Rural System's

Modern Wild Faunal Resource System Management

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Final List: Course Concepts

One observer said of Giles that he had never seen a list that he did not like.

I really don't like lists; I prefer dynamic n-dimensional arrangements so that words and ideas and plans can be approached from many sides, top and bottom, inside and out...differently.

There is so much to be read, so many thoughts to be thought, so many images to create. Lists help do all of that. There has to be some way to make a brief collection of the main points from which organization and work can be done. That way seems to me to be in lists.

Here are the major concepts and behaviors that you need at the end of the course. Consider combining the following items with The Alternative.

1. You have to know who you've been, who you are, and who or what you are becoming.
2. You've got to know who you want to become. This means having clear objectives.
3. Objectives are complex so having insight into the types of objectives can be useful.
4. Management means being in control, actively shaping and making a significant difference in a desired structure of and direction in a system. The "desire" is a set of objectives.
5. "Form and function" have served some people well; using the parts and pattern of the general system theory can serve you better than those key words.
6. You manage the resource system, not just the animals.
7. You manage populations...rarely individuals, and only if essential.
8. Resources have 4 interactive dimensions: energy or (interchangeably) matter, time, space and variety.
9. "You manage the resource" means to consistently produce perceived benefits to people at reasonable or acceptable costs.
10. You have to work simultaneously among and balance wild animal populations, faunal space, and people (their behavior as well as their expectations and perceived gains).
11. Protection and preservation are one aspect of management, usually in the form of a system constraint.
12. A systems approach as described herein with "start-up" and "feedforward" being topics within it that go beyond classical descriptions will serve people and the resource very well.
13. Breaking the bounds of sequential thought and solutions and then using simultaneous processes and optimization will serve people well. The rationally robust is a reasonable paradigm for this diverse field. (see Giles, R. H., R. G. Oderwald, and A. U. Ezealor. 1993. Toward a rationally robust paradigm for agroforestry systems. Agroforestