Biological Context of Wildlife, Fish, and Recreation Interactions

1. Biological Context of Wildlife, Fish, and Recreation Interactions

2. Are Recreation and Conservation Compatible? • Recreation may: • Harm, harass, or kill wildlife • Subsidize predators • Change the balance of a community • Reduce and degrade natural habitat • Fragment, isolate, perforate remaining habitat • Increase edge • Provide an entry point for invasives

3. (Czech and Krausman 1997)

4. (Czech and Krausman 1997) 27% of federal endangered, threatened, or proposed listed species are harmed by outdoor recreation, including ORVs Only Agriculture, Water development, and Commercial land conversion harm more (Wilcove et al. 1998)

5. Outline for Today • Review research evidence about the observable effects of recreation on wildlife • Identify general features of recreation and attributes of wildlife that determine the outcome of the interaction • Introduce a host of management options that may promote coexistence among recreationists and wildlife • Suggest sources of additional information

6. Relationship between recreation and wildlife(Knight & Cole 1995)

7. Immediate Effects on Individuals are often Subtle

8. Changes in heart rate depend on type and direction of approach (MacArthur et al. 1982)

9. Immediate Responses are Often Graded to Magnitude of Disturbance (Brown 1990)

10. (Sharkbay.org)

11. (Richardson et al. 1985)

12. Closer Approaches Command Greater Responses (Richardson et al. 1985)

13. Bigger and Noisier is Not Always More Disruptive (Grubb and King 1991) (Papouchis et al. 2001)

14. Confusion of Deer during Orienteering Events

15. Immediate Responses are Costly and Often Depend on Previous Interactions with People (Liddle 1997)

16. Habituation

17. Reduced Response Distance by Habituated Marmots (Neuhaus and Mainini 1998)

18. Longer Term Effects on a Population (Robert and Ralph 1975)

19. Increased Mortality in Manatees Speed Restrictions Education Campaign (O’Shea 1995)

20. Displacement of Ducks by Anglers (Bell and Austin 1985)

21. Upsetting Community Interactions (Skagen et al. 1991)

22. Campground Influences on Predator Prey Dynamics

23. Changing Predator-Prey Dynamics May Accentuate the “Rocks and Ice” Bias in Parks • Campgrounds are mostly in lowland, riparian areas of highest productivity • High predator loads may reduce prey population viability • Accentuates general findings that parks rarely protect the most productive lowlands Yellow Warblers in Yellowstone (Hansen et al. 2001)

24. Ecosystem Ramifications? (lightshedder.com) (Tomback and Taylor 1987)

25. Essence of the Interaction • Type of Recreation • Hunting • Fishing • Nature Viewing • Hiking • Skiing • Horseback Riding • Rock Climbing • Spelunking • Pets • Swimming • Boating/Personal Watercraft • Snowmobiling • ORVs • Mountain Biking • Aircraft • Recreational Site Development

26. Essence of the Interaction Type of Recreation Predictability Frequency and Magnitude Timing Relative to Annual Cycle Location Season (weather)

27. Essence of the Interaction Type of Recreation Predictability Frequency and Magnitude Timing relative to Annual Cycle Location Season (weather) Properties of the Animal Body Size Life History Strategy Previous Experience / Learning Group Size Age Sex

28. Essence of the Interaction Type of Recreation Predictability Frequency and Magnitude Timing relative to Annual Cycle Location Season (weather) Properties of the Animal Ability to Adapt or Habituate Individual Response

29. Essence of the Interaction Type of Recreation Predictability Frequency and Magnitude Timing relative to Annual Cycle Location Season (weather) Properties of the Animal Ability to Adapt or Habituate Individual Response Ecosystem Response Population Response Community Response

30. Strategies to Enhance Coexistence of Wildlife and Recreationists Closures • Least popular, but needed in some cases, especially for sensitive species • Breeding season campground closures • Game pockets during orienteering • Nursery or roost caves for bats

31. Well-intentioned Closures can Backfire (Humphrey 1978)

32. Strategies for Coexistence • Spatial Restrictions • Temporary buffers based on flushing distances • Likely modified with acclimation or habituation • Temporal Restrictions • Closures at critical times • Hours, days, weeks, months

33. Strategies for Coexistence • Managing Human Behavior • Restrict type, location, intensity of use • Bus rather than individual cars • Limit pets • Encourage indirect, predictable, slow approaches • Provide interpretive signage • Provide visual and auditory barriers • Escape cover and vegetative screening

34. Design forCoexistence (Creachbaum et al. 1998)

35. Coexistence Ultimately Depends on Our Values and Ethics • Recreation can foster awareness of impacts and possible changes in attitudes, values, and ethics • Recreation is a way to rekindle our connection to the land, which may then foster a biocentric (as opposed to simply anthropocentric) ethic (Oelschlaeger 1995) • This reconstruction of our land ethic may supercede, but certainly will enhance, our ability to conserve natural resources simply on economic grounds

36. Learning More Effects of Recreation on Rocky Mountain Wildlife, www.montanatws.org My Wildlife Ecology and Conservation Class notes and references, www.courses.washington.edu/vseminar