as part of a mark-recapture study to estimate abundance and exploitation. Alligator gar age ranged from 0 to 27 yrs.

In 2005, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission implemented a team approach to guide holistic management of Orange Lake, Florida (5100ha). In 2007, 2010, and 2013, we evaluated the lakewide composition of aquatic plant communities and quantified their habitat benefits for focal fish and wildlife taxa. We found that habitat conditions in Orange Lake varied with changes in water level and all three years exhibited an excess of shrub swamp habitat (400-481 ha) and a shortage of shallow marsh habitat (65-160 ha). Overall habitat value for the group of focal taxa was greatest in 2010, coinciding with the highest coverage of deep marsh and submersed aquatic vegetation (SAV). More than half of the lake was ranked as having low overall habitat value in 2013, coinciding with the highest coverage of floating marsh and lowest coverage of SAV and open water.

Gear catch efficiencies have a large effect on data collected to describe fish populations and communities used by managers to make informed decisions. We measured the retention rate of black crappie (Pomoxis nigromaculatus) and sunfish (Lepomis spp.) from a seeding experiment composed of 10 haul seines pulled at three lakes. Approximately 50 individuals of each group were marked and placed into closed haul seines, and fish recovery rates were measured. Retention rates ranged between 0.34 and 0.94 for black crappie and 0.38 and 0.89 for sunfish. Akaike's Information Criterion was used to select between alternative generalized linear models of recapture probability using site-specific environmental and sampling measurements as covariates. Our top ranked model for black crappie incorporated heterogeneity in fish retention across lakes with different sample area sizes, while the best model for sunfish included covariates for lake, size of sample area, and sample effort.

Low-cost unmanned aerial systems (UAS) have recently gained increasing attention in natural resources management due to their versatility and demonstrated utility in collection of high-resolution, temporally-specific geospatial data. This study applied low-cost UAS to support the geospatial data needs of aquatic resources management projects in four Texas rivers. Specifically, a UAS was used to (1) map invasive salt cedar (multiple species in the genus Tamarix) that have degraded instream habitat conditions in the Pease River, (2) map instream meso-habitats and structural habitat features (e.g., boulders, woody debris) in the South Llano River as a baseline prior to watershed-scale habitat improvements, (3) map enduring pools in the Blanco River during drought conditions to guide smallmouth bass removal efforts, and (4) quantify river use by anglers in the Guadalupe River.

Flathead catfish (Pylodictus olivaris) populations were sampled in three northeastern Mississippi reservoirs (Aberdeen, Columbus, and Aliceville) along the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway to evaluate stock characteristics. Specifically, data were collected on relative abundance, growth, mortality, recruitment, and size structure. These samples were part of a statewide effort to document current population status in reservoirs and to develop management goals. Sampling was conducted in late summer (July-August) during 2011-2013 using low-frequency electrofishing. All fish 250 mm total length and greater were aged using pectoral spine sections. Relative abundance (fish km^-1) was higher in Aliceville Lake (12.56 fish km^-1) than in Aberdeen Lake (7.54 fish km^-1) or Columbus Lake (7.37 fish km^-1), but length-frequency distributions, growth and annual mortality rates, and recruitment variation of flathead catfish were similar among reservoirs.

Crappies (Pomoxis spp.) are popular sportfish, but can be difficult to manage due to erratic recruitment and variable growth. In this study, we document the population dynamics of a white crappie (P. annularis) population in a small impoundment characterized by low predator density and abundant populations of several forage species. White crappies (n=301) were collected by electrofishing in October 2012. Relative abundance as indexed by electrofishing catch per unit effort of crappie was high (103.3 fish h^-1 ± 18.7 SD). A sub-sample was aged (n = 153) and growth was described by a von Bertalanffy growth curve as total length (TL) = 379.6 (1-e ^{-0.341[age + 0.769]}). Growth was considered medium to fast with crappie reaching 254 mm TL in 2.5 yrs. Mean TL of age-2 crappie was 231 mm TL, but lengths ranged from 85 to 365 mm TL.

