Showing papers by "William J. McShea published in 2007"

Forestry Matters: Decline of Oaks Will Impact Wildlife in Hardwood Forests

Abstract: Acorn production by oaks (Quercus spp.) is an important food resource for wildlife in many deciduous forests. Its role as a hard mast crop that can be either stored or used to build fat reserves for winter survival cannot be replaced by most other potential foods. Changes in forest management, introduced pests and pathogens, and increased deer populations have resulted in significant changes in the demography of oaks in eastern North America, as evident in Forest Inventory and Analysis data. Specifically, maples (Acer spp.) are replacing oaks in many forests through dominance of the younger age classes. These changes are not yet obvious in mast production but will take decades to reverse. Effective forest management for mast production is arguably one of the more important tasks facing wildlife professionals, yet receives scant attention by both public and private land managers. Public forests need to explicitly include mast production in their forest planning and reduce adversarial relationships over forest management. Market forces are driving commercial forests toward forest certification. Private forests compose 80% of our oak forests and are the hardest group to influence. States have not been able to effectively market forest plans and we recommend joining with advocacy groups more adept at motivating the public. Increased communication between wildlife and forestry professionals is needed through agency restructuring and joint meetings of professional agencies at the state level. Professional wildlife and forest managers are encouraged to make increased use of monitoring data and form a multiagency cooperative using a joint venture model, which has been successful for other organizations.

A camera trapping inventory for mammals in a mixed use planted forest in sarawak

Abstract: A series of camera trapping surveys was done in and around an Acacia plantation in central Sarawak to monitor wildlife populations within the planted forest. The study area was divided into 1 km 2 blocks with two cameras placed in each block for thirty days at each position, and placed in five study areas for a period of approximately six months. Camera sites were baited with a variety of commercially available scent lures. During 1,632 trap-nights, a total of 25 species of mammals were detected and photographed, comprising 15 families, and 23 genera, including local Bearded Pig (Sus barbatus), Sambar Deer (Cervus unicolor), Sun Bear (Helarctos malayanus), and an Otter Civet (Cynogale bennettii). Some lures failed to attract any mammals, while oily lures such as Fish Oil, seemed to better withstand rain, increasing the long- term chances for obtaining species photographs. Magna Glan, producing a very strong odor, attracted numerous terrestrial mammals and remained detectable even to humans for at least one month, even during the rainy season. The implications of the results of this study for successfully monitoring tropical forest wildlife is discussed.

The Impact of White-Tailed Deer on Agricultural Landscapes in 3 National Historical Parks in Maryland

Abstract: The legislative authorization of some United States national historical parks (NHP) includes maintaining an agricultural landscape as a management objective. This management objective can prove difficult to accomplish in some NHP given increasing white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) densities. Our goal was to quantify the impact of white-tailed deer foraging on agricultural landscapes in forested NHPs in Maryland, USA. We monitored 12 and 13 corn (Zea mays) fields at 3 NHP during the 2003 and 2004, respectively. Each field had 3 5 × 5-m fenced and unfenced plots along the edge and a similar set within the interior of the field. Within each plot we examined the number of stalks with corn, corn ear quality, and field weight prior to harvest. Fenced plots had higher weights of corn, more stalks with corn ears, and higher quality corn than unfenced plots. Estimates of silage yield based on crop weights indicate deer reduced silage yield in individual fields by 5–43% during the study period. Cro...