Adaptive Management of Natural Resources

Contact:  Craig R. Allen,  Nebraska Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit
 allencr@unl.edu
        
Adaptive management is an approach to understanding the ecological and sociological elements and thresholds of systems through controlled experiments where it is not disastrous to fail. That is, adaptive management is designed to identify and reduce uncertainties and to use management and policy options as testable hypotheses.  Traditional resource management approaches have simply adopted regulations or implemented management without carefully monitoring for response and without explicitly determining alternative hypotheses of effect, and often fail to explicitly define explicit goals and objectives.  Initial successes from inflexible policies often end in irreversible failure, e.g., “policy resistance”.  Adaptive management, then, is a series of scientifically driven management actions (within policy and resource constraints) that use monitoring and research results to test hypotheses related to management and governance decisions and actions and incorporate feedback loops for modifying and improving future management actions. Adaptive management (and governance) is increasingly recognized as an effective tool for learning system dynamics where traditional replicated experiments are not possible.  Recognition of these benefits has led to the requirement of the U.S. Department of Interior to adopt adaptive management approaches. Unfortunately, adaptive management approaches are often misapplied or misinterpreted. This situation creates an enormous gap in expertise and an important opportunity.

Midwest Coordinated Bird Monitoring
Contact:  Katie Koch, US Fish and Wildlife Service, katie_koch@fws.gov and Tom Will, US Fish and Wildlife Service, tom_will@fws.gov

Monitoring for bird conservation assumes many auspices, ranging from status and trend measurement to setting population and conservation goals for species, determining the causes of population changes and ultimately informing management to make conservation decisions. In 2007, the North American Bird Conservation Initiative (NABCI) challenged partners to explicitly state management or policy objectives at appropriate scales, scopes, and intensities, coordinate efforts across spatial scales, and increase the value of monitoring programs by improving statistical design at the onset of developing a bird monitoring program.  Midwest Coordinated Bird Monitoring partnerships align various stakeholder groups to identify management issues, set conservation & monitoring objectives, design regionally coordinated surveys, and clearly articulate a data management strategy.  Coordinated bird monitoring isn’t just about the monitoring itself, but rather placing that information in a conservation context such that the information can INFORM management decisions.  For that to be effective, we need to give deliberate attention to who makes those decisions, what information is needed for that audience, and how best can we deliver that information. Through this symposium, we hope to promote advances in Midwest Coordinated Bird Monitoring partnerships and engage new participants.  We will demonstrate advances in avian monitoring that include regionally consistent monitoring methodology, programs that address traditionally under-sampled species, increased data sharing, storage and management capacity, monitoring to inform priority conservation issues (i.e., wind power, agricultural practices, sustainable biomass production, climate change, etc.) and evaluating the effectiveness of restoration activities throughout the Midwest.

Felid ecology and management in the Midwest
Contact:  Clay Nielsen, Southern Illinois University, kezo92@siu.edu, (618) 453-6930

During the past 20 years, studies of wild and feral felids [i.e., feral cats (Felis catus), bobcats (Lynx rufus), Canada lynx (Lynx canadensis), and cougars (Puma concolor)] have proliferated in Midwestern North America.  Feral cats have risen to management concern given their abundance and impacts on bird and small mammal populations.  Bobcat numbers have increased substantially in the Midwest and several states have resultantly reassessed bobcat status.  In the Midwest, Canada lynx are restricted to northeastern Minnesota, where their population may continue to rise given recent federal protection of critical habitat.  Cougar presence is also growing in the Midwest, due to dispersal of subadult animals from source populations in the West.  Given the numerous research efforts regarding felid species in the Midwest, and the importance of these animals for wildlife management purposes, a symposium is warranted discussing these topics at the 2009 Midwest Fish and Wildlife Conference.  My purpose is to present research topics regarding ecology and management of felids in the Midwest, including new studies and previous research.  I intend for all 4 aforementioned felid species to be discussed, including both longer-term studies and those of shorter duration.  Wildlife biologists and managers will receive information on a broad array of topics pertinent to felids in the Midwest.  I have already received commitments from several presenters, and expect to attract more given that the proceedings are to be published as an edited volume.  The North Central Section of The Wildlife Society has already committed to financially supporting this publication.

