Last updated: 12/13/2006

This schedule is subject to change as necessary.

Journal articles can be found on the electronic reserve: http://eres.lib.umn.edu/eres/coursepage.aspx?cid=323

Week 1

Sept. 05 – Course Overview & Introduction

Lecture notes: What is habitat and habitat management?

Hall, L.S. et al. 1997. The habitat concept and a plea for standard terminology. Wildlife Society Bulletin 25:173-182.

Morrison, M.L. 2001. A proposed research emphasis to overcome the limits of wildlife-habitat relationship studies. Journal of Wildlife Management 65:613-623.

Mitchell S.C. 2005. How useful is the concept of habitat? – a critique. Oikos 110:634-638.

 

Sept. 07 – Case study in habitat management: St. Paul Campus Ecology Plan

Lecture notes: St. Paul campus ecology plan (lecture) & Draft master ecolgy plan (Kestral Design Group)

Trombulak, S.C. 2003. An integrative model for landscape-scale conservation in 21st century. In Reconstructing conservation: finding common ground. B.A. Minteer and R.E. Manning (Eds), Island Press, Washington D.C., Pgs 263-276.

Week 2

Sept. 12 – Biological and spatial scales in habitat management

Lecture notes: The habitat concept continued + biological & spatial scales in habitat management

Simberloff D. 1997. Flagships, umbrellas, and keystones: is single-species management passé in the landscape era? Biological Conservation 83:247-257.

Soule and Terborgh 1999. Conserving nature at regional and continental scales-a scientific program for North America. Bioscience 49: 809-817.

Carroll et al. 2001. Carnivores as focal species for conservation planning in the Rocky Mountain region. Ecological Applications 11:961-980.

 

Sept. 14 – Spatial aspects of habitat I.

Lecture notes: Landscape ecology overview & Landscape-scale tiger conservation

Forman, R. T. T. and M. Godron. 1981. Patches and structural components for a landscape ecology. BioScience 31(10):733-740.

Click here for a clean copy of this paper. (The copy on e-reserve is difficult to read in places).

Week 3

Sept. 19 – Spatial aspects of habitat II.

Lecture notes: Metapopulation dynamics & source-sink theories

Harrison, S.  1994.  Metapopulations and conservation.  In Large-scale Ecology and Conservation Biology: the 35th Symposium of the British Ecological Society with the Society for Conservation Biology, University of Southampton, 1993. P. J. Edwards, R. M. May, N. R. Webb (Eds.).  Blackwell Scientific Publications, Oxford.  Pgs. 111-128.

Dias, P. C. 1996. Sources and sinks in population biology.  Trends in Ecology and Evolution 11(8):326-330.

 

Sept. 21 – Thermal environment and water

Speaker: Peter Jordan

Lecture notes: Energy, thermal, and water relations

Text book (Bolen & Robinson), Chapters 7.4, 11.4, 11.5, 11.13

Gullion, G.W. 1958. The "proximity effect" of water distribution upon desert small game populations. Proc. Conf. W. Assn. State Game & Fish Comms. 38:187-189.

Moen, A.N. 1968. Energy balance of white-tailed deer in the winter. Trans. N. Amer. Wildl. Conf. 33:224-236.

Leopold, A.S. 1977. Supplying drinking water. In The California Quail. University of California Press. 281 pp.

***Deadline: Proposal for Review of an Existing or Proposed Habitat Management Plan***

Week 4

Sept. 26 – Food I.

Speaker: Peter Jordan

Lecture notes: Food I & II

Text book (Bolen & Robinson), Chapter 7

 

Sept. 28 – Food II.

Speaker: Peter Jordan

Lecture notes: Combined with Sept. 26 lecture notes.

Review the following articles in only so much detail as to understand the key points indicated below.

Einarsen, A.S. Crude protein determination of deer food as an applied management technique. Eleventh North American Wildlife Conference.

Key point: Forage quality is affected by fire.

Jordan, P.A. 1987.  Aquatic foraging and sodium ecology of moose: A review.  Swedish Wildl. Res., Suppl 1, Part 1, pp 119-137.

