John B. Theberge

A review of criteria for evaluating natural areas

Methods for evaluating natural areas have evolved in the last couple of decades to assess the importance of natural areas for the purposes of land-use planning, environmental impact assessment, and planning protected areas. Criteria used for evaluation vary and generally fall into three categories: ecological, or abiotic and biotic; cultural; and planning and management. Abiotic and biotic criteria are reviewed here in terms of three questions for each criterion: What is it—what are the definitions used in the ecological and environmental management literature? Why use it—what are the reasons behind its use? How has it been used—what is the state-of-the-art in assessing the criterion? Cultural criteria are discussed more generally in terms of the commonly used frameworks and the concept of significance. Planning and management criteria are generally related to either the need for management action or feasibility of effective management.

Evaluating natural areas using multiple criteria: Theory and practice

Evaluating natural areas involves making measurements for a series of criteria and deciding which areas are most significant based on these measurements. We review the basic theory of measurement and its application to assessing criteria in 20 different conservation evaluation studies. Different types of models exist to assess the overall significance of natural areas based on multiple criteria. A brief description is presented of these “multicriteria evaluation models” and the underlying theory. The assumptions of these models are outlined as are the types of information that are appropriate to each. We then examine how a final overall ranking is derived in the 20 studies. None explicitly stated the model used and few noted the assumptions involved. Based on theory and current practice, a number of principles are presented to guide the development of evaluation methods. We conclude that evaluation methods should not be allowed to cloud important issues or conceal value judgements. Furthermore, the assumptions of any evaluation method should be clearly stated and rationalized in terms of the data and areas being compared.

A Genetic Assessment of the Eastern Wolf (Canis lycaon) in Algonquin Provincial Park

Abstract Recent genetic data indicate that the eastern wolf is not a subspecies of the gray wolf (Canis lupus), but is a North American wolf more similar to the red wolf (C. rufus) and closely related to the coyote (C. latrans). The eastern wolf has been proposed as a separate species, C. lycaon. The largest protected area containing this wolf is Algonquin Provincial Park in Ontario, Canada, which is bounded to the south by areas containing the Tweed wolf or eastern coyote, a hybrid of the western coyote and eastern wolf. We assessed the relationships of animals in the park by using DNA profiles that comprised the genotype from 17 autosomal and 4 Y-linked microsatellite loci and the mitochondrial DNA control region. These profiles were used to establish maternity, paternity, and kin relationships for 102 wolves that were studied from 24 packs over a 12-year period. Genetic data do not support the hypothesis that a pack comprises an unrelated breeding pair and their offspring. There is evidence of frequent pack splitting, pack fusion, and adoption. Some unrelated individuals in the packs were identified as immigrants into the park. We found high levels of genetic structuring between the Tweed wolves to the southeast and the Algonquin Park wolves (RST = 0.114). Lower levels of genetic differentiation with animals to the north and west (RST = 0.057 and RST = 0.036) and high genetic diversity suggest that park animals are not an island population but the southern part of a larger metapopulation of C. lycaon.

Demography of decline of the Red Wine Mountains Caribou Herd

The causes of decline of woodland caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou) populations remain incompletely understood. We compared population characteristics of woodland caribou of the Red Wine Mountains Herd (RWMH) in central Labrador before (1981-88) and during a population decline (1993-97). During the 1980s, population estimates were 751 (no error estimation) animals in 1981, 736 ± 172 (x ± SE) in 1983, 610 ± 9 in 1987, and 741 ± 165 in 1989. By 1997, the herd declined to 151 animals (95% CI = 65-251). The decline was not associated with changes in parturition rate or in mean age of >1-year-old females, but the decline was associated with significantly lower recruitment, a greater proportion of females in the >1-year-old population, increased mortality of >1-year-old females, and emigration to the parapatric George River Caribon Herd. Throughout the study. predation by gray wolves (Cauis lupus) remained the most frequent cause of mortality of >1-year-old caribou. We hypothesize that wolves may mediate the population dynamics of sed entary woodland caribon when associated with high densities of moose (Alces alces) and migratory caribon, but that the management implications of such a triad remain unclear.

Fuzzy structure and spatial dynamics of a declining woodland caribou population

Examining both spatial and temporal variation can provide insights into population limiting factors. We investigated the relative spatial and temporal changes in range use and mortality within the Red Wine Mountains caribou herd, a population that declined by approximately 75% from the 1980s to the 1990s. To extract the spatial structure of the population, we applied fuzzy cluster analysis, a method which assigns graded group membership, to space use of radio-tracked adult females, and compared these results to a hard classification based on sums-of-squares agglomerative clustering. Both approaches revealed four subpopulations. Based on the subpopulation assignments, we apportioned the number of animals, radio-days, calving events and mortalities across subpopulations before and after the decline. The results indicated that, as the herd declined, subpopulations were disproportionately affected. In general, subpopulations with the greatest range overlap with migratory caribou from the George River herd experienced comparative reductions in activity and increased mortality. The subpopulation with the least overlap exhibited the converse pattern. The infra-population imbalances were more pronounced when hard clustering was employed. Our results reiterate that refugia from other ungulates may be important in the persistence of taiga-dwelling caribou. We propose that changes across time and space are valuable assays of localised demographic change, especially where individuals exhibit spatial hyperdispersion and site fidelity.

