TY - JOUR
T1 - Wildlife migrations highlight importance of both private lands and protected areas in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem
AU - Gigliotti, Laura C.
AU - Xu, Wenjing
AU - Zuckerman, Gabriel R.
AU - Atwood, M. Paul
AU - Cole, Eric K.
AU - Courtemanch, Alyson
AU - Dewey, Sarah
AU - Gude, Justin A.
AU - Hnilicka, Patrick
AU - Hurley, Mark
AU - Kauffman, Matthew
AU - Kroetz, Kailin
AU - Lawson, Arthur
AU - Leonard, Bryan
AU - MacNulty, Daniel
AU - Maichak, Eric
AU - McWhirter, Douglas
AU - Mong, Tony W.
AU - Proffitt, Kelly
AU - Scurlock, Brandon
AU - Stahler, Daniel
AU - Middleton, Arthur D.
N1 - Funding Information:
The field effort to collect the 26 elk movement datasets used in this analysis came from the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho tribes, Idaho Department of Fish and Game, Montana Fish, Wildlife, & Parks, National Park Service, USDA-APHIS, US Forest Service, USGS, and Wyoming Game and Fish Department, as well as many field technicians, volunteers, and private landowners. Additional funding for collars and captures was provided by Knobloch Family Foundation, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, George B. Storer Foundation, National Geographic Society, Grand Teton Association, and a variety of individual donors. I. Aguilar, K. Dang, and K. Hu assisted with GIS data processing. K. Kroetz, B. Leonard, A. Middleton, and L. Gigliotti received support for this work through Natural Resource Economics (ENRE) Program through grant AWD00035948 from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture. L. Gigliotti and A. Middleton received support for this work from Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation award #WY200444. Any use of trade, firm, or product names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.
Funding Information:
The field effort to collect the 26 elk movement datasets used in this analysis came from the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho tribes, Idaho Department of Fish and Game, Montana Fish, Wildlife, & Parks, National Park Service, USDA-APHIS, US Forest Service, USGS, and Wyoming Game and Fish Department, as well as many field technicians, volunteers, and private landowners. Additional funding for collars and captures was provided by Knobloch Family Foundation , Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation , George B. Storer Foundation , National Geographic Society , Grand Teton Association , and a variety of individual donors. I. Aguilar, K. Dang, and K. Hu assisted with GIS data processing. K. Kroetz, B. Leonard, A. Middleton, and L. Gigliotti received support for this work through Natural Resource Economics (ENRE) Program through grant AWD00035948 from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture. L. Gigliotti and A. Middleton received support for this work from Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation award # WY200444 . Any use of trade, firm, or product names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022
PY - 2022/11
Y1 - 2022/11
N2 - Formally protected areas are an important component of wildlife conservation, but face limitations in their effectiveness for migratory species. Improved stewardship of working lands around protected areas is one solution for conservation planning, but private working lands are vulnerable to development. In the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE), ungulates such as elk (Cervus canadensis) use both protected areas and private lands throughout their annual migrations. We studied patterns of landownership, protection, and conservation challenges within the ranges of migratory elk in the GYE. We used GPS data from 1088 elk in 26 herds to define herd-level seasonal ranges, and extracted covariates related to landownership and protection, land use, and human infrastructure and development. All elk herds used land encompassing >1 ownership type. Most elk herds (92.3 % of herds, n = 24) used the highest proportion of private land in the winter (mean = 36.2 % private land). Most elk herds' winter ranges contained the highest building densities (mean = 1.24 buildings/km2), fence densities (mean = 1.02 km fence/km2), and cattle grazing (mean = 1.9 cows/km2), compared to migratory and summer ranges. Out of all ranges, 36.5 % of ranges did not have any zoning regulations, indicating the potential for future development. Our results show that elk in the GYE rely on habitat outside of protected areas, and face landscape-scale conservation challenges such as habitat fragmentation from human development, particularly in winter ranges. Future conservation strategies for wildlife in this system need to encompass coordination across both public and private land to ensure migratory connectivity.
AB - Formally protected areas are an important component of wildlife conservation, but face limitations in their effectiveness for migratory species. Improved stewardship of working lands around protected areas is one solution for conservation planning, but private working lands are vulnerable to development. In the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE), ungulates such as elk (Cervus canadensis) use both protected areas and private lands throughout their annual migrations. We studied patterns of landownership, protection, and conservation challenges within the ranges of migratory elk in the GYE. We used GPS data from 1088 elk in 26 herds to define herd-level seasonal ranges, and extracted covariates related to landownership and protection, land use, and human infrastructure and development. All elk herds used land encompassing >1 ownership type. Most elk herds (92.3 % of herds, n = 24) used the highest proportion of private land in the winter (mean = 36.2 % private land). Most elk herds' winter ranges contained the highest building densities (mean = 1.24 buildings/km2), fence densities (mean = 1.02 km fence/km2), and cattle grazing (mean = 1.9 cows/km2), compared to migratory and summer ranges. Out of all ranges, 36.5 % of ranges did not have any zoning regulations, indicating the potential for future development. Our results show that elk in the GYE rely on habitat outside of protected areas, and face landscape-scale conservation challenges such as habitat fragmentation from human development, particularly in winter ranges. Future conservation strategies for wildlife in this system need to encompass coordination across both public and private land to ensure migratory connectivity.
KW - Disturbance
KW - Easements
KW - Elk
KW - Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem
KW - Land use
KW - Protection
KW - Zoning
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85139297430&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85139297430&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.biocon.2022.109752
DO - 10.1016/j.biocon.2022.109752
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85139297430
SN - 0006-3207
VL - 275
JO - Biological Conservation
JF - Biological Conservation
M1 - 109752
ER -