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Thesis (M.S. - Renewable Natural Resources)--University of Arizona, 1982. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 80-87).

Thesis (M.S.)--Wisconsin. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 101-114).

No description available.

Typescript. / Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

Ecological goods and services (EG&S) represent the benefits that humans derive from ecosystem functions. The private wealth implications of on-farm EG&S practices that promote wildlife habitat are determined for the Lower Souris River Watershed in South-eastern Saskatchewan. Monte Carlo simulation is used, coupled with NPV analysis, to examine the impacts of practices at a representative farm level. Linear programming is utilized to determine the farm wealth implications of imposing landscape targets across selected parts of the study area. In both models, implementing an EG&S policy or practice comes with costs to farm wealth. Potential exceptions include converting cropland to tame pasture, and EG&S enhancing herd management practices. However, without policy intervention there is continued conversion of native prairie, perennial forage, and lotic riparian landscapes to cropland. Imposing landscape targets preserves these landscape uses, but with a loss in private economic value ranging from $3,196 to $7,179 per quarter section. / Agricultural and Resource Economics

There has been active development and implementation of agri-environmental policies dealing with the provision of ecosystem goods and services over the years. However, these policies have often not been directed towards certain lands with the greatest potential for producing environmental benefits and those areas where the benefits are greater relative to cost. The limited budgets allocated to agri-environmental programs, and the often large and heterogeneous nature of agricultural landscapes, makes policy efficiency an important consideration. Incorporating targeting mechanisms in the design of agri-environmental policy instruments could improve the efficiency of such policies. This thesis illustrates the efficiency gains from policy targeting, by applying three targeting protocols and a hybrid method using representative wildlife habitat conservation policy approaches that set-aside land from crop production by purchasing or leasing land. The GIS land selection models developed for this research assessed the net benefits for wildlife based on the opportunity cost of idling land from agricultural production. As indicated by the results, policy delivery using targeting mechanisms selectively enrolls significantly greater areas of wetlands and natural vegetative cover. Thus, targeted policy enrolled land will provide greater wildlife habitat and other environmental benefits compared to the baseline landscape which represents a non-targeted land enrollment and hence increase the environmental benefits of the program for a given budget.

I studied the population delineation, hierarchical habitat selection, home range requirements, and denning habits of barren-ground grizzly bears (<i>Ursus arctos</i>) in Canada's central Arctic. To meet study goals, I tracked 81 bears equipped with satellite radio-collars in a study area of approximately 235,000 km2, centred 400 km northeast of the city of Yellowknife, Northwest Territories. I identified three populations of grizzly bears in the study area using multivariate cluster analysis of movement data and population range analyses. High exchange among population units for both females and males, however, suggest that identified grizzly bear population units cannot be managed independently from one another. I documented highly selective patterns of habitat selection by grizzly bears in a central, 75,000 km2 portion of the study area. Using resource selection functions, I examined habitat selection at the level of the home range (second order selection). Coverage of habitat was determined from Landsat Thematic Mapper scenes. The general pattern was for bears to possess home ranges, relative to the study area, that contained preferential amounts of esker habitat, tussock/hummock successional tundra, lichen veneer, birch seep, and tall shrub riparian areas over other habitat types. I also examined habitat selection at a finer level of selection (third order selection), whereby habitat use was determined from individual satellite telemetry locations and compared to the availability of habitats within home ranges of individual animals. Overall, esker and riparian tall shrub habitats were the most preferred habitats by bears throughout the year. Annual ranges of males ('X' = 7,245 km2) were significantly larger than the annual ranges of females ('X' = 2, 100 km2). Annual ranges are the largest ranges yet reported for grizzly bears in North America. Multiple regression revealed that ranges increased in size as the proportional amount of poor bear habitat in the environment, supplying constant amounts of quality habitats. Compared to the proportional availability of habitat types in the study area, esker habitat was selected more than expected by chance. The majority of bears emerged from their dens in the first week of May. Den entrance occurred primarily in the last two weeks of October.

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