Living With Wildlife Foundation

EDUCATION:

B.S. in Natural Science from the University of Puget Sound, 1999

PROJECT:

Multi-scale effects of forest roads on black bears

Black bears (Ursus americanus), are a highly adaptable landscape species with few natural predators. With high road densities and increasing traffic volumes throughout much of their range however, the potential effects of roads on bears as well as the habitat which they rely upon are of growing concern (IUCN Bear Specialist Group 2007). The black bear population within the Coeur d’Alene (CDA) river watershed of Northern Idaho is exposed to high road densities and moderately high hunting pressure. Hunting regulations allow for the use of bait and dogs in both spring and fall hunting seasons, and dogs are permitted for non-lethal pursuit during the summer pursuit season. In an effort to better understand the effects of these pressures on black bears, the objectives of this study are as follows:
1. Provide a fine scale analysis of habitat selection of black bears (2nd and 3rd order habitat selection).
2. Assess the effects of road density and traffic volume on this multi-scale habitat selection.
3. Assess alterations to daily activity patterns due to seasonal shifts in traffic volumes.
4. Evaluate potential functional habitat loss for black bears within the area.

Between June 1, 2007, and July 25, 2008, we captured 43 black bears, and instrumented 28 adults with Global Positioning Systems (GPS) collars. Collars are set to acquire positions at 20 minute intervals from April 10 – November 10. Thus far, 3 collars retrieved during the fall of 2007, plus 11 collected from dens in the winter of 2008 have yielded a total of 75,772 locations. Analysis of this data is currently underway. The remaining 20 collars will be collected from dens during the fall and winter of 2008-2009.