Rural System's

Modern Wild Faunal Resource System Management

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Cover Map Uses

Cover has various meanings, but here I refer only to the general vegetation and land surface differences that can be mapped. A forest stand map is a cover map. The major vegetative cover of an entire state was developed in 1998 from satellite images by Dave Morton.

These different conditions on the land (that can often be seen by people but are probably not the same as perceived by wild animals) are usually strongly related to by at least one species. The map may be of vegetation (or the lack of it) but it is for the faunal system manager a map of probable occurrences of species.

Sheldon observed -

knowledge of the interspersion and juxtapostion of cover types over extensive areas is basic to sound long-range game management planning based on the ecological community.

Sir Peter Medawar, 1965. A biological retrospect. Nature 207: 1327-1330 observed

An ecologist in the modern style, a man working to understand the agencies that govern the structure of natural populations in space and time, needs much more than a knowledge of natural history and a map.

Potential uses of such maps now readily done in geographic information systems (or with their assistance):

1. Assessing range quality.
2. Making game counts by habitat type.
3. Selecting areas for stocking small game.
4. Evaluating land for purchase or other acquisition based on present and potential wildlife habitat.
5. Selecting habitats that tie naturally into management units or that can be tied into operable management and hunting units.
6. Selecting impoundment or waterhole sites.
7. Estimating habitat acreages to evaluate species-specific management potentials and formulating management policies for regions.
8. Establishing realistic census routes for pheasant, grouse, turkey, and quail.
9. Selecting representative cover for research purposes.
10. Forecasting accurately habitat changes due to succession or land practices
11. Determining trends in land change.
12. Revealing effects of refuge or management-area development, maintenance, and use so that information may be readily available for further study in developing and improving practices. It is essential that records be made and preserved of the original plant cover present on managed areas and compared when desirable to see modifications produced in the habitat as a result of land management.
13. Developing food, cover, and habitat (including desired patterns over time) on newly acquired areas.
14. Doing long-term planning for development and management.
15. Analyzing and computing indices of spatial and community diversity or variety.
16. Providing a reference source and basis for comparisons, a part of a data base.
17. Conducting and evaluating timber-stand improvement (TSI) work.

There are few observations of time requirements or costs in the literature. Perhaps that will be corrected some day. Alexander (1959. The habitat map: a basis for wildlife management. New York Fish and Game J. 6(1): 103-113) did make such an observation. Then it took 2 men 2 weeks to cover map a 340 acre enclosure in Oregon.

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This Web site is maintained by R. H. Giles, Jr.
Last revision May 30, 2002.