Mitigating Human-Wildlife Conflicts Through Adaptive Management
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Mitigating Human-Wildlife Conflicts through Adaptive Management Final Report Glynnis A. Hood, Principal Investigator In collaboration with Research Associates: Kalene Gould, Melissa Tollitt, Allison Rodvang, and Nick Yarmey Department of Science, Augustana Campus University of Alberta, Camrose, Alberta, T4V 2R3 Prepared for Beaver County June 20, 2016 ©2016, Hood, University of Alberta Mitigating Human-Beaver Conflicts through Adaptive Management Final Report Glynnis A. Hood, Principal Investigator In collaboration with Research Associates: Kalene Gould, Melissa Tollitt, and Allison Rodvang Department of Science, Augustana Campus University of Alberta, Camrose, Alberta, T4V 2R3 Prepared for Beaver County June 20, 2016 ©2016, Hood, University of Alberta EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This research assessed human-wildlife interactions as they relate to the efficacy of current management and policy approaches to common human-wildlife conflicts within natural and developed sites in Beaver County, Alberta. Over the course of four months (May to August 2015), we collected data relevant to several management considerations regarding human-wildlife interactions, including: polices/legislation for mitigating human-wildlife conflicts, flooding by beavers, livestock predation by coyotes, ground squirrel burrowing, economic costs and benefits, and biodiversity measures relative to adaptive management. We also installed four pond levellers to counter flooding by beavers on private lands. Our analysis of these data continued throughout the fall and winter, and are presented in this report. As permitted by the Agricultural Pests Act, Beaver County is responsible for facilitating the management of landowner conflicts with Richardson’s ground squirrels, coyotes, stripped skunks, and North America beavers. Other species, such as white-tailed deer, mule deer and elk, are also of concern despite their direct management by the province of Alberta. Following a review of legislation and various policies, we were able to identify key areas of wildlife management under County control. In particular, our analysis of County records determined that both Poison 1080 for coyote management and 2% liquid strychnine for ground squirrels and northern pocket gophers were two common methods for management and control of these wildlife species. Over a 16-month period, on average sets of six Poison 1080 tablets were issued 22 times (132 tablets total; n = 16 landowners), while over 4 months a total of 1,347 bottles of 2% liquid strychnine were issued (73 instances for 65 landowners). Seven skunk traps were issued as well, but it is likely that most conflicts with skunks were handled privately by landowners, without the need for County traps. Often, beaver issues were managed by the Landflood/Wildlife Control Officer, a contract trapper, and/or our research team. Various management options are provided in the County’s Level of Service Pest Control Policy and Procedure Handbook. In addition to examining County complaint records, we also established four wildlife cameras in various locations across the County. In total, 834 images recorded five different species of wildlife; there were an additional 113 images for which species could not be determined due to lack of clarity of the images. One image in particular, a raccoon, provided confirmation that this species has moved northward and likely will become more common in the County in coming years. As seen in urban and rural jurisdictions across North America, new management issues are expected to arise with raccoons, which will require a new set of management interventions. The complaint data allowed us to create an interactive wildlife map within a Geographic Information System software (GIS; ESRI ArcMap 10.3). A lack of access to GIS by most County employees inspired us to use a software package that would allow use of this map for all County staff. Ultimately we transferred the maps onto Microsoft PowerPoint and then to Adobe Acrobat, where a series of hyperlinks allowed for county-wide or division-specific searches by species. A series of species-specific lethal and non-lethal management options were included on each map window. Because the map is static (not directly connected to a database that can be constantly updated), we suggest that a centralized database be maintained for wildlife complaints that can then be used to update the GIS data layers over time. As in 2014, we continued our work on beaver management solutions within Beaver County. Through the use of extensive field mapping and GIS, we were able to produce a series of maps of existing beaver sites within the main waterways in the northwestern reaches of the County, as well as the location of all beavers lodges (occupied and unoccupied) relative to human developments. Once again, we ran a point- density analysis to identify “hot spots” of beaver activity in the northwestern part of the County. As before, high beaver densities are often associated with the rural residential subdivisions. This association is likely because landowners in these subdivisions prefer to build near water features, and the subdivisions are in more natural areas that are further away from prime agricultural lands. Future development decisions by the County could take prime beaver habitats into account to help reduce conflicts. We also installed four additional pond levellers this year on private lands exclusively. The total number of pond levellers in the County is now thirteen. To date, all pond levellers are working as designed, with only a minor amount of maintenance required. These maintenance costs were combined with preparation and installation costs to develop a cost-benefit analysis. This analysis compared the present value (PV) net benefits of installing pond levellers relative to the cost of traditional methods used by the County. The complete cost-benefit analysis determined that the pond levellers resulted in a $227,590.19 PV net benefit when wetland valuation was included in the analysis. A sensitivity analysis, which excludes wetland valuation costs, resulted in a PV net benefit of $34,391.96 over two year at the 13 sites. We consider these values to be conservative because the County data are incomplete, thus resulting in a heavier weighting of costs towards the pond levellers than County interventions. Additional data will be provided by the County so we can refine this assessment. At each site where a pond leveller was installed, we conducted pre- and post-installation sampling of aquatic macroinvertebrates. These data will allow us to assess any changes in biodiversity associated with the installation of the pond levellers, as well as to provide an indication of wetland health within the waterbodies in the northwestern part of the County. To date, 287 samples have been collected, which includes post-installation samples collected one year after the 2015 installation dates. We anticipate approximately 112,037 individual macroinvertebrates will be identified by the end of this research project. Finally, we presented various aspects of this research at eight different conferences or provincial workshops. Locations ranged from provincial venues to international academic conferences. Interest in this research continues to grow, in particular relative to the pond levelling devices and the cost-benefit analysis. Hood 2016 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Introduction .......................................................................................................................................... 9 1.1. Human-wildlife interactions ....................................................................................................... 10 1.2. Human-beaver conflicts .............................................................................................................. 11 1.3. Adaptive management and biodiversity ..................................................................................... 11 1.4. Goals and objectives ................................................................................................................... 12 1.5. Report organization .................................................................................................................... 13 2. Methods .............................................................................................................................................. 15 2.1. Study area ................................................................................................................................... 15 2.2. Human-wildlife interactions ....................................................................................................... 17 Policy and legislation review and assessment .................................................................................... 17 Key wildlife species of concern ........................................................................................................... 17 Wildlife cameras ................................................................................................................................. 18 Interactive wildlife conflict map ......................................................................................................... 19 2.3. Human-beaver conflicts .............................................................................................................. 20 Field mapping ...................................................................................................................................... 20