REQUIREMENTS FOR WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT PLAN WEB PAGE

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Fifty points towards your grade in this course will be determined by the quality of the management plan which you develop and present for the South Fork or for a wildlife management site of your own choosing. All components of the plan (text, figures, maps, etc) must be published in web page format for presentation at the end of the term. Your report must use the following organizational format, and must use these particular headings:

INTRODUCTION. This section states the purpose of your report, and lists the goals which you hope to accomplish. You should clearly state which specie or species you are managing for, and why you are managing for this specie(s). You should justify management for the species you select on biological, economic, and political grounds. That is, is it economically and politically feasible to manage for the species in question? Will some special interest group become upset? How will you convince this special interest group of the biological value of your species? Do you have enough money in your budget to carry out your management plan?

LITERATURE REVIEW OF SPECIES LIFE HISTORY. In this section you will present pertinent information regarding the life history of your species (behavior, ecological relationships, nutritional requirements, etc), using references on reserve at the library (see separate handouts) or from other sources. Concentrate your discussion on the factors (decimating and/or welfare) that tend to limit population size for your species, so that you can justify actions recommended in your "Schedule of Management Activities" section (described below). We will have a lab at the library to show the latest techniques for finding such information.

LITERATURE REVIEW OF MANAGEMENT TECHNIQUES. In addition to the above review of life history, a separate section in your management plan will review past management techniques for your target species. Do not discuss historical issues, just the types of management practices that have been used for your target species. In addition to library references, you can use information from lecture, textbooks, and the Internet for the literature review sections of your report. A common failing of past student efforts is not putting enough material in this section, so make sure it is a substantial with numerous references. Lecture material should be cited as (Bergland pers. comm.) after the appropriate sentence(s) in your report. When you refer to a book or journal article in this section, use the following format to acknowledge the source. Suppose you are referring to information in a journal article by Owen published in 1975. Your sentence might read:

"Geese preferred to forage in areas that had been previously fertilized (Owen 2008)."

Or you might write:

"Owen (2008) has found that geese prefer fertilized to nonfertilized areas when foraging."

The reader could then get the complete citation for this article by referring to your Literature Cited section at the end of your management plan (as explained on the next page). If the article was written by two people, you could cite it as follows:

"Owen and Brown (2008) have found that..."

If three or more people have written the article:

"Owen et al. (2008) have found that..."

If you are unsure of how to cite an article, refer to a current issue of the Journal of Wildlife Management for an example.

 

Throughout the body of your paper, but especially in the Literature Review section, you will be citing references to other scientific articles and books. You must cite a minimum of 20 references from the scientific literature (the online database of articles from the Journal of Wildlife Management is an excellent source of information for this, plus other online databases), There should be as many links as possible to relevant web sites.

DESCRIPTION OF THE WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT AREA. The fourth section of your management plan should have this heading. You should take color photographs of your area, using a digital camera, and link them to aerial maps. It will include one or more maps (based on the aerial photos) along with a written description of the study site (including the surrounding land) as it now exists. You should indicate the size of the site in hectares (use the metric system throughout the paper) . This map and other maps in the report should be labeled "Figure 1", "Figure 2", etc. so that you can refer to them in the body of the text. Look at a current volume of the Journal of Wildlife Management to see the proper method for labeling tables and figures. Make sure you include a fairly detailed description of existing vegetation, soil types, and topography (more than one map will probably be required). Soil types can be found in goverment soil survey books which are available for every county in the U.S. A plant and animal inventory must be part of this section. This section should also address the suitability of surrounding land for the target species (concept of 'effective habitat size').

SCHEDULE OF MANAGEMENT ACTIVITIES. The preceding section indicated what the current situation is at Twin Lakes or another area you have chosen. The purpose of this section is to describe and JUSTIFY the specific activities which you will use to modify the management area. You can use a weekly, monthly, and/or yearly schedule depending upon the species of interest. Outline the steps that you will take to modify the habitat, then provide a justification for each step in your outline (see the sample management plans on the wildlife biology home page) . Your written narrative should refer the reader to a series of maps (see above section) showing the appearance of the area after each major phase of your habitat manipulation process.

