As ecosystem engineers, beavers can provide some surprising services, from preserving wetlands to creating habitat for fish and other wildlife to creating natural firebreaks.
“Whoever you are, whatever it is you care about, beavers are providing some important service,” environmental scientist Ben Goldfarb told the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Goldfarb the author of Crossings: How Road Ecology Is Shaping the Future of Our Planet and Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter. He spoke with CDFW Director Chuck Bonham about the importance of beavers (Castor canadensis) on the landscape.
“Here’s this animal that we brought back from the brink that we’re learning to live with,” Goldfarb said. “To me, that’s a really hopeful story for the future of all wildlife recovery.”
A massive multi-partner effort that has conserved 10 million acres for wildlife in Florida over past decades will help buffer wildlife—and people—from the effects of climate change, a new report says.
The Florida Wildlife Corridor was created following the passage of the bipartisan Florida Wildlife Corridor Act in 2021. While the corridor is made up of 18 million acres of contiguous land, 8 million of those acres are not yet conserved.
“We refer to those as the opportunity areas,” said Joshua Daskin, the director of conservation at the Archbold Biological Station, a central Florida field station focused on conservation issues.
Daskin was the project manager on the recent report finding that the acreage conserved—and conserving the additional opportunity areas—will benefit wildlife as the climate warms.
The Florida Wildlife Corridor stretches from the Everglades up to the Florida border with Georgia and out to Alabama. The corridor protects iconic Florida species like Florida scrub jays (Aphelocoma coerulescens) and Florida panthers (Puma concolor coryi). Protecting these corridors is important for wildlife genetics, demography and connectivity, Daskin said.
But the corridor also protects species against some of the effects of climate change, he said. For example, conducting prescribed fires in the corridor can reduce the risk of more intense wildfires—a benefit for both wildlife and the people who live nearby. The corridor of protect lands also avoids exposing people to the threat of wildfires in these areas.
“Protecting Florida scrub jays and panthers and bears is not everyone’s first priority,” Daskin said. “It’s important, if you’re asking for billions of dollars of public and private investment statewide, to give lots of different constituencies credible reasons to protect these areas.”
The corridor can also benefit people through storm management. Two-thirds of Florida’s natural floodplains occur in the Florida Wildlife Corridor. These “natural sponges” are used by wildlife, but they can provide buffers against hurricanes and seasonal thunderstorms if they’re not built on, he said, saving human lives and reducing property damage.
Daskin hopes other states use this model to make ambitious efforts to conserve large carnivores.
“This effort to bring science and credible advocacy for land conservation can be replicated elsewhere,” he said.
“I would say Florida is absolutely leading the way in the U.S. in prioritizing habitat connectivity, conservation and on identifying both the wildlife and human benefits of doing so,” Daskin said.
The Wildlife Society is pleased to announce the selection of the Leadership Institute Class of 2024. The following 10 participants were selected from a pool of nearly 60 applicants.
Leadership Institute Class of 2024:
Wesley Boone, Clemson University
Amanda Veals Dutt, Borderlands Research Institute
Laura Hancock, The Walker Basin Conservancy
Alan Harrington, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Annalei Lees, Miami University
Terrah Owens, Idaho National Laboratory
Garrett Peachey, Southern Ute Indian Tribe
Bethan Roberts, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission
Sierra Scauzillo, Quail Forever
Hope L. VanDerwater, Virginia Tech
All 10 participants have accepted their offer to join the Institute and will get started with their first assignments soon.
Every year, the Leadership Institute participants benefit from direct engagement with TWS Council and staff, whether through the annual conference, networking, mentorship or general one-on-one interaction.
Bee and butterfly populations are declining across parts of North America, researchers found, but gaps in pollinator research are limiting our ability to protect these species.
In a study published in PLOS One, researchers found declining species richness in four families of bees and butterflies in the western U.S. and southern Mexico. The declines appear to be related to the effects of climate change—including prolonged drought and habitat degradation—as well as land use changes. Meanwhile, butterfly populations in the eastern U.S. appear to be on the rise.
“Overall, changes in pollinator diversity appear to reflect changes in climate, though other factors such as land use change may also explain regional shifts,” researchers found.
