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Cultural resource applications for a GIS: Stone conservation at Jefferson and Lincoln Memorials

Geographical information systems are rapidly becoming essential tools for land management. They provide a way to link landscape features to the wide variety of information that managers must consider when formulating plans for a site, designing site improvement and restoration projects, determining maintenance projects and protocols, and even interpreting the site. At the same time, they can be valuable research tools. Standing structures offer a different sort of geography, even though a humanly contrived one. Therefore, the capability of a geographical information system (GIS) to link geographical units to the information pertinent to the site and resource management can be employed in the management of standing structures. This was the idea that inspired the use of a GIS software, ArcView, to link computer aided design CAD) drawings of the Jefferson and Lincoln Memorials with inventories of the stones in the memorials. Both the CAD drawings and the inventory were in existence; what remained to be done was to modify the CAD files and place the inventory in an appropriately designed computerized database, and then to link the two in a GIS project. This work was carried out at the NPS Denver Service Center, Resource Planning Group, Applied Archaeology Center (DSC-RPG-AAC), in Silver Spring, Maryland, with the assistance of US/ICOMOS summer interns Katja Marasovic (Croatia) and Rastislav Gromnica (Slovakia), under the supervision of AAC office manager Douglas Comer. Project guidance was provided by Tony Donald, the Denver Service Center (DSC) project architect for the restoration of the Jefferson and Lincoln Memorials, and GIS consultation services by Kyle Joly.

Cultural Resources Management↗

Management of Pacific brant: Population structure and conservation issues

Pacific brant ( Branta bernicla ) nest from the Yukon-Kuskokwim (Y-) Delta in southwestern Alaska along the coast of North America to the central Canadian arctic (Pacific Flyway Subcommittee on Pacific Brant 1992) (Figure 1). Birds from this population also nest in the Canadian arctic islands south of Prince Patrick Island and on the coast of the Chukotka Peninsula. Brant nest principally in colonies associated with productive river deltas but isolated nests and small aggregations are common, especially in the arctic. Most Pacific brant breed on the Y-K Delta (Sediger et al. 1993).

Transactions of the North American Wildlife and Na↗

Genetic diversity in Arctic-nesting geese: Implications for management and conservation

The North Pacific Rim harbors breeding populations of many unique wildlife resources, of which waterfowl are among the most abundant and taxonomically diverse. Arctic nesting geese in particular are wide-spread in distribution (Figure 1), and though only seasons residents, they have evolved many unique adaptations for breeding in northern latitudes. This diversity has been recognized and managed at many taxonomic and geographic levels (Figure 2). Populations are spatially structured on macro- and micro-geographic scales reflecting taxon-specific migratory tendencies, and breeding and winter site fidelity.

Transactions of the North American Wildlife and Na↗

Evaluation and refinement of Guadalupe Bass conservation strategies to support adaptive management

Burbot Lota lota is the sole freshwater representative of the cod-like fishes and supports subsistence, commercial, and recreational fisheries worldwide above approximately 40° N. It is a difficult species to manage effectively due to its preference for deep-water habitats and spawning activity under the ice in winter. Like other gadiform fishes, Burbot use acoustic signaling as part of their mating system, and while the acoustic repertoire of the species has been characterized under artificial conditions (i.e., net pen suspended under ice in a natural lake), there has been no work to determine whether the species is as vocal in natural spawning aggregations. Our objective was to assess the feasibility of collecting and using acoustic data to characterize the spawning activity and locations of Burbot under field conditions. We recorded audio and video of Burbot spawning aggregations through holes drilled into the ice at known spawning grounds at Moyie Lake in British Columbia, Canada. Acoustic recordings (call counts and audiograms) were analyzed using Raven Pro v 1. 4 software. Acoustic behavior was also related to video data to determine how acoustic activity correlated to any observed spawning behavior. In general, wild Burbot spawning in Moyie Lake did not vocalize as frequently as counterparts spawning under artificial conditions. Further, Burbot vocalizations were not recorded in conjunction with spawning activity. While it may be feasible to use passive acoustic monitoring to locate Burbot spawning grounds and identify periods of activity, it does not seem to hold much promise for locating and quantifying spawning activity in real time.

Cooperator Science Series↗

Application and utility of a low-cost unmanned aerial system to manage and conserve aquatic resources in four Texas rivers

Low-cost unmanned aerial systems (UAS) have recently gained increasing attention in natural resources management due to their versatility and demonstrated utility in collection of high-resolution, temporally-specific geospatial data. This study applied low-cost UAS to support the geospatial data needs of aquatic resources management projects in four Texas rivers. Specifically, a UAS was used to (1) map invasive salt cedar (multiple species in the genus Tamarix) that have degraded instream habitat conditions in the Pease River, (2) map instream meso-habitats and structural habitat features (e.g., boulders, woody debris) in the South Llano River as a baseline prior to watershed-scale habitat improvements, (3) map enduring pools in the Blanco River during drought conditions to guide smallmouth bass removal efforts, and (4) quantify river use by anglers in the Guadalupe River. These four case studies represent an initial step toward assessing the full range of UAS applications in aquatic resources management, including their ability to offer potential cost savings, time efficiencies, and higher quality data over traditional survey methods.

Texas↗