Powerpoint 1-2: Wildlife Managment/History

3 major components of wildlife managment

wildlife populations

environment and habiatat

humans

why is wildlife managment a crisis dicipline

usually doing something without all of the information

What does one health do

multi (cross) sectoral and collaborative approach

a “whole society”/systems approach

change in perspective through

Education

Research

Outreach

Issues with trying to emulate past environments

• the climate has changed drastically

• assisted distribution

• need to worry about soils

what is wildlife irl

• all vertebrates

  • sometimes invertebrates

• usually divided between fish and wildlife, game and nongame

  • still a lot more game personnel than nongame personnel 

  • game commission

    • birds and mammals

  • fish and boat

    • fish, amphibians, reptiles

what WAS wildlife

• only game birds and game mammals

• only useful animals that you could hunt

• 12% of mammals 9% of birds

natinoally responsible for wildlife man

US fish and wildlife service

• wildlife, plants, all endangered species and habitat management

• can cause a problem with states

• US fish and wildlife services

  • dept of interior

  • freshwater fish

• national marine fisheries service

  • dept of commerce

    • concerned with capture and money

state responsible for wildlife man

• PA Game Commission 

  • birds & mammals

• PA Fish & Boat Commission 

  • fish, reptiles & amphibians, and invertebrates

• PA Dept. of Conservation and Natural Resources 

  • DCNR--forests and plants

issue with early euro land managment

• An anthropocentric view led to over-exploitation and degradation of areas colonized 

  • Resource exploitation an economic driving force in the exploration and settlement of the New World

  • Fisheries, fur trapping and timber (for building and fuel)

early euro conservation movement

• forest reserves became a part of colonial nature resource management 

• scientific officers sent

• efforts not well suited to the climate

• realized the possibility of extinction

  • Auroch

  • Dodo - 1662

Uh oh! Extinctions in America. What do?

• new organizations form

  • Commons, Open Spaces and Footpaths Preservation Society—1865

  • National Trust for Places of Historic Interest and Natural Beauty—1895

  • Royal Society for the Protection of Birds—1899

  • Preserved over 900,000 hectares of open land

• conservation legislation in Britain

  • National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act—1949

    • Protection and public enjoyment of the wider countryside

  • Wildlife and Countryside Act—1981

    • Protection of endangered species and marine environment—equivalent to us ESA

Human over-exploitation/persecution is found throughout history

• Pleistocene extinctions of mega-fauna in North America 

  • coincide with arrival and growth of human populations

• Steller Sea Cow extinct

  • 27 years after their discovery due to over harvesting

• Lions extirpated from Europe

• Auroch domesticated to extinction

• Market hunting in PA extirpated the eastern elk

• Diamondback terrapin commercially extinct

how did the industrial rev fuck things up

• trains, telegraph

• civil war creates weapons advance

big list of eras

• era of abundance

  • 1600-1850

  • arrival to the new world, a lot of resources

• era of exploitation

  • 1850-1900

  • would have seen animals be in abundance and then see that population crash

• era of protection

  • 1900-1929

  • brought about by writers

• era of game management

  • 1929-1955

  • we have to manage with science

• era of environmental management

  • 1960 to present

Passenger Pigeon

• most numerous bird in the mid 1800s

  • 2 billion

• started killing them for food, killing them for sport

• harvested to extinction

  • low fecundity - 1 egg

    • implies low predation, initially 

  • critical nesting mass needed

    • needed nesting flock to be a certain size

    • needed to be able to pair off

  • 1000 market hunters

    • used technology to follow them

extinctions to know

• labrador duck

• heath hen

  • ground nester UK

• carolina parakeet

  • last one died same year as Martha

  • crop pest

  • would hang around other dead birds, made them easier to kill

• great auk - 1844

  • one of the great museum atrocities

  • killed the rest of them

Management problems

• over abundance

• predator control

• introduced species impact native species

birth of wildlife managment

• wildlife management was born from people realizing that wildlife is a renewable resource 

• 1800s sees dwindling populations

  • regulations come about

    • hunting seasons

    • bag limits

    • methods

• market hunting/exploitation reaches its peak by early 1900

warned of ecology disaster

• G.P. Marsh—”Man and Nature” (1864)

• Fairfield Osborn—”Our Plundered Planet” (1948)

• Paul Ehrlich and Anne Ehrlich—”The Population Bomb” (1968)

• Albert Gore—”Earth in the Balance” (1992), “An Inconvenient Truth” (2006), “An Inconvenient Truth Sequel: Truth to Power” (2017)

• E.O. Wilson—”The Diversity of Life” (1992) & many more

  • Half Earth

    • he wanted half of the planet set aside for animals

  • 30 in 30

    • by 2030, every country should protect 30% of their land

• Jared Diamond—”Collapse” (2005)

1970s policies

• clean air act

• clean water act

• EPA

• National environmental policy act

  • regulates what states can do

conservation movements in america

• 920s-early 1930s

  • -Buffalo gone

  • -Only 500,000 white-tailed deer left

  • -People observed extinction in their lifetimes

• Began 1960s

  • -Habitat loss

  • -Pollution

  • -Persecution of predators

  • -1960 & 70s brought more concern for threatened and endangered species and habitats

  • -“optimum yield” (sustaining natural diversity) became the goal, rather “maximum sustainable yield” (goal earlier)

• End of 20th Century

  • -Reawakening of concerns from the 1960s

lead shot

• used to lose 2 mil ducks/geese a year in north america

  • 3k tons of lead shot used a year

• 1976

  • steel shot required in hot spots

• 1991

  • lead shot banned for waterfowl hunting

  • mortality rate dropped 64%

• lead sinks and lead in large game hunting still remain a threat

Definition of wildlife management

• wildlife management is the application of ecological knowledge to populations of vertebrate animals and their plant and animal associates in a manner that strikes a balance between the needs of those populations and the needs of people

how is ecological knowledge applied in wildlife management

• preservation

  • no human intervention

• direct manipulation

  • trapped, shot, poisoned, or stocked

  • translocations

• indirect manipulation

  • altering of habitat

    • vegetation, water

goals of wildlife management

• make population increase

• make population decrease

• harvest the population sustainably

• do nothing except monitor the population 

management vs conservation

• management

  • use of a resource and regulation

• conservation

  • use of a resource and or preservation

• preservation

  • leave nature alone, no use