Poster Sessions, pages 567-640 - ICOET

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Pre-Assessment of Wildlife Movement Patterns in a Forested Habitat Prior to Highway Development: Prioritizing Methods for Data Collection to Couple Local and Landscape Information for the Development of Statistical Models Abstract Kerry R. Foresman (406-243-4492, foresman@mso.umt.edu), Professor of Biology, and Michael A. Krebs (406-243-4492, michael.krebs@mso.umt.edu), GIS Analyst, Division of Biological Sciences, The University of Montana, Missoula, MT 59812, Fax: 406-243-4184 USA In 2004 the Federal Highway Administration, Western Federal Lands Highway Division, presented a proposal to improve the roadway along the Thompson River in west central Montana connecting state Highway 200 east of the town of Thompson Falls and Highway 2 west of the town of Kalispell. As currently exists here, two gravel roads run, north-to-south, over a 40-mile length. This corridor supports denning wolves, has legal status as a grizzly bear corridor, has habitat which may be used by lynx, wolverine, and fisher, has large populations of elk, white-tailed and mule deer, moose, and bighorn sheep, and the river itself is a bull trout spawning tributary. Because of this, the Thompson River drainage was identified as such a significant wildlife corridor that a consortium of organizations (USDA Forest Legacy Program, USFWS Habitat Conservation Land Acquisition Program, Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks, and Bonneville Power Administration) allocated $34 million to place a conservation easement on this region. Initial plans were to pave this roadway to permit year-round travel and to reduce siltation of the Thompson River. Our research focus was to characterize the terrestrial wildlife populations along this corridor, to determine the most significant locations across which animal crossings occur and characterize these by local and landscape attributes, and to develop mitigation plans to deal with significant wildlife issues if improvements were to proceed. One of our primary purposes was to develop a model approach predicting wildlife activity to such studies for the FHA which could be employed in the future at other locations. Wildlife distributions were determined through the use of remote cameras (n = 583 sites monitored with replicates; >7,600 animals detected), permanent snow-track transects (n = 52; >18,000 tracks identified), and GPS radiotelemetry (specifically bighorn sheep; n = 9; average of > 4,600 locations determined/animal). Movement patterns were further studied by identifying roadway crossing locations (“hotspots” – n = 650), backtracking a subset of these and creating GPS layers, and identifying all locations at which road mortalities (n = 33) occurred. Local (25 m radius) vegetation analyses and habitat characteristics were collected in the field at 316 locations along the roadways associated with each of these survey parameters, and various landscape level attributes within a 1 km radius of each camera location were then derived using ArcGIS 9.0 from GIS layers supplied from the USFS Northern Region Vegetation Mapping Project and Lolo National Forest coverages. These include actual surface area estimates of dominant vegetation and lifeform type, vegetation size, canopy cover, ownership, and road and stream density. A 10-meter digital elevation model (DEM) and MODIS satellite data of the study area were used to generate topographic attributes of slope and aspect and estimates of forest cover for analysis. Using ESRI’s ModelBuilder geoprocessing environment, spatial data from individual camera locations served as inputs for a data model developed for landscape-level data extraction from GIS layers and subsequent coupling of local and landscape variables. One kilometer buffer zones created around each camera location were used to intersect with GIS layers. Summary tables of model variables were generated in a geodatabase, exported to a Microsoft Access database and merged with local variables where further derivation and calculation of predictor information could be accomplished. Once complete, a final table containing both response and local and landscape predictor variables was created and exported to SPSS/S-PLUS for statistical analysis. Three distinct regions along the 43-mile corridor were identified for separate model development. The southernmost region is largely characterized by steep, forested canyon topography; the central region consists of a broader, open, forested river valley, while the northernmost region is predominantly private agricultural land. As our primary response variable measuring animal activity along the proposed highway, we calculated the number of animal sightings recorded by each camera per 100 hours of camera time for each location (called Occurrence Index) and the number of tracks (by species) per 100 meter interval over each 1 km snow transect. Several regression modeling approaches are currently being explored including logistic, Poisson, and Ordinary Least Squares, depending on response variable distribution model fit and other procedural assumptions. Spatial correlation will also be evaluated using either ESRI’s Geostatistical Analyst or S-PLUS. Models will be generated for each region and their final selection will be determined using both cross-validation and various model fit criteria. Beyond their current application in this study, it is our further goal that these models representing contrasting landscapes will have a broader inter/intra-regional application for other similar studies in the future. Posters 600 ICOET 2007 Proceedings
