Session Information
| Session | Poster Session | | Date | Monday (2008-04-07) | | Time | 5:00 PM - 7:00 PM | | Room | Grand Terrace |
Presentation Information
| Presenter | Mark Smith | | Title | Modeling military training as an integrated approach to endangered species management on military lands in west-central, Wisconsin | | Affiliation | Dept of Geography and Environmental Engineering | | Authors | Mark Smith, John Cary, Monica Turner | | Keywords | Endangered species, Karner blue butterfly, Lupine, Military, Modeling | | Presentation Type | Poster | Abstract:
Military training occurs throughout the United States within 10.1 million acres of Department of Defense lands. Many of these lands are home to endangered or threatened species, or species that have critical habitat requirements, and the persistence of these species may depend on how, when, and where military training activities occur. Fort McCoy, Wisconsin, is home to the endangered Karner blue butterfly (Lycaeides melissa samuelis). The larvae of the Karner blue butterfly are exclusively dependent on wild lupine (Lupinus perennis), and lupine is dependent upon disturbance. In some locations on Fort McCoy where lupine and military training co-occur, lupine and Karner blue butterflies flourish. To explore if certain military training strategies and fire prescriptions were more capable of sustaining Karner blue butterflies and lupine than others, we developed a computer model to explore the use of military training to manage Karner blue butterfly habitat on Fort McCoy. We varied the location, timing, frequency, and intensity of military training to:
1) Simulate the effects of different types, frequencies, and patterns of military training on Karner blue butterfly and lupine,
2) Evaluate whether certain military training strategies could create disturbances that might sustain Karner blue butterfly and lupine populations on Fort McCoy, and
3) Determine if incorporating biological and ecological information about the Karner blue butterfly and lupine into scheduling of military training improves the probability that Karner blue butterfly and lupine habitats are sustained.
The military training strategy that enabled the military to train evenly across the landscape without regard to species conservation, although easiest to manage, performed the poorest. The indices for lupine and the Karner blue butterfly were lowest for this strategy. Excluding military training from known age lupine five years and younger was the best strategy, and had the highest score for the lupine index, Karner blue butterfly index, and the largest amount of area in prime-age lupine. Excluding training from the highest 20% of the densities of lupine and Karner blue butterfly, was the second best strategy in sustaining lupine and Karner blue butterfly. However, the second best strategy is costly in terms of time and effort and all lupine patches must be field surveyed and monitored, perhaps annually, to determine which lupine patches have the highest lupine and Karner blue butterfly densities.
Increasing fire frequency was more beneficial to Karner blue butterfly and lupine than increasing the number of troops. Increasing the fire frequency from 2 to 10% led to corresponding increases in Karner blue butterfly and lupine. In addition, numbers of Karner blue butterfly and lupine also increased as fire frequency increased as a function of increasing troopdays. Soldier training may increase the likelihood of fire which could represent a reason lupine and Karner blue butterfly continue to flourish at Fort McCoy.
Sensitivity tests of the model reveal more information is needed on the effects soldiers have on trampling lupine plants, how rapidly and to what density lupine plants recover following trampling and fire, and how much disturbances set back succession and to what level. Better information in these areas could better improve the model and provide refined detail on when and where military training and Karner and lupine habitat management could co-occur.
Military land management policies that incorporate ongoing military operations in furthering conservation goals should be employed, promoted, and publicized whenever feasible. This is particularly true when the cost to the land management policy is modest or when the policies employed are particularly effective in improving ecological conditions. Use of models to understand the ecological effects of military operations enables efficient choice of particular management strategies and the tradeoffs they imply. Use of models also provides insight into the elements of which the model is most sensitive, and hence into prioritizing research needs for improving the accuracy of such models. |
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