Rangeland Ecology & Management

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Assessing the influence guzzlers and other habitat features have on species occupancy in CRP fields across Western Kansas.
Author
Brandon Calderon
Elmer Finck
David Dahlgren
Publication Year
2013
Body

Aldo Leopold (1933) stated that wildlife populations are limited by a complex association of limiting factors. Among these limiting factors he distinguishes between welfare and decimating factors, or those that benefit a population by being present or absent, respectively. Among others, he notes that wildlife management practices have trended to control for food, cover and special factors (e.g. water). The relative impact of water on wildlife populations has become a controversial topic for many wildlife managers. Up until recently, the Farm Service Agency granted additional Environmental Benefit Index (EBI) points to landowners who installed artificial wildlife water developments (guzzlers) on lands enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP). The primary goal of these developments was aimed at benefiting economically important target species, such as ring-necked pheasant (Phasianus colchicus) and northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus). However, the Kansas Natural Resource Conservation Service has acknowledged a lack of information relative to what impact these developments have on wildlife populations, and has ceased to grant EBI points for guzzlers. Our project used occupancy-modeling techniques to evaluate the impact guzzlers as well as other various habitat features (i.e., veg structure, percent cover, surrounding land cover, etc.) have on mesocarnivore and target species occupancies within CRP fields across Western Kansas.

Language
eng
Additional Information
Brandon Calderon1 ,2, Elmer Finck1, David Dahlgren2 --- 1Fort Hays State University, Hays, Kansas, USA, 2Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism, Hays, Kansas, USA