The Nature Conservancy’s Emiquon Preserve: Ecological lessons learned from a large-scale floodplain restoration effort
Contact:  Greg Sass, Institute of Natural Resource Sustainability - Illinois Natural History Survey, ggsass@illinois.edu, (309)-543-6000
 
The Nature Conservancy’s Emiquon Preserve is one of the largest floodplain restoration projects in the United States.  Prior to the early 1920’s, the Emiquon Preserve consisted of two backwater lakes of the Illinois River, Thompson and Flag lakes, considered critical habitat for aquatic and terrestrial flora and fauna.  Thompson and Flag lakes were leveed from the Illinois River and drained for agricultural production in the 1920’s.  The preserve was purchased by The Nature Conservancy in 2000 and restoration efforts began in 2007.  Due to the presence of invasive common (Cyprinus carpio) and grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella) within agricultural ditches on the property, rotenone was applied prior to allowing water to accumulate on the preserve to promote the reestablishment of aquatic plants that provide habitat for fish and waterbirds.    Due to recent wet years, wetland surface area at the Emiquon preserve has rapidly expanded from 240 to 1,620 ha.  The preserve has been stocked with native fishes to restore a fish community similar to that which existed prior to drainage.  In contrast to other Illinois River wetlands, submersed aquatic vegetation flourishes at the site.  Ongoing monitoring efforts to evaluate restoration successes and failures (e.g. fishes, migratory waterfowl, invertebrates, water quality, submersed and emergent aquatic vegetation) will be discussed during the symposium in order to guide future floodplain restoration projects.  Socio-economic policies of this multi-use restoration effort (e.g. fishing, hunting, ecotourism) will also be addressed.

Population regulation in black bass
Contact:  Cory Suski, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, suski@illinois.edu, (217) 244-2237

Black bass represent one of the most economically valuable recreational fisheries in the Midwest, and, as a result, are a popular study subject for researchers. Despite this importance and prominence, however, there are a number of critical information gaps that exist with respect to factors that control recruitment, abundance and distribution for this important fish species. The current proposed symposium would be titled “Population regulation in black bass” and would be intended to provide a forum for the sharing of current research findings examining the forces that dictate the abundance and distribution of black bass. Due to the breadth of this topic and the prominence of bass as a study species, it is believed that the symposium will attract researchers from a range of backgrounds that are currently working on the management, conservation and basic biology of black basses, with topics expected to span molecular to ecosystem scales. Talks will likely be both descriptive and experimental, and will include a range of academic, professional and governmental agencies. Following the symposium, attendees will not only have an improved understanding of basic biological factors that regulate the abundance and distribution of black bass, but also will be better able to use this basic knowledge to improve the conservation and management of wildlife populations across the Midwest.

Management of rare aquatic species
Contact:  Trent Thomas, Illinois Department of Natural Resources, Trent.Thomas@Illinois.gov, (217) 784-4730 ext. 230

The purpose of the symposium is to bring together professionals with an interest or charged with the responsibilities of rare aquatic species management. We hope to garner an exchange of ideas and/or accomplishments throughout the Midwest states that will promote an increased awareness, knowledge, or enthusiasm for responsible and science-based management of rare aquatic species. Rare aquatic species management is often under-funded and overlooked as a necessary part of management programs. As a consequence, management of this type is in its infancy in the Midwest region, and much of the work is being conducted blindly with a significant amount of trial-and-error if it is being done at all. This symposium will help gauge the work being done among the various states and provide attendees with ideas and additional knowledge to help them proceed with quality management goals for rare aquatic species in their charge.

Evaluating biotic response to instream restoration practices: Case studies in practice 
Contact:  Steve Pescitelli, Illinois Department of Natural Resources, Steve.pescitelli@illinois.gov
(630) 553-0164
 
Stream restoration has become a very prominent activity in recent years, not only through agency driven efforts, but also by private entities as part of commercial development for mitigation and to promote conservation design approaches.  While many different techniques for instream restoration have emerged, critical evaluation of these practices is often lacking or inadequate.  Determining the biotic response to these instream modifications is necessary in order to identify the most effective approaches and to provide opportunity for improvements, especially in terms cost-benefit analyses. Many funding agencies recognize this problem and are including monitoring studies as part of restoration grants.  It is important, therefore, that biologists and managers have proper training in evaluating biotic responses to instream restoration practices.  We will provide this training at the Sunday workshop including: basic study design principles, importance of pre-data and controls (review of BACI), selection of sampling site locations, considerations for target organisms and appropriate collection techniques, and determining seasonal and annual sampling schedule and frequency.   We will also provide training on statistical analysis including aggregate- and community-based methods, and selection of proper testing techniques, including considerations for study design, with an emphasis on examples from existing studies and literature review.  The symposium to be help during the conference will be an opportunity to present new work in this area and will re-enforce the training material through presentation of case studies related to evaluation of biotic response.   We feel this unique workshop/symposium approach will advance the area of study while providing needed professional training.