WILDLIFE AND WILDLANDS MANAGEMENT

SSC 441 - Fall Semester 2010 - 3 Credit Hours

Lectures - Wednesdays 4:10-6:50pm-250 Park

Joseph C. Allen, Instructor 

Interdisciplinary Degree Programs-Environmental Sciences

State University of New York at Buffalo

Buffalo, New York    14260

Office:   203 Clemens Hall

Department 716-645-2245

    E-mail:    jcallen@buffalo.edu 

COURSE DESCRIPTION:  Wildlife and Wildlands Management will focus on the application of ecological principles to studying and managing wildlife populations with emphasis on habitat management.  This course will serve as an introduction to wildlife ecology and management and will focus on the wildlife of North America. The course will begin with a brief examination of the history of wildlife management and wildlife policy in North America.  The majority of the class will focus on important wildlife species, wildlife ecology, population biology, and other subjects of importance to wildlife management.  Special problems such as endangered species preservation, genetic diversity conservation, predator management, control of nuisance and alien species, and other non-game species will be covered. We will discuss case histories and current issues of wildlife management on public and private lands. Science, of which wildlife conservation is a part, allows us to understand how living systems function. This knowledge further allows us to determine our role in maintaining healthy ecosystems.  We will also consider the attitudes of humans toward wildlife and their demands and impacts on North America's wildlife resources.

OBJECTIVES: The objectives of this course are to (1) provide a wildlife based framework for the ecological and socio-politico-economic principles of natural resource management, (2) learn biological and political lessons from past management practices and decisions that have affected wildlife resources, and (3) acquire a background in the ecology of wildlife and appreciation for critical thinking that will serve as a basis for making decisions about wildlife as one dimension of natural resource management.

More specifically, students should have the following knowledge and competencies as outcomes from this course:

• Apply terminology commonly used in wildlife ecological studies

· Utilize the techniques of reading USGS topographic maps and use of compass and GPS to enhance wildlife study           

• Identify with the components of an ecosystem

• Keep a field journal in the Grinnell method of field notes

• Recognize the distribution of terrestrial communities in North America and the underlying causes of these distributions

• Recount the historical impacts of human activity on the distribution and abundance of plants and animals

• Identify common wildlife species employing modern taxonomy of North America including skull identification and other field study identification techniques

• Distinguish commonly used measures of map and landscape distances in English and metric units and relate these units to the scales of animal distribution and abundance

• Graph fundamental growth relationships of populations and be familiar with the shape of common growth curves

• Differentiate exponential growth, intrinsic rate of increase, logistic growth, and carrying capacity

• Determine “r” (quantity, boom or bust) and “K” (quality, carrying capacity) selected species, understand and be able to construct simple life tables and to plot survivorship and mortality curves

• Examine interspecific  and intraspecific  competition

• Differentiate between a niche specialist and a generalist

• Compose a scientific paper involving a literature search in the science style format/make an oral presentation using power-point about your paper

• Investigate certain lab topics and apply lab techniques and investigations to lecture material  

TENTATIVE ITINERARY & READINGS (NOTE: OTHER READINGS MAY BE ASSIGNED FROM WILDLIFE RELATED JOURNALS)

Sept 1 - Course introduction, principles of wildlife management-----Bolen: Chapters 1-3, Leopold: "January-June" and "On a Monument to a Pigeon"

Sept 15 - Researching and writing-Grinnell field journal methods, writing scientific papers-Meeting in UGL-TBA

Sept 22 - USGS Topographic mapping/compass & GPS usage-Meeting in UGL Map Room-TBA

Sept 29 - Ecological components of wildlife management-----Bolen: Chapters 4,7,8,9,11,  Leopold: "Thinking Like a Mountain"

- Food 

- Cover and water

- Predation

- Social systems

- Disease

Oct 6 - Test 1, (calculator required for test) Population Dynamics and Ecology-----Bolen: Chapter 5

Oct 13 - Population Dynamics and Ecology-----Bolen: Chapter 5, Generalized field study of birds and mammals, taxonomy of game species, big game management-----Bolen: Chapter 10 

Oct 20 - Field Trip to Iroquois National Wildlife Refuge, upland game bird/waterfowl, wetland management-----Proposal Due

Oct 27 - Human-wildlife conflicts/overabundant wildlife-----Bolen: Chapter 9, Leopold: "Cheat Takes Over"

Nov 3 - Test 2, Animal behavior, non-game species-----Bolen: Chapters 6, 19 (calculator required for test)