BUDGET. For each activity in your schedule, give the estimated cost of this activity. These estimates do not have to be extremely accurate, but I want you to have some idea what your management plan will cost not only in dollars but also in the number of person-hours of labor. Estimate the size of the work crew necessary to carry out each aspect of the plan, and the equipment they will need. If you plan to do any burning, remember that you will need an experienced work crew and safety equipment. Refer to the separate handout for some of these costs, you can make "educated guesses" as to other costs or make a few phone calls to find out (i.e. DNR office in Baldwin, local nurseries, etc.)

At the end of this section, estimate the total cost of your management plan per unit time. For example, how much would it cost if it continued for 5 years? Ten years? (Remember, these estimates do not have to be very accurate. However, many well intentioned management plans have foundered for lack of money. DNR budgets are usually not large!) How often will your proscribed plan have to be repeated in the future? Any time that you set back plant succession, the plants will grow again, and this must be taken into consideration when formulating future plans.

WILDLIFE ECOTOURISM. This section will include a wildlife ecotourism component, using the "Grackle Junction" approach learned in class. How would your plan time in to existing wildlife ecotourism efforts in your area? In addition to a written description, this section should include a phenology chart including "shoulder seasons", appropriate images, and links to web sites (local chamber of commerces, festivals, activities analogous to "River Falls Days", etc.). We will have a lab exercise to give you more information about this section. All three components of the 'Grackle Junction' approach should be addressed: resource assessment (tied in with plant and animal inventory in Study Area section above), networking, and marketing.

CONCLUSION. This section should tie the rest of the paper together by discussing the potential impact of your management plan on the species of interest. In addition, make some rough predictions concerning population sizes in the years to come as a result of your activity.

LITERATURE CITED. This section will list references cited in your report alphabetically by the author's last name.

For example: Owen, M. 2008. Cutting and fertilizing grassland for winter goose management. Journal of Wildlife

Management 51:163-167.

(Note that the year of publication is followed by the title, journal name, volume number and pages.)

The format is slightly different for books and monographs. See a recent issue of the Journal of Wildlife Management for examples. NOTE: Do not use the condensed format found in your reference lists - it is somewhat incomplete.

REMINDER: Throughout the body of your paper (but especially in the Literature Review section) you will be citing a minimum of 20 separate references. At least 15 of these must be from the scientific literature, including references used in class. In general, multiple citings from the same source do not count towards the 20 reference minimum.

GUIDELINES FOR ORAL PRESENTATION OF WEB PAGE

1. Start on this project early in the term to avoid the "last minute rush".

2. Each group will give a 'dry run' of the oral presentation (in front of me only) so that I can make suggestions prior to your class presentation.

3. Each group will have approximately 25 minutes for their oral presentation. The actual presentation will take about 20 minutes, with 5 minutes for class discussion. The two members of the team will alternate answering questions during this 10 minute period, so that one person does not answer all the questions.

4. Organization and practice is the key to a successful oral presentation. You should rehearse the presentation a number of times with your partner so that (1) you know who will present which part of the plan, (2) you finish your presentation within the allotted time frame, and (3) you can "present" rather than merely read your plan to the class (see below). I will time you during the 'dry run' to make sure that this happens.

5. Avoid relying too much on written notes during your oral presentation. You may certainly use note cards, but try to present the material without reading from your notes word for word. The more you rehearse, the easier it will be to do this, making your presentation much more effective and interesting to your audience. Think of you and your partner as a team of wildlife managers trying to convince your bosses (the class) of the value of your plan, so that it will be funded.

6. For the oral presentation, the following must be incorporated into your web page document, or placed in a separate "presentation page" outline with links to your actual page:

A. An outline of life history information from your literature review, emphasizing limiting factors.

B. An outline of management techniques for the species.

C. Color photographs of your study area for your web page, linked to aerial photos of your site. You will find that this makes for a much more effective presentation, because your audience can better visualize the area.

D. Before and after maps showing the sequence of management activities over time (created as in 'C' above). The 'before' maps should clearly indicate existing vegetation and surface features, as well as soil types and topography. Be sure to JUSTIFY each step of the procedure, both biologically and economically!

E. A budget table showing specific costs.

F. Map showing details of ecotourism plan, linked to appropriate tourism activities if appropriate

The above must be ready for use during the 'dry run' of your presentation, so that I can make suggestions for improvement prior to your actual class presentation. They should be detailed, legible, and have a "professional" look to them.

7. This must be a true collaboration between students. BOTH members of the team must work on ALL aspects of the project. You must iron out any personality conflicts between yourselves, as you would have to do in the real world.