Key point: Understand how moose solve the dilemma of aquiring an essential mineral that is nearly absent in the normal source of their forage.

Klein, D.R.  1962.  Rumen contents analysis as an index of range quality.  Trans N. Am. Wildl. Conf.  27: 150-162.

Key point: Rumen-content parameters offer a functional index of nutritional intake which in turn relates directly to population vigor

Rogers, L. 1976. Effects of mast and berry crop failures on survival, growth, and reproduction of black bears. Trans. N. Amer. Wildl. and Nat. Res. Conf. 41: 431-438.  

Key point: Black Bear reproduction affected by quality of forage and indexed by weight of females in fall.

Stevens, V. C.  1962.  Regional variations in productivity and reproductive  physiology of the cottontail rabbit in Ohio.  Trans. N. Am. Wildl. Conf. 27: 243-253.

Key point: Cottontail reproductive output is “adjusted” to regional soil fertility.

Verme, L.J.  1962.  Mortality of white‑tailed deer in relation to nutrition.  Proc. National Deer Disease Symp. 1:15-32.

Key point: Ecologically designed experimental feeding of pregnant white-tailed does in the north demonstrated a reproductive fit to the seasonality of forage quality, i.e. reproduction tracked forage quality.

Wood, A.J., I. McT. Cowan, and H.C. Nordan.  1962.  Periodicity of growth in ungulates as shown by deer of the genus Odocoileus.  Can. J. of Zool. 40: 593-603.

Key point: Deer growth is adjusted to time of year and independent of food quality.

 

Week 5

Oct. 3 – Substrate

Lecture notes: Substrate

Text book (Bolen & Robinson), Chapter 12

 

Oct. 5 – Predation

Lecture notes: Predation

Lab excercise: The case of the missing elk & Proposed Wolf Control Plan - Idaho Fish & Game

Text book (Bolen & Robinson), Chapter 9

Hebblewhite et al. 2005. Human activity mediates a trophic cascade caused by wolves. Ecology 86:2135-2144.

***Deadline: Draft Habitat Management Plan Critique ***

 

Week 6

Oct. 10 – Wildlife Diseases & Parasites

Lecture notes: Lecture Overheads & Additional Notes (There is some overlap in places)

Diagram of P. tenuis

Speaker: Peter Jordan

Text book (Bolen & Robinson), Chapter 8

 

Oct. 12 – Climate change: understanding and adapting to impacts on habitats

Lecture notes: Climate change

King, D.A. 2004. Climate change science: adapt, mitigate, or ignore? Science 303:176-177.

Johnson et al. 2005. Vulnerability of northern prairie wetlands to climate change. Bioscience 55:863-872

Hulme, P.E. 2005. Adapting to climate change: is there scope for ecological management in the face of a global threat? Journal of Applied Ecology 42:784-794.

Week 7

Oct. 17 – Hunting & Trapping

Lecture notes: Hunting

Text book (Bolen & Robinson), Chapter 10

Milner-Gulland et al. 2003. Wild meat: the bigger picture. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 7:351-357

Guthrie R.D. 2006. New carbon dates link climatic change with human colonization and Pleistocene extinctions. Nature 441:207-209

 

Oct. 19 – Measuring habitat quality

Speaker: Pete Cutter

Lecture notes: Habitat quality

Anderson, S.H. and K.J. Gutzwiller. Wildlife Habitat Evaluation

*** Deadline: Final Habitat Management Plan Critique ***

Week 8

Oct. 24 – Measuring habitat use

Speaker: Chris Burdett, Department of Fisheries, Wildlife, and Conservation Biology, University of Minnesota

Lecture notes: Habitat use

McDonald, L.L., J.R. Alldredge, M.S. Boyce, W.P. Erickson. 2005. Measuring availability and vertebrate use of terrestrial habitats and foods. In Techniques for Wildlife Investigations and Management. C.E. Braun (Ed.). The Wildlife Society, Inc., Bethesda, Maryland. Pgs. 465-488.

