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Habitat Protection

Keeping Track provides training to help groups of volunteers establish wildlife habitat monitoring programs in their towns or regions. We teach people how to detect, identify, interpret and record the track and sign of certain target species. We also teach people about the issues of habitat fragmentation and conservation biology, how to identify habitat types, and how to design and monitor study areas, or transects. The monitoring programs that result from our training do not create inventories or censuses of wildlife populations. The track and sign data produced by a Keeping Track program documents:

• the presence or absence of sensitive, endangered or other target species;
• repeated uses of specific areas which could lead to the identification of critical habitat areas and/or travel corridors;
• positive or negative changes in the status of wildlife populations inhabiting an area, and corresponding changes in habitat size and quality; and needs for both immediate and long-term conservation planning.

Selection of Focal Species

Keeping Track's program is designed to capture information about mammals. Therefore, while looking for information about other orders of fauna may be interesting, and important in its own way, for this program you need to focus on selecting a list of mammals that are representative of your area. In designing this list, you will be looking at four different categories of mammals:

• area-sensitive carnivores
• threatened and endangered carnivores
• keystone species
• expanding species

These categories are by no means mutually exclusive, but they cover the range of mammals that are useful for this type of monitoring program.

Keeping Track's protocol is designed primarily to collect data regarding area-sensitive carnivores, those species that requires a large home range relative to their size. For a black bear, this might mean 20 - 50 square miles; for a cougar, 100 square miles. In the case of a bobcat or a fisher, perhaps 20 and 10 square miles, respectively. These species are particularly susceptible to decline because their relatively large home range requirements, frequently coupled with low population densities and reproductive rates, make them vulnerable to the ill effects of habitat loss or degradation. Insular populations in fragmented habitats severely compromise the long-term well being of many species. Indeed, the documented presence of certain species serves as a good indicator of the wholeness and relative health of their habitats. Depending on the geographic region studied, they may be appreciated as 'umbrella' species. Their niche requirements overlap with numerous other taxonomic and ecological functions. Protecting adequate habitat for umbrella species on a landscape scale ensures that many other elements of biodiversity will be protected.

Another critical category is large mammals that are threatened or endangered in your region. This category might include the Canada lynx, wolf, pine marten, or mountain lion.

The third set of animals that can be very important focal species for a Keeping Track program are "keystone species". A keystone species is one that provides nutritional or habitat support for a host of other species in a region. Cases in point are the prairie dog and the beaver. The prairie dog not only serves as a critical prey item for many carnivores, it also has a sometimes profound effect on the ecology of its home range, through its burrowing activities. The beaver is especially important in this latter regard, in that it can dramatically change the landscape around its home (both by its presence and absence), with lasting effects for other wildlife who share its habitat.

Expanding Species

Finally, there are some species, such as moose, that are actively expanding their range either into areas where they occurred historically or into new ranges. Expanding species, whether native or exotic, can have a significant impact on their new habitat and the other animals that already reside there. Keeping Track monitoring data may document the arrival of 'new' species within a region and, over time, its positive or negative impacts on its habitat

In northern New England, the focal species for Keeping Track programs have been established as black bear, river otter, mink, fisher, bobcat and moose. In other areas, the list is obviously going to be somewhat different. It is the responsibility of local groups to develop preliminary lists of possible focal species and their usual habitat types, through research at state Natural Heritage Programs, universities, or fish, wildlife or forestry services. These entities can provide a starting point for developing the focal species list, and Keeping Track will identify for you those that will work best for this type of program.

Keeping Track monitoring plots, known as transects, need to incorporate certain types of habitat areas, in order to identify the overall health and nature of wildlife habitat in the region. We categorize these habitat areas into three distinct types:

• Core Habitats & Travel Corridors
• Peninsular Habitats
• Insular Habitats

A primary need is for "core habitats" and the connections between them. Core habitats are unbroken areas of undisturbed natural habitat that can serve as home areas for source populations of animals. The connections between them, called corridors, are important travel zones that ensure both physical and genetic connectivity between different populations. Examples of core habitats might be an established wilderness area, or a large forested area with few or no roads. In either case, the habitat would encompass all the life requisites of the focal species, including water, food, shelter and cover.

Another type of habitat that we focus on is the "peninsular habitat", which is exactly what it sounds like: an area of habitat bounded on three sides by development, agricultural land, or other activity generally unsuitable for wildlife. A peninsular habitat is threatened by the fact that its possibilities for connectivity with other habitat areas are limited to one direction (the base of the peninsula). That area is a "pinch point", where concentrations of wildlife will occur due simply to topographic limitations and the need for them to travel from one area to another. For example, a hedgerow growing out into some agricultural fields, but connected on one end to a forested area, would be a peninsular habitat. Likewise, a point of land formed where two rivers merge creates a peninsular habitat.

A third habitat type is an "insular" or "island habitat". This is exactly what it sounds like, and represents the most fragile type of habitat. The word "island" does not necessarily refer to land surrounded by water. An island habitat is simply one that is surrounded on all sides by areas, which are difficult if not impossible for wildlife to utilize and/or cross. This means that none can get out, but perhaps more importantly, none can get in. At best, an island habitat creates unique survival strategies among its isolated population, a la the Galapagos Islands; at worst, a small island habitat will eventually lose many wildlife species to the increasingly shallow gene pool and will be further compromised by the presence of more aggressive wildlife species that are adapted to 'edge', or transitional, habitats. Two common types of island habitats that we see in the United States are a) small remnants of forest in a matrix of extensive urban or suburban development, and b) "sky islands"-- isolated mountains surrounded by desert.

In selecting and designing transects for a Keeping Track program, we teach participants to recognize and seek out these different habitat types in their communities, and to recognize where the critical areas are that provide habitat connectivity and wholeness. Among the questions you will be taught to ask as you set up transects are:

• What are the enduring landscape features that wildlife use in predictable ways?
• What are the habitat values in cover that wildlife seeks out, i.e. the horizontal and vertical structure of the vegetation? What are the food resources that are available?
• What are the marking behaviors of the wildlife studied, and how can you detect the use of habitat through studying those marks?