Sound Solutions for Habitat Monitoring

[Cara J]

From the spring issue of The Wildlife Professional. New USFS technical guide offers strategies and tips For agencies and organizations to effectively manage wildlife, knowledge about the status and trend of wildlife habitat is critical. Traditional wildlife monitoring, however, has focused on populations rather than habitat, because ultimately population status drives long-term species viability. Still, habitat loss has contributed to the decline of nearly all at-risk species (Swift and Hannon 2010) and, as a result, monitoring the amount and quality of habitat can guide recovery efforts for wildlife species with declining trends such as greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) or the northern long-eared bat (Myotis septentrionalis). Image Credit: Tom Kogut Photography To help managers dial in on habitats, the U.S. Forest Service recently released a technical guide for monitoring wildlife habitat (Rowland and Vojta 2013) — one in a series of USFS technical guides and perhaps the first compendium solely dedicated to monitoring wildlife habitat. While land managers and conservation organizations have abundant information on monitoring populations (Manley et al. 2006, Vesely et al. 2006, McComb et al. 2010), the technical guide complements these resources by offering similar guidance on habitat monitoring. The guide was written by a technical team of [...]

 

Read more: http://wildlife.org/sound-solutions-for-habitat-monitoring/