Ecological approach to resource survey and planning for environmentally significant Areas: The ABC method

A resource survey and planning method for parks, reserves, and other environmentally significant areas (ESAs) is presented in the context of a holistic balanced approach to land use and environmental management. This method provides a framework for the acquisition, analysis, presentation, and application of diverse ecological data pertinent to land use planning and resource management within ESAs. Through the independent analysis and subsequent integration of abiotic, biotic, and cultural or ABC information, land areas within an ESA are identified in terms of their relative environmental significance and environmental constraints. The former term encompasses wildlife, historic, and other resource values, while the latter term reflects biophysical hazards and sensitivities, and land use conflicts. The method thus calls for a matching of an ESAs distinctive attributes with appropriate land use and institutional arrancements through an analysis of available acts, regulations, agencies, and other conservation and land use management mechanisms. The method culminates with a management proposal showing proposed park or reserve allocations, buffer areas, or other land use controls aimed at preserving an ESAs special ecological qualities, while providing for resource development. The authors suggest that all resource management decisions affecting ESAs should be governed by a philosophical stance that recognizes a spectrum of broad land use types, ranging from preservation to extractive use and rehabilitation.

Guidelines to drawing ecologically sound boundaries for national parks and nature reserves

Ecological approaches to drawing boundaries for parks and reserves are developed, described as 15 guidelines. The five abiotic guidelines are designed with the principle objective of maintaining drainage basin integrity. The ten biotic guidelines are designed to reduce as little as possible the natural diversity of populations in both the total natural area and in the communities directly traversed by the boundary line. Three of the biotic guidelines apply to maintaining community diversity, the remainder to species diversity. These guidelines are applied to a 2500-km2 potential national park in a montane environment in the southwest Yukon Territory. They were successful in generating the conclusion that boundaries in the subalpine best satisfy the guidelines in this environment.

Rabies in wolves of the Great Lakes region.

We report six cases of rabies (three confirmed, three suspected) in gray wolves (Canis lupus) representing 21% of the total wolf mortality in a 5 yr study (1987 to 1992) of radio-collared wolves in Algonquin Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada. Reports of rabies in wolves of the Great Lakes region of North America are rare, even though wolf populations have been studied extensively for almost 40 years. No cases have been documented in wild wolves on the U.S. side of the Great Lakes, whereas, in Ontario, 15 cases have been documented since 1960.

Wolf predation in the Burwash caribou herd, southwest Yukon

The role of wolf predation as a proximate mortality factor influencing caribou herd growth was assessed in the Burwash herd (400 animals) in the southwest Yukon between 1980 - 1982. Ten to 14 wolves in two packs preyed primarily on caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou) and moose (Alces alces) with disproportionate consumption of caribou (relative to available biomass) in the rut and winter periods. Wolf predation was responsible for 72% of total annual mortality in 1980 - 1981 and 46% in 1981 - 1982. Losses due to human harvest varied between 7 to 13%. Additional limited data on climatic factors and winter forage indicated forage-climate were not major proximate mortality factors in 1980 - 1981, but that early-calving climate may have been a factor in increased calf mortality in 1982.

Evaluating biotic diversity in environmentally significant areas in the Northwest Territories of Canada

Abstract A method is developed to evaluate the biotic diversity of candidate environmentally significant areas (ESAs) in the Northwest Territories (NWT) of Canada. The method is part of an evaluation system based on five ecological criteria and linked to analyses of cultural heritage areas, land use and potential management arrangements. Data vary in quantity and quality among ESAs, creating sampling effort bias. To remedy this, we test the use of the number of ‘conspicuous’ vertebrate species as an index of overall vertebrate faunal diversity. For the same reasons we examine the relative merits of three measures of floristic diversity—number of species, genera and families. To correct for the effect of ESA size, regression is used to estimate the expected number of taxa. The number of species greater or less than expected is calculated and used as a diversity index corrected for area. The range of values of diversity are then partitioned into high, average and low ordinal categories of diversity. The method is tested on candidate ESAs in the Great Bear Lake-Eastern Beaufort Sea region of the NWT. The technique is discussed in terms of minimising sampling effort bias, correction for area and latitudinal effects, usefulness in evaluating ESAs and its practicality.