Forest Service Back Roads: Utilization of GPS/GIS Technology for Acquiring Road Infrastructure Data in the Ozark-St. Francis National Forests Abstract Benjamin Gentry, GIS Technician (479-964-7200, bgentry@fs.fed.us), Ozark-St. Francis National Forest, 605 West Main St., Russellville, AR 72801 USA This presentation describes how one Forest Service unit uses GPS/GIS technology to update and maintain information regarding its road network. The Ozark-St. Francis National Forest (OSFNF) has developed an integrated field collection and GIS process method to digitally capture spatial and tabular information about travel routes, road features, travel route conditions, and other related features, to assist in land management planning activities and environmental assessments. The methodology draws from 5+ years of experience incurred by the Ouachita National Forest, The Nature Conservancy, and the Watershed Conservation Resource Center to inventory road locations and prioritize maintenance recommendations. These earlier activities were useful for updating Forest Service applications, or collecting variable for use in environmental prediction models such as WEPP: Road. Currently the USFS maintains road information in an Oracle database accessed through an application known as INFRA travel routes which interfaces with an Electronic Road Log (ERL) for conducting automated updates. This tool makes available changes to tabular information fields but does not support spatial updates to GIS data layers. The methodology described in this project is manual; however the intent is an expanded amount of highly organized tabular and spatial information, collected in the field, using a standard suite of hardware/software components. These features make this methodology appropriate for dissemination to other FS units, and could easily be automated as a one-click update tool. The OSFNF methodology uses Trimble Geoexplorer GPS units and a custom data dictionary for the collection and organization of tabular and spatial information. Post-processing methods that remove errors, correct for spatial requirements, provide QA/QC, and format the output products are clearly defined. This output is then migrated into applications such as INFRA travel routes; INFRA travel route GIS data layers, and forest specific datasets that accommodate related information. This methodology allows the OSFNF to maintain databases and GIS layers to the appropriate standards while providing an expanded dataset of road related features for land and resource management planning. The goals of this project are to increase the spatial accuracy of road related data and to develop a tool where multiskilled users can generate consistent outputs for this type of information. This project also seeks a method for updating tabular INFRA data and spatial GIS data layers simultaneously in order to increase the efficiency of field inventories. Ultimately, updating travel route information without ERL hardware requisites, increasing the intensity of field inventories, and achieving greater consistency will expand the OSFNF capabilities for conducting environmental assessments and opportunity analysis. Bridging the Gaps, Naturally 601 Posters
Page 1 and 2: Poster Sessions Introduction Ecolog
Page 3 and 4: metamorphs. Road mortality is likel
Page 5 and 6: eproductive abilities and survivors
Page 7 and 8: that the strongest stimuli for immo
Page 9 and 10: hectic and substantial task of crea
Page 11 and 12: Forman, R. T. T. 2000. Estimate of
Page 13 and 14: Lehtinen, R. M. S. M. Galatowitsch,
Page 15 and 16: Sealy, J. B. 2002. Ecology and beha
Page 17 and 18: Abstract Assessing the Stone Marten
Page 19 and 20: Abstract Lessons and Experiences Fr
Page 21 and 22: The Salmon Resource and Sensitive A
Page 23 and 24: Environmental Scoping Application E
Page 25 and 26: Recommendations for future research
Page 27 and 28: Use of a GIS-Based Model of Habitat
Page 29 and 30: Effects of a Purpose-Built Underpas
Page 31 and 32: Background Major Objectives for Roa
Page 33: Iuell, B., H. (G. J.) Bekker, R. Cu
Page 37 and 38: Abstract Development of a Bald Eagl
Page 39 and 40: An Alternative to the Openness Rati
Page 41 and 42: Abstract Effectiveness of Black Bea
Page 43 and 44: Highway Median Impacts on Wildlife
Page 45 and 46: Taxa groups (largely based on Calif
Page 47 and 48: Long-Term Consequences of Winter Ro
Page 49 and 50: Abstract Effects of a Highway Impro
Page 51 and 52: Introduction Roadkill and Landscape
Page 53 and 54: The fact that we have never met two
Page 55 and 56: Figure 3. Valley grassland unit, an
Page 57 and 58: Abstract An Analytical Framework fo
Page 59 and 60: Abstract Measuring Gene Flow Across
Page 61 and 62: Introduction Wildlife Use of Open a
Page 63 and 64: automatically photograph animals th
Page 65 and 66: Our track plates did not find any s
Page 67 and 68: Abstract An Overview of Recent Deer
Page 69 and 70: Abstract Riparian Restoration Plan
Page 71 and 72: Relating Vehicle-Wildlife Crash Rat
Page 73: Simulation-Optimization Framework t

Poster Sessions, pages 567-640 - ICOET

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