Huge, long-lasting wildfires can cause changes in soil chemistry that affect water contamination, air quality and plant growth, but researchers found these changes are poorly monitored and rarely factor into post-fire recovery efforts or risk assessments.
In a review study published in Nature Reviews Earth & Environment, researchers found that better techniques are needed to monitor changes in soil and surrounding ecosystems. This enhanced monitoring could inform decisions on how to treat drinking water sourced from burned areas, support reforestation and protect workers against toxins during cleanup, rebuilding or revegetation.
“A better understanding of the molecular mechanisms in soil can help explain, for instance, why drinking water from a forest fire-impacted watershed is suddenly more toxic, or why a forest is not coming back,” said Colorado State University soil chemist Thomas Borch, a senior author of the study.
The Bureau of Land Management is addressing the urgent need to conserve greater sage-grouse habitat across public lands in the western United States.
In doing so, the agency has released its draft Resource Management Plan Amendment (RMPA) and Environmental Impact Statement for greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) planning.
The RMPA will address updates to Resource Management Plans (RMPs) across California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming.
This comprehensive planning effort comes in response to mounting concerns over the decline of the sagebrush ecosystem and the corresponding threats to greater sage-grouse populations in the 10 western states that are getting updated RMPs.
The sagebrush ecosystem is not only vital for the iconic greater sage-grouse, but also serves as a critical refuge for a diverse array of wildlife and plant species. This expansive landscape plays a fundamental role in maintaining biodiversity, supporting pollinator populations, and preserving unique plant communities. Greater sage-grouse have been adversely impacted by habitat loss and fragmentation, invasive species, wildfires and increasing energy development across their range.
“It’s been called the icon of the West. It is a flagship for the West and what the West stands for: open public lands, wide open spaces, and room for everyone to recreate and live,” said Alison Holloran, the executive director of Audubon Rockies and a vice president of the National Audubon Society. “I look at sage-grouse as the proverbial canary in the coal mine for our western ecosystems. As the sage-grouse goes, a lot of our western landscapes, particularly the sagebrush, will go that way as well.”
The current proposed amendments outlined in the draft RMPA aim to address several key objectives. These objectives include clarifying overall sage-grouse and habitat management goals, enhancing greater sage-grouse habitat quality, implementing mitigation measures to counteract habitat impacts, and establishing disturbance caps. Additionally, the plan includes provisions to manage energy development with the goal of minimizing its impact on habitat. Given the rise in renewable solar energy projects on public lands in the western region of the U.S., mitigating habitat loss resulting from such projects remains a pressing concern.
The draft RMPA presents six options to consider for greater sage-grouse management and conservation, as required by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). These alternatives range from re-adopting previous management measures to implementing more stringent measures, including designating Priority Habitat Management Areas (PHMA) and Areas of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC). The EIS/NEPA process ensures that environmental considerations are thoroughly evaluated and public input is solicited before final decisions are made.
“Everyone’s got to pay attention. Everyone has a role to play. I don’t think one conservation organization, not one federal agency—you name it—can take the load for the sage-grouse to be conserved,” Holloran said. “For this bird to be conserved, it is going to take a holistic and partnership approach, and I’m really hoping that people will continue to come together and do that.”
The proposed RMPA represents the next step in a series of ongoing conservation efforts for greater sage-grouse and their habitat. It builds upon the foundation the BLM laid in its 2015 Sage Grouse Conservation Plan, which established a landscape-scale approach to protecting and restoring sagebrush habitat across approximately 67 million acres and 10 western states.
The last updates to the Sage Grouse Conservation Plan were court-ordered in 2019, a significant development in the management of the species following extensive consultation and input from stakeholders representing federal and state agencies, industry, conservation organizations, Tribes and local communities. These updates aimed to enhance the effectiveness of conservation measures outlined in the original plan, incorporating new scientific findings, adaptive management strategies, and collaborative partnerships to address emerging threats to sage-grouse habitats.
The Wildlife Society and its network of affiliated chapters and sections have a longstanding record of engagement with policies impacting sage-grouse management and wildlife professionals working in the sagebrush ecosystem.
