Keyword: wildlife

Forecasting seasonal habitat connectivity in a developing landscape

Connectivity and wildlife corridors are often key components to successful conservation and management plans. Connectivity for wildlife is typically modeled in a static environment that reflects a single snapshot in time. However, it has been shown that, when compared with dynamic connectivity models, static models can underestimate connectivity and mask important population processes.

Evaluating methods for identifying large mammal road crossing locations: Black bears as a case study

Roads have several negative effects on large mammals including restricting movements, isolating populations, and mortality due to vehicle collisions. Where large mammals regularly cross roads, driver safety is also a concern. Wildlife road crossing structures are often proposed to mitigate the negative effects on wildlife and human safety.

Energy development in the Great Plains: Implications and mitigation opportunities

Energy is an integral part of society. The major US energy sources of fossil fuels (coal, oil, natural gas); biofuels (ethanol); and wind are concentrated in grassland ecosystems of the Great Plains. As energy demand continues to increase, mounting pressures will be placed on North American grassland systems. In this review, we present the ecological effects of energy development and production on grassland systems.

An assessment of vulnerable wildlife, their habitats, and protected areas in the contiguous United States

Although they are the foundations of most efforts to conserve biodiversity, protected areas in the United States have, historically, not always been located in the most important areas to accomplish this goal.

Wildlife habitat considerations

Fire, insects, disease, harvesting, and precommercial thinning all create mosaics on Northern Rocky Mountain landscapes. These mosaics are important for faunal habitat. Consequently, changes such as created openings or an increase in heavily stocked areas affect the water, cover, and food of forest habitats.

Wildlife

This volume addresses the wildlife and fish of the grasslands in the Southwestern Region of the USDA Forest Service. Our intent is to provide information that will help resource specialists and decisionmakers manage wildlife populations within grassland ecosystems in the Southwestern United States. The information and analysis presented is at a Regional scale.

Getting climate-smart with seeds: How a new software tool helps prepare landscapes for expected future conditions

Sagebrush ecosystems are a major component of western U.S. landscapes and they provide vital habitat to a wide array of wildlife species, including greater sage-grouse and pygmy rabbits. However, in recent decades, sagebrush ecosystems have been reduced or degraded by a wide range of disturbances, including human development, overgrazing, severe fires, and encroachment by cheatgrass and pinyon-juniper woodlands.

Ecological disturbance in the context of a changing climate: Implications for land management in Northeastern California [Chapter 6.1]

Ecosystems of the Lassen and Modoc National Forests depend on disturbance as part of the natural process. However, climate change, a source of disturbance itself, has also been changing patterns of other ecological disturbances, including the frequencies and intensities of fire, pests, and pathogens.

Integrating tribes and culture Into public land management [Chapter 5.5]

Many of the cultural traditions practiced by Native Americans were channeled from or associated with their experiences with the natural world. These traditions, in turn, served to inform land management practices that effectively maintained a sustainable ecological balance among people and land for thousands of years.

Community engagement in the decisionmaking process for public land management in Northeastern California [Chapter 5.4]

Revisions to forest plans, as directed by the U.S.