In 1992, a 356-mm minimum length limit (MLL) was enacted on Kentucky Lake and a 381-mm MLL was enacted on Watts Bar Lake, two mainstem reservoirs on the Tennessee River, in an attempt to reduce exploitation and improve the size structure of the sauger (Sander canadensis) populations. The objectives of this study were to compare sauger population characteristics immediately following (1993-1994) and 15 years after (2008-2009) the regulations took effect, examine spatial and temporal patterns in growth, examine recruitment patterns in each reservoir using a recruitment variability index (RVI), and assess the current likelihood of overfishing. Saugers were collected with experimental gill nets in each reservoir and aged using otoliths. A Beverton-Holt yield-per-recruit model was used to simulate angler yields and estimate the likelihood of growth overfishing. Recruitment overfishing was assessed by examining spawning potential ratios under various MLL and exploitation rate scenarios.

Supplemental stocking of sport fish has been an important management tool used by fisheries management agencies, but published accounts of stocking success are infrequent. Both black crappie (Pomoxis nigromaculatus) and white crappie (P. annularis) have been stocked throughout the southeastern United States with over one million stocked annually in Arkansas alone. Stocking contribution was determined for six impoundments that ranged in size from 58 to 503 ha. In October 2010 and 2011, crappies were marked with oxytetracycline hydrochloride and stocked at rates that ranged from 53 to 246 fish ha^-1. Age-0 crappies were collected using trap nets each month for three months following the 2010 stocking but size selective gear bias precluded accurate short-term contribution estimates. Trap net collections in 2011 and 2012 produced no marked age-1 crappies in any impoundment.

Relatively few studies have been conducted for white bass (Morone chrysops) populations in large river impoundments. Our study focused on population characteristics of white bass in Kentucky Lake, a mainstem impoundment of the Tennessee River. A total of 994 fish were collected using electrofishing during April 2006 and 2007 to evaluate age, growth, and mortality. Kentucky Lake white bass exhibited relatively fast growth compared to previously studied populations. Females were already larger than males by age-1 and continued to grow faster than males; both genders were sexually mature by age-2 when complete recruitment to the fishery occurred. Mortality did not differ between males and females and the pooled annual mortality rate (A) was 45%-46% each year. Beverton-Holt equilibrium yield models were used to evaluate the potential for minimum-length limits (MLL; 254 mm [no MLL], 279 mm, 305 mm, and 305 mm) to increase yield and harvest potential in the population.

Rice and natural seeds are important foods for waterfowl in rice growing regions such as the Gulf Coast Prairies of Louisiana and Texas. We conducted a study from August-November 2010 and collected 2,250 soil cores in 50 farmed and 50 idle rice fields in the Louisiana Chenier Plain (CP) and Texas Mid-Coast (TMC) to estimate biomass of waste rice and natural seeds. Estimates are necessary to assess carrying capacity for waterfowl in this region by the Gulf Coast Joint Venture. Waste rice abundance was greatest in CP farmed fields that produced a second crop of rice (i.e., ratoon) and were not harvested in November (1,014.0 kg/ha; CV = 8.3%). Natural seed abundance was greatest in TMC fall disked idle rice fields in October (957.4 kg/ha; CV = 17.2%). Variation in rice and natural seed abundance in farmed and idled rice fields ranged from CV = 0.3%-97.9% in the CP and TMC, perhaps attributable to the variety of farming practices encountered.

Interest in hunting wild turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo) continues to increase, and agencies are challenged with balancing hunter access and activity with management of sustainable turkey populations. Understanding turkey hunter behavior, particularly on public lands, would greatly assist agencies with achieving this balance. We used GPS to track the movements of wild turkey hunters during spring hunting seasons of 2012 and 2013. We used 151 hunter track logs on the 1440-ha southern tract of the Tunica Hills Wildlife Management Area (WMA) located in West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana, to better understand turkey hunter behavior and space use. On average, hunters hunted 6 hours each day, traveling 5.9 km during a hunt. However, on average hunters stayed within 0.3 km of roads and access trails and the mean daily maximum distance from a starting location (parking area) was 1.5 km.

The mottled duck (Anas fulvigula) naturally occurs in two populations: one in the coastal marsh of the western Gulf of Mexico and another in peninsular Florida. A third, introduced, population occurs on the southern Atlantic coast in South Carolina and Georgia. Most mottled ducks in Georgia occur on Altamaha Wildlife Management Area, McIntosh County. In 2006, we began banding mottled ducks in Georgia using airboats at night and collected banding and recovery data from 2006 through spring 2014. We used Program MARK to estimate survival rates, Seber recovery rates, and Brownie recovery rates. We captured and banded 232 mottled ducks and received 47 band recoveries. Our model weights suggested that survival and recovery rates were mostly constant across time and age and sex class.