Nov 10 - Local fisheries management------Rick Kustich, author of Fly Fishing for Great Lakes Steelhead

Nov 17 - Management of agricultural habitat-----Bolen: Chapters 13, 14, Leopold: "Land Ethic"

Dec 1 - Endangered species management, management of species in wilderness areas-----Bolen: Chapter 19

Dec 8 - Final Project/Literature Search Paper Presentations------ALL Outside Wildlife Activities Must Be Completed

Exam Week:         Final Exam (calculator required for final)--TBA

CLASSROOM PROTOCOL:  ALL CELL PHONES And/or other communication devices must be TURNED OFF and NOT USED in this class.  Their use/abuse is a constant annoyance; If you cannot live without being in IMMEDIATE contact with the KNOWN universe for 3 hours, do not take this class; If your cell phone rings while in this class, you will be responsible for the purchase of enough chicken wings or tofu wings to feed the entire class!  same condition applies to me!

LECTURES: Lecture material will come from both assigned readings and other sources. Students are expected to complete the readings on an assigned topic before the lecture on that topic. This will stimulate discussion and comparisons and contrasts among various sources of information on each topic. Guest speakers with specific specialties in wildlife management will be included in these presentations

REQUIRED LAB/FIELD COMPONENT: Although there is no specific lab component of this course, outside lab work with USFWS or NYDEC personnel working at game stations, wildlife disease study areas, assisting with fish catch surveys and other wildlife related activities is required.   In class labs will consist of topics related to the lecture material and germane to the study of wildlife management in our local bioregion.  Some lab times will be spent on the Amherst Campus as well as other locations such as the Zoar Valley & the Iroquois National Wildlife Refuge.  Field trip(s) are required!  Students are required to provide their own transportation to and from lab areas wherever that may be. 

EVALUATIONS: Grades will be based on performance on 3 exams (2-100-point lecture exams and a 100-point non-comprehensive final exam) and a 100-point presentation with paper (50 points for oral & power point-50 points for paper), and 10 points for the project proposal, 90 points for outside wildlife activities with the NYDEC and/or the USFWS and field trips. 

100 point lecture exams(2)=200 pts

100 point final exam=100 pts

100 point presentation with paper (50 pts for oral & 50 pts for power-point)=100 pts

10 point project proposal write-up=10 pts

30 point outside wildlife activity with DEC or USFWS and 2-30 point field trips=90 pts

                                                                            Total Possible Points=500 points

Grades will be based on the 2010-2011 Undergraduate Catalog: http://undergrad-catalog.buffalo.edu/policies/grading/explanation.shtml

COURSE PROJECT: Presentation with 5-6 page paper:  students will take a wildlife subject that relates to a scientific issue, particular species, habitat or other problem and by using scientific research data found in the literature, determine whether there has been a resolution or not and present findings to class in form of a 5 minute presentation with power-point visual enhancements.  A list of annotated references is required and must be from scientific journals-no pop cultural sources allowed!  A one page topic proposal must be presented well in advance and approved by instructor; scientific style (CSE style) handouts will be provided to assist students in their paper preparation. The paper must be in the following scientific format:

(1) title, (2) abstract, (3) introduction, (4) materials and methods, (5) results, (6) discussion, (7) acknowledgments, (8) references cited, (9) illustrations (tables and figures), (10) appendix.  

A reference librarian will be available, at the onset of the course, to give a presentation to students on the methodology of researching the scientific literature.

For more information on writing a scientific paper, see:

http://abacus.bates.edu/~ganderso/biology/resources/writing/HTWsections.html

http://www.ento.vt.edu/~sharov/PopEcol/lab2/lab2.html

TEXTS: Available at Talking Leaves Books.

Bolen, E. G., and W. L. Robinson. 2003. Wildlife Ecology and Management, 5th edition. Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey. 605pp.

Leopold, A. 1966. A Sand County Almanac, Balantine books, New York, New York. 295pp.

Additional readings will be added from journals and publications on reserve at the UGL from various sources such as the Journal of Wildlife Management, Journal of Wildlife Diseases, Wildlife Management Techniques Manual and the Journal of Conservation Biology.

SUPPLEMENTAL TEXTS & SUPPLIES:  Field guides are found at many book stores.  Other equipment and supplies will be discussed in class.

Field Journal & Field Box

Field guides for birds and mammals-preferably Sibley’s Field Guide to Eastern Birds & Peterson’s Field Guide to Mammals

Other helpful guides:        Key to Skulls of N. American Mammals-Glass  Click to order this key   

                                             Field Guide to Animal Tracks-Murie