 

Oct. 26 – MIDTERM EXAM

***Deadline: Proposal for Habitat Management Plan***

 

Week 9

Oct. 31 – Planning habitat management at the site level.

Lecture notes: Site-level planning

Hirons et al. 1995. Site management planning. In Managing habitats for conservation. W.J. Sutherland and D.A. Hill (Eds). Cambridge University Press, pp. 22-41.

US Fish & Wildlife Service. 2004. Writing Refuge Management Goals and Objectives: A Handbook, pp. 1-30.

The following pages are required reading, pp. 1-6, 8-13, 16, 21-25

 

Nov. 2 – Fundamentals of Monitoring & Guidelines for Writing Habitat Management Plans         

Lecture notes: Fundamentals of Monitoring

Outline for Writing Habitat Management Plans (Required Format)

Morrison, M.L. 2002. Fundamentals of Monitoring.In: Wildlife restoration: techniques for habitat analysis and animal monitoring.

Week 10

Nov. 7 – Planning habitat management at the regional level.           

Speaker: Pete Cutter

Lecture notes: Regional habitat planning

Margules and Pressey 2000. Systematic conservation planning. Nature 405:243-253.

   

Nov. 9 – Introduction to wildlife law & regulation/Endangered Species Act: historic overview

Speaker: Peter Jordan

Lecture notes: Introduction to Legal Regulation

Text book (Bolen & Robinson), Chapter 2, 3, 22

 

Week 11

Nov. 14 – Habitat Conservation Planning under the Endangered Species Act

Moser, D. E. 2000. Habitat conservation plans under the U.S. Endangered Species Act: the legal perspective.  Environmental Mangement 26:S7-S-13

Noss et al. 1997. Criticisms of science in habitat-based conservation plans. In The science of conservation planning: habitat conservation under the Endangered Species Act. Island Press, Washington D.C., Pgs 49-72.

 

Nov. 16 – Forest Management in Minnesota

Speakers: Peter Jordan & Dave Zumeta, Minnesota Forest Resources Council

Lecture notes: Minnesota Forest Management

Minnesota Timber Harvesting and Forest Management Guidelines

***Deadline: Draft Habitat Management Plan***

Week 12

Nov. 21 – Distribution and Management of MN native plant communities

Speaker: Ann Pierce, Department of Natural Resources

Lecture notes: Minnesota Native Plants

Readings: Introduction to Minnesota Native Plant Guide (pp.1-12)

 

Nov. 23 – Happy Thanksgiving!  

 

Week 13

Nov. 28 – International regulation of wildlife habitat

Speaker: Pete Cutter

Lecture notes: International regulations

Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)  http://www.biodiv.org/default.shtml

Article 2. Use of Terms [habitat defined…]
Article 8. In-situ Conservation
Article 10. Sustainable Use of Components of Biological Diversity
Annex I. Identification and Monitoring

Ramsar Convention on Wetlands http://www.ramsar.org/

Convention on Migratory Species (Bonn Convention) http://www.cms.int/documents/convtxt/cms_convtxt.htm  

World Heritage Convention http://whc.unesco.org/en/convention/

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Nov. 30 – Habitat Management in Minnesota’s Southeastern Blufflands

Speaker: Jon Cole, Department of Natural Resources, Whitewater Wildlife Management Area

Lecture notes: Habitat Management in the Whitewater WMA

Readings: High Biodiversity Area Management Plan, Whitewater Sand Savanna

Week 14

Dec. 5 – Urban Wildlife Management

Speaker: Rob Blair, Department of Fisheries, Wildlife, and Conservation Biology, University of Minnesota

Text book (Bolen & Robinson), Chapter 17

 

Dec. 7 – Farmlands

Speaker: Wayne Edgerton, Department of Natural Resources

Text book (Bolen & Robinson), Chapter 13

***Deadline: Final Habitat Management Plan***

Week 15

Dec. 12 – Open session, FINAL EXAM DISTRIBUTED

 

Dec 19: FINAL EXAM DUE