TWS submitted comments over a decade ago to the U.S. Forest Service and the BLM to inform the incorporation of sage-grouse management needs in range-wide management planning. TWS has consistently advocated for science-based conservation strategies for the species and sagebrush habitat. The Society has also engaged in advisory board meetings and supplied testimony to provide expert insights and recommendations for effective management practices for sage-grouse. Notably, TWS has actively opposed legislative riders that could compromise sage-grouse conservation efforts, as exemplified by letters of opposition to sage-grouse-related provisions included in bills such as the National Defense Authorization Act.
Chapters of The Wildlife Society have been instrumental in expressing concerns and providing input on sage-grouse management plans, ensuring that the expertise of wildlife professionals working to conserve greater sage-grouse and sagebrush habitat on the ground is considered in conservation decision-making processes. TWS staff plan to facilitate participation from affected units and relevant working groups to provide comprehensive and informed comments to the BLM regarding the draft EIS.
Supplemental feeding—when done just the right way—may boost the survival of reintroduced Hawaiian crows.
This finding from new research may help the survival of a species whose existence is precarious right now.
“Any reintroduction is a learning process for any species that you do it with,” said Alison Greggor, a conservation biologist with the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance.
Hawaiian crows, also locally known as the ‘alalā (Corvus hawaiiensis), are highly intelligent, showing a remarkable ability to use tools—a study in 2016 found the widespread use of sticks and leaves to prey on arthropods, without any cues or social learning from other birds. They are also loquacious—Hawaiian crows have more than 60 different types of calls.
“The ‘alalā hold a very important place in Hawaiian culture,” Greggor said, adding that in local mythology, the crows help lead ancestors to the afterlife. They are also important seed dispersers for native Hawaiian fruits like hō’awa (Pittosporum hosmeri).
The species found on Hawaii’s Big Island began decreasing in the early 1900s, with significant declines in the 1950s. A captive breeding program began in the 1970s. While these efforts were successful in producing new chicks, the bird’s numbers outside of captivity continued to drop. The species had become extinct in the wild by 2002.
Conservationists tried unsuccessfully to supplement wild populations by releasing birds bred in captivity in the 1990s. From 2016 to 2020, wildlife managers conducted a reintroduction effort on the Puʻu Makaʻala Natural Area Reserve on Big Island. They fed the birds after release as a way to increase survival, but the crows tend to crowd around feeders, which is unnatural behavior for them. In normal conditions, ‘alalā typically become territorial after maturing and don’t spend much time with other individuals.
Another problem with this effort was that the researcher couldn’t control where the individuals went after release, and the birds could fly off to less suitable habitat.
In a study published recently in Conservation Science and Practice, Greggor and her colleagues tested if the birds would disperse in a way that might improve their survival. To do so, they used a more complex supplemental feeding system.
Hawaiian crows survived better when they received supplemental feeding after reintroduction. Credit: San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance
Initial release
The team released 11 juvenile birds in 2017. These birds showed high fidelity to the release site, likely because four supplemental feeding stations were nearby.
The researcher began their experiment by moving two of the four supplemental feeding stations 50 meters away, but in opposite directions. The team moved one of them to an area under a high forest canopy and placed the other in a more open area. After a week, they moved the feeders 100 meters away from the original site. In the third week, they were 150 meters away. By the fourth week, they had returned the feeding stations back to where they were in the beginning.
The team observed that the birds began to use more space as the researchers moved feeder stations farther away.
The researchers also determined which types of areas the birds preferred.
“We found that they were faster to find and use the closed canopy versus the open canopy ones,” Greggor said.
The feeders in the open canopy were more visible from a distance, but the crows were more hesitant to use them than the feeders located in the closed canopy. The birds also easily found the feeders that the researchers placed 150 meters away from the original ones.
“At 150 meters, birds will find the new resources, and it will likely influence their space use as well,” Greggor said.
Hawaiian crows are highly intelligent, using tools sometimes to obtain their insect prey. Credit: San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance
Informing future efforts
Unfortunately for these birds—and an additional two cohorts released in 2018 and 2019—many didn’t make it. Some died in storms, some from natural causes and others were preyed upon—or disappeared after an initial period of good survival. The team brought the remainder back into captivity.
But Greggor said that this study can inform future reintroductions, especially when conservationists want to redirect birds away from potential hazards like areas with more humans or other dangerous factors.
