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Wildlife Corridors Panel Discussion 1
Moderator: Rod Mondt2
Steve Gatewood, the first speaker, is the director of The Wildlands Project (TWP). Steve came
to TWP about six months ago from Florida where he was a former Disney Wilderness Preserve
manager. Prior to that he was with Florida Heritage as the state wildlife ecologist, specializing in
reserve design.
Steve described TWP as an effort to preserve and restore the native biologic diversity and
integrity of North America by the establishment of a connected system of conservation reserves.
TWP brings together conservation biologists and conservation activists to accomplish the overall
objective. The reason for the union of science and activism is the failure of scientists to
successfully blend science into public policy. Activists, by contrast, have the passion and the
organizing skills to do that.
The traditional approach to conservation in the past has been to set aside somewhat small,
relatively undesirable areas (rocks and ice), areas of mainly scenic value or places that were
undevelopable (like the Everglades). The result of that approach has been a fairly consistent
decline in natural communities. Sixty percent of Bailey's ecoregions are represented in wilderness
areas, but if one looks at large areas, fewer than 20% are represented in areas of 100,000
hectares or more. Two percent of Bailey's ecoregions are represented in systems of greater than
one million hectares. We haven't done a very good job of large system conservation. Wildlands
tries to bring conservation biology principles to reserve design. Some of these principles are:
•large is better than small
•the presence of carnivores is better than an absence of carnivores
•contiguous habitat is better than fragmented habitat
•linked, connected habitats are better than non-connected habitats
By applying conservation biology to reserve design, we can look at much larger scales.
The goals of reserve design are:
• represent all ecosystem types across their variability
• maintain viable populations of all native species
• maintain biological and evolutionary processes
• allow for change - to build resiliency into the system
• A reserve should consist of core reserves, buffer zones, and areas of connectivity
(corridors). Core areas allow very limited use activities. Buffer zones allow varying degrees
of use. These areas are linked by corridors.
Processes such as fire require very large landscapes and resiliency. The ability to adapt to
change will be important as processes such as global warming enter the picture.
One of the other concepts TWP employs is using large carnivores as umbrella species, i.e. if habitat
for grizzly bears can be protected, habitat for around 80% of other species will also be protected.
Corridors link meta populations.
To do corridor research, GIS is a necessary technology to manage the multiple layers of data.
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Summarized by Susie Brandes, Sky Island Alliance, Tucson, AZ.
The Wildlands Project, Tucson, AZ.
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TWP has not gotten very far in terms of actual science yet, but is very well organized with about 33
groups participating. We know very little about what constitutes a suitable corridor because very
little work has been done to define what constitutes the design, composition and structure of
corridor systems. Steve showed successive maps of the Sky Island region that include parts of
Arizona, New Mexico and northern Mexico. The corridors are conceptualized to anticipate the return
of large carnivores like the Mexican wolf and the grizzly bear
The corridor concept brings up the question, how much area is enough for a reserve network?
If reserve networks are linked together, core reserves might not need to be so large since meta
populations can interact via corridors. However, this concept has not yet been tested in the field.
What can we do now, without all the answers, to protect connectivity?
• maintain natural connections in the landscape
• when possible, restore natural connections that have been severed
• make corridors as wide as possible
• avoid artificial connections between habitats that are naturally isolated
• whenever possible, close roads and maintain habitat structure in the landscape
• it may be necessary to create bottlenecks in a corridor to stop the spread of epizootics if
they should occur
We have to understand what changes are appropriate in the landscape and what are not
appropriate and address those that threaten species the most. Reserve design is an iterative
process that requires evaluation of effectiveness.
It will be necessary to include people in this matrix. To better explain the corridor concept to
people, Steve uses the example of human populations being linked together by roads that bring
essential goods and resources needed by communities to function. In Florida the state involved
people in the- process by creating the Greenways Commission which works on designing wildlife and
recreation corridors together.
Deborah Finch, the second speaker, is a lead researcher for the U.S. Forest Service (Rocky
Mountain Experiment Station) in Albuquerque. She has a BS in Wildlife Management from
Humboldt State. She has an MS in Zoology from Arizona State and her Ph.D. in Zoology and
Range Management from the University of Wyoming. She leads a research unit focusing on
disturbance and restoration of grasslands and riparian ecosystems. She helped to organize a
conservation organization called Partners in Flight, a widespread international coalition designed to
conserve neotropical migratory birds and most songbirds. Her personal research emphasis is on
songbird migration. See her complete paper in this chapter.
Sheridan Stone, the final speaker is the wildlife biologist at Ft. Huachuca and has been there for
about nine years. He was formerly employed by the National Marine Fisheries Service where he did
management and research on marine mammals and sea turtles. He did his undergraduate work at
the University of Montana and graduate work at the University of Minnesota.
Sheridan•s talk describes the Ft. Huachuca/Canelo Hills Track Count, a program in which volunteers
look for lion tracks and other .. on the ground .. information. The effort is important not just because
of the actual data gathered, but because of the interaction of volunteers from many backgrounds,
and the sharing of information and perspectives.
The impetus for the track count came from a workshop held in Prescott in 1988. While
statewide reconnaissance had been done by Harley Shaw, a wildlife biologist, and Arizona Game
and Fish, Harley felt that a useful methodology could be tested and perhaps implemented: training
people as observers who could then work with wildlife managers to gather better information than
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traditional harvest data to estimate the stability of lion populations. Fort Huachuca was chosen as
a testing ground. Volunteers have been used from the start, including Sue Morse of Keeping
Track11 in Vermont, and members of the Phoenix Zoo Animal Observation team. The Sky Island
Alliance joined the group with a strong conservation focus and an interest in corridors.
Track counts don't provide a lot of rigorous statistical data to perform an analysis although the
information gathered is being evaluated by a biometrist. Optimally, the goal at the start was to use
track counts to get an idea of population number, composition, trend, sex and age distribution,
movement between areas, and presence or absence from an area, In actuality, the goals are
focused as much on methodology, i.e., what can volunteers be reasonably trained to do, setting a
basic standard, and accumulating a long term data base. Over time, perhaps using running
averages, a data base is established that can be used when questions arise about the presence of
lions, reproduction, or corridors and their use.
Tracking is a very inclusive activity. People from many backgrounds around the state have
participated. Information exchange, training (what to look for, how to see things, when and if to
draw conclusions) are important. Technique instead of technology is a strength of the program. It
is also 9heap. No budget is necessary so it can be carried on for a long time and various
methodologies can be tried without worry about budgetary concerns.
The Ft. Huachuca count is focused on where prey species are most common. Tracking is done
on dirt road substrate over an area of about 35 miles on the base. About 15+ miles of routes are
covered each day of the count. People look for scrapes and other sign as well as lion tracks. Other
tracks such as bear, coatimundi, turkey, fox, raccoon, bobcat, and coyote are often found and are
important not only in teaching people to recognize tracks but as motivation and reward for
volunteers. Quality control is built in by having more experienced people included in each group.
The Canelo Hills track count is a specific project of the Sky Island Alliance. They have eight
routes established in the Canelo Hills (over a year) where deer habitat is good. The Canelo Hills
were chosen as a track count site because of their proximity to other ranges such as the
Huachucas, Santa Ritas, Whetstones, Mule Mountains, and the Patagonias. None of these
individual ranges are large enough to support a viable mountain lion population. It is clear that the
linkage of the habitat connectivity would be important to the long term recolonization of the species
should there be local extirpation. Routes are laid out to transect the movement of lions away from
the mountain ranges. Volunteers have found an estimated .12 tracks per mile over a year,
primarily in the drainages. They have detected bear track primarily outside the drainages. Over one
year of effort the group is starting to define certain areas where animal sign either does or does not
appear - a start toward possible corridor identification.
The value of this project is in the effort and number of people who have participated. There
have been 110 volunteers involved on the ground, engaging their minds, and asking questions
about what the information they gather means. The project is long term, cheap, and flexible, and
volunteers are its strength.
The track count is being used elsewhere in Arizona and in other parts of the country to involve
ordinary people in learning more about the biology and habitat requirements of local wildlife. It is a
way to build constituencies for properly managing land by getting ordinary citizens involved on the
ground.
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