Risks of Contracting Tuleramia from Wild Game

This document provides insight to what tularemia is, how it can be transmitted to humans through wild game, symptoms of this disease, and treatment processes that an individual should take if they become infected with this disease

Contaminants in Freshwater Fish: Guidelines for Consumers

This publication describes the health risks associated with consumption of contaminated fish, suggests how to reduce your exposure to harmful contaminants, and provides a link to information from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that will enable you to contact the appropriate officials regarding fish consumption advisories in your area

Specific Handling Practices for Processing Big Game in the Field

Why should hunters educate themselves about proper handling of big game? Annually, 10.7 million sportsmen and women spend 127 million days afield hunting big game. Meats of big game are a healthy and appetizing source of dietary protein. Hunters unfamiliar with proper handling practices for processing wild game, however, run a risk of contracting food-borne illnesses. Big game transported from the field to the freezer may become contaminated with bacteria during processing. Unsafe handling practices by hunters that lead to the contamination of meats usually occur along “critical control points.” An awareness of critical control points can help ensure that the meats hunters bring home are safe for human consumptio

Habitat Area Requirements of Prairie Wetland Birds in Eastern South Dakota

The influence of area and vegetation structure on bird use of 830 semipermanent and seasonal wetlands (0.2-217.5 ha) was studied to evaluate vegetative needs and habitat area requirements of 20 breeding wetland bird species in eastern South Dakota in 1995-1996. Vegetative preferences of species varied, but most waterfowl and nongame species occur e4i more frequently in wetlands with intermediate cover-to-water ratios whereas five over-water nesting or secretive nongame species were found in wetlands with greater coverage of emergent vegetation. The occurrence of four nongame species that depend on vegetative structure to support the weight of their over-water nests also was positively associated with semipermanent wetlands dominated by thick-stemmed emergent vegetation (e.g., cattail [Typha spp]). Upland land use influenced waterfowl habitat use as the percentage of untilled uplands was 10.4% higher near semipermanent wetlands in which dabbling duck species richness was at a maximum compared to wetlands without dabbling ducks. Despite the importance of wetland and upland vegetation, multiple and logistic regression analyses indicated that wetland area was the best single predictor of species richness and of habitat use by individual species. Fifty-five to 100% of explained variation was attributed to area (partial R2 = 0.10-.048) while the occurrences of 95 and 79% of species in semipermanent and seasonal wetlands, respectively, were positively associated with wetland area. To further investigate the importance of wetland area, I used logistic regression and probability theory to estimate area requirements of individual species, investigate the importance of small wetlands, evaluate potential effects of landscape type on species occurrence, and determine minimum wetland areas needed to preserve multiple area-dependent species. Smaller semipermanent wetlands were predominantly occupied by area-independent species and by species whose area-dependency (50% probability of occurrence) was low (0.2-4.9 ha), whereas larger wetlands generally had a higher diversity composed of species whose area requirements ranged from 0.2-164.8 ha. Lower minimum area requirements and higher average occupancy rates in seasonal compared to semipermanent wetlands for five dabbling duck species indicated that small seasonal wetlands provided extensive breeding habitat for upland nesting waterfowl. Small seasonal wetlands also provided habitat comparable to that of larger semipermanent wetlands for three species of breeding nongame birds. Occurrences of seven bird species that were positively associated with total area of semipermanent and seasonal wetlands indicated that those species were more likely to be found in wetlands that were near other wetlands compared to isolated wetlands. Occurrences of black terns (Chlidonias niger) and American coots (Fulica americana), which fluctuated in response to landscape structure, indicated that low wetland density landscapes composed primarily of small wetlands did not provide suitable breeding habitat compared to high wetland density landscapes that contained a mixture of large and small wetlands. Over the range of semipermanent wetlands surveyed, the probability of finding at least eight area-dependent species in an 8-ha semipermanent wetland exceeded 0.50 when area was used as the sole management criterion. Despite the importance of small wetlands to dabbling ducks and area-independent nongame birds, it was unlikely that any number of small wetlands, no matter how well placed within landscapes, could provide suitable habitat for species that only use large wetlands. My results indicated that attributes within wetlands (e.g., percent vegetated wetland area, stem structure of emergent vegetation) as well as landscape-level attributes surrounding particular wetlands (e.g., proximity of nesting wetlands to other wetlands, proportion of upland grasslands near nesting wetlands) influence bird use of prairie wetlands. To my knowledge, this study also provides the only empirical information concerning minimum habitat area requirements for wetland birds, a parameter which estimates the likelihood of providing for even minimum populations of individual species and is an important component in developing prescriptive management recommendations for wetlands conservation. The identification of five area-independent nongame species in this study indicated that every seasonal wetland, regardless of its area, represents valuable breeding habitat for some wetland avifauna. Large semipermanent wetlands (\u3e95 ha) embedded in contiguous tracts of upland grasslands were the only wetlands large enough to support breeding populations of species requiring the greatest wetland area. In parts of eastern South Dakota that are largely devoid of semipermanent wetlands, smaller seasonal wetlands provided extensive habitat for dabbling ducks and for 10 species of nongame birds with minimum wetland area requirements of \u3c3.3 ha

A Currency for Offsetting Energy Development Impacts: Horse-Trading Sage-Grouse on the Open Market

Background: Biodiversity offsets provide a mechanism to compensate for unavoidable damages from new energy development as the U. S. increases its domestic production. Proponents argue that offsets provide a partial solution for funding conservation while opponents contend the practice is flawed because offsets are negotiated without the science necessary to backup resulting decisions. Missing in negotiations is a biologically-based currency for estimating sufficiency of offsets and a framework for applying proceeds to maximize conservation benefits. Methodology/Principal Findings: Here we quantify a common currency for offsets for greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) by estimating number of impacted birds at 4 levels of development commonly permitted. Impacts were indiscernible at 1-12 wells per 32.2 km(2). Above this threshold lek losses were 2-5 times greater inside than outside of development and bird abundance at remaining leks declined by -32 to -77%. Findings reiterated the importance of time-lags as evidenced by greater impacts 4 years after initial development. Clustering well locations enabled a few small leks to remain active inside of developments. Conclusions/Significance: Documented impacts relative to development intensity can be used to forecast biological tradeoffs of newly proposed or ongoing developments, and when drilling is approved, anticipated bird declines form the biological currency for negotiating offsets. Monetary costs for offsets will be determined by true conservation cost to mitigate risks such as sagebrush tillage to other populations of equal or greater number. If this information is blended with landscape level conservation planning, the mitigation hierarchy can be improved by steering planned developments away from conservation priorities, ensuring compensatory mitigation projects deliver a higher return for conservation that equate to an equal number of birds in the highest priority areas, provide on-site mitigation recommendations, and provide a biologically based cost for mitigating unavoidable impacts

Managing Multiple Vital Rates To Maximize Greater Sage Grouse Population Growth

Despite decades of greater sage grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) field research, the resulting range-wide demographic data has yet to be synthesized into sensitivity analyses to guide management actions. We summarized range-wide demographic rates from 71 studies from 1938-2008 to better understand greater sage-grouse population dynamics. We used data from 38 of these studies with suitable data to parameterize a two-stage, female-based population matrix model. We conducted analytical sensitivity, elasticity, and variancestabilized sensitivity analyses to identify the contribution of each vital rate to population growth rate (?) and life-stage simulation analysis (LSA) to determine the proportion of variation in ? accounted for by each vital rate. Greater sage grouse showed marked annual and geographic variation in multiple vital rates. Sensitivity analyses suggest that, in contrast to most other North American galliforms, female survival is as important for population growth as chick survival and more important than nest success. In lieu of quantitative data on factors driving local populations, we recommend that management efforts for sage grouse focus on increasing juvenile, yearling, and adult female survival by restoring intact sagebrush landscapes, reducing persistent sources of mortality, and eliminating anthropogenic habitat features that subsidize predators. Our analysis also supports efforts to increase chick survival and nest success by managing shrub, forb, and grass cover and height to meet published brood-rearing and nesting habitat guidelines, but not at the expense of reducing shrub cover and height below that required for survival in fall and winter

Prairie Wetlands and Climate Change - Droughts and Ducks on the Prairies

The Prairie Pothole Region (PPR) contains 5-8 million small wetlands and is one of the most ecologically valuable freshwater resources of the Nation. These wetlands provide abundant ecosystem services, including groundwater recharge, water for agriculture, water purification, and recreation. The PPR is best known as the “duck factory” of North America. By some estimates, this region produces over 50% of the ducks in North America

Vulnerability of Northern Prairie Wetlands to Climate Change

The prairie pothole region (PPR) lies in the heart of North America and contains millions of glacially formed, depressional wetlands embedded in a landscape matrix of natural grassland and agriculture. These wetlands provide valuable ecosystem services and produce 50% to 80% of the continent\u27s ducks. We explored the broad spatial and temporal patterns across the PPR between climate and wetland water levels and vegetation by applying a wetland simulation model (WETSIM) to 18 stations with 95-year weather records. Simulations suggest that the most productive habitat for breeding waterfowl would shift under a drier climate from the center of the PPR (the Dakotas and southeastern Saskatchewan) to the wetter eastern and northern fringes, areas currently less productive or where most wetlands have been drained. Unless these wetlands are protected and restored, there is little insurance for waterfowl against future climate warming. WETSIM can assist wetland managers in allocating restoration dollars in an uncertain climate future

Beyond Inventories: Emergence of a New Era in Rangeland Monitoring

In the absence of technology-driven monitoring platforms, US rangeland policies, management practices, and outcome assessments have been primarily informed by the extrapolation of local information from national-scale rangeland inventories. A persistent monitoring gap between plot-level inventories and the scale at which rangeland assessments are conducted has required decision makers to fill data gaps with statistical extrapolations or assumptions of homogeneity and equilibrium. This gap is now being bridged with spatially comprehensive, annual, rangeland monitoring data across all western US rangelands to as- sess vegetation conditions at a resolution appropriate to inform cross-scale assessments and decisions. In this paper, 20-yr trends in plant functional type cover are presented, confirming two widespread national rangeland resource concerns: widespread increases in annual grass cover and tree cover. Rangeland vegetation monitoring is now available to inform national to regional policies and provide essential data at the scales at which decisions are made and implemented