Treesearch

BACKGROUND: Lethal removal of invasive species, such aswild pigs (Sus scrofa), is often the most efficient approach for reducing their negative impacts. Wild pigs are one of the most widespread and destructive invasive mammals in the USA. Lethal management techniques are a key approach for wild pigs and can alter wild pig spatial behavior, but it is unclear how wild pigs respond to the most common removal technique, trapping.We investigated the spatial behavior of wild pigs following intensive removal of conspecifics via trapping at three sites within the Savannah River Site, SC, USA. We...

Most bat species depend on forests for roosting, foraging, and drinking during part or all of their life cycles. Many of the world’s forests are managed using a variety of silvicultural treatments and, over the past 40 years, researchers have studied the responses of bats to these treatments. I carried out a qualitative synthesis of the literature on roosting and foraging responses of temperate insectivorous bats to silvicultural treatments at the stand level to determine what treatments may be most compatible with conservation and to guide future research. Eighty-eight studies from...

Baiting is a fundamental strategy for the global management of wild pigs (Sus scrofa); however, little information exists on how anthropogenic bait affects wild pig movements on a landscape.We investigated factors that are important in determining the spatial area of attraction for wild pigs to bait (‘area of influence’ of a bait site) using data from Global Positioning System (GPS) collars and locations of bait sites.We monitored movements of wild pigs in 2 distinct study areas in the United States from February to September 2016 and used locational data using GPS collars to analyze the...

Functional responses describe how changing resource availability affects consumer resource use, thus providing a mechanistic approach to prediction of the invasibility and potential damage of invasive alien species (IAS). However, functional responses can be context dependent, varying with resource characteristics and availability, consumer attributes, and environmental variables. Identifying context dependencies can allow invasion and damage risk to be predicted across different ecoregions. Understanding how ecological factors shape the functional response in agro-ecosystems can improve...

Non-native species have invaded most parts of the world, and the invasion process is expected to continue and accelerate. Because many invading non-native species are likely to become permanent inhabitants, future consideration of species-area relationships (SARs) should account for non-native species, either separately or jointly with native species. If non-native species occupy unused niches and space in invaded areas and extinction rate of native species remains low (especially for plants), the resultant SARs (with both native and non-native species) will likely be stronger. We used...

Changing predator communities have been implicated in reduced survival of white‐tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) fawns. Few studies, however, have used field‐based age‐specific estimates for survival and fecundity to assess the relative importance of low fawn survival on population growth and harvest potential. We studied white‐tailed deer population dynamics on Tensas River National Wildlife Refuge (TRNWR) in Louisiana, USA, where the predator community included bobcats (Lynx rufus), coyotes (Canis latrans), and a restored population of Louisiana black bear (Ursus americanus luteolus)....

Many veterans returning from military deployment experience stress- or trauma-related symptoms that make reintegration with civilian society difficult. Nature exposure and outdoor recreation can be important parts of alternative and complementary approaches to reduce symptoms and build on veterans’ pre-existing strengths. Multiple outdoor programs now exist for veterans; many of these occur on federal public lands and present a variety of needs, opportunities, and challenges. This paper relies on interviews (n = 36) with public land managers, program providers and participants, health...

To respond to changing demands for outdoor experiences on public lands, managers and researchers specializing in outdoor recreation and tourism are calling for a shift in the way we think about, study, and manage recreation. New and updated conceptual frameworks and management tools are needed to guide agency decision-makers as they face complex and dynamic outdoor recreation management challenges. This article introduces a research strategy that seeks to align management needs with actionable research on sustainable recreation and tourism. We describe eight Research Focus Areas (RFAs)...

Elk are an iconic species in the Pacific Northwest. The animals are valued as a cultural resource by American Indian tribes, and elk viewing and hunting bring economic and social benefits to many rural communities. Elk forage on grasses, shrubs, and other early-seral vegetation. As timber harvests have declined on federal land in the region over the past 30 years, so has the availability of quality elk forage. At the same time, recreation and other public uses of federal land have increased. As a result, elk are turning to private lands for forage and refuge from human disturbance. This...

This resource update is a brief look at some of the basicmetrics that describe the status of and changes to forestresources in Mississippi. This information is based on fielddata collected using the USDA Forest Service ForestInventory and Analysis (FIA) annualized sample design, andit is updated yearly.The application that produced this resource update was developed using data from the USDA Forest Service Forest Inventory and Analysis database(FIADB): https://apps.fs.usda.gov/fia/datamart/datamart_excel.html .Tables for Mississippi, 2018 can be found here: https://doi.org/10.2737/FS-RU-258-...