“It can be difficult in the wild to get birds to go where you want them to,” Greggor said.
Scientists are planning a reintroduction in Maui, which lacks the natural predator, the Hawaiian hawk, or ‘io (Buteo solitarius). These raptors caused some of the deaths in the recent set of releases.
“We know it will be a long road to get them back out, but we are hopeful for their future,” Greggor said.
Wildlife workers are puzzled at the appearance of hundreds of sick and starving pelicans showing up at rescue centers along the California coast. The birds are starving despite abundant marine life in the waters.
“It’s a crisis right now for the pelicans,” Debbie McGuire, executive director of the Wetlands and Wildlife Care Center in Huntington Beach, told the Associated Press.
Her organization has taken in more than 100 California brown pelicans (Pelecanus occidentalis) that were starving and dehydrated. Bird Rescue reported taking in 110 sick pelicans in recent weeks.
Wildlife organizations hope to rehabilitate the pelicans and return them to the wild.
Researchers have uncovered a better way to determine North Atlantic right whale presence, which has already helped managers mitigate threats to the endangered species.
“I grew up on the U.S. East Coast,” said Duke University research associate Jason Roberts, who studies the whales. “This is the endangered whale in my backyard.”
Roberts worked at Microsoft as a computer engineer before dedicating himself to finding new ways to use computers in conservation work. Highly endangered North Atlantic right whales (Eubalaena glacialis), which face threats of becoming entangled in fishing gear, being struck by boats and having to navigate new areas for prey due to climate change, were the perfect subject for Roberts to focus on.
For the right whales, just knowing where the species occurs is a challenge. Unlike many species, it’s not feasible to monitor this population with radio transmitters. “It’s not entirely harmless to attach these tags to the animals,” Roberts said. “For the current generation of tags, you have to implant them fairly deep in their blubber. And they’re very social animals, so they rub against each other, and sometimes other things, so they have a tendency to knock the transmitters off.” The species is also incredibly rare, so finding individuals to track is difficult.
In the past, researchers have relied purely on aerial sightings as well as sightings from vessels to determine where to find the whales. That information is held by the North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium, a data sharing group made up of researchers, conservation organizations, industry and technical experts with sightings dating back 100 years.
An aerial survey plane circles above a right whale. (NMFS permit #14233) Credit: Ester Quintana/NEAQ
Scientists had used this data to create maps showing where most sightings occur. The problem was that these maps were patchy and did not account for how well each area had been monitored. Where the whales appeared was skewed by where people spent the most time looking for them.
That’s where Roberts came in. He and his colleagues set out to create a model that could more accurately predict the distribution of whales across the East Coast based on the amount surveying that was done in each area and the conditions that occurred.
In a study published in Marine Ecology Progress Series, his team trained a model to take into account factors like surface temperature, chlorophyll concentration and sea floor depth to determine where North Atlantic right whales were most likely to be found. The team then used data from hydrophones—underwater sound recording devices—to see if their predictions were right.
“The great thing about hydrophones is you can put one in the water and it runs 24/7,” Roberts said. “It sits there continuously monitoring, and that’s something that you can’t generally do with a human. You can’t put a human in the ocean with binoculars and have them just sit there all the time.”
Right whales don’t use sonar, though, so they don’t vocalize as much as some whales, and it can be hard to gauge how far the whales are from the hydrophones, especially in shipping lanes where there’s more noise. But by determining where the hydrophones picked up the most detections, they were able to double-check the models built from the sightings.
NOAA Fisheries has used the results of the analysis to inform mitigation efforts for the whale, Roberts said. His team is now updating it to expand the range north to the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
For people seeking to improve their mental health, a potential answer may be right outside their window: birdwatching.
A study published in Environmental Psychology found that people who have nature-based experiences report better well-being and lower psychological distress than those who do not. Birdwatching in particular yielded promising results, with higher gains in subjective wellbeing and more reduction in distress than more generic nature exposure, such as walks.
“There has been a lot of research about well-being coming out through the pandemic that suggests adolescents and college-aged kids are struggling the most,” said Nils Peterson, an author of the study and a professor of forestry and environmental resources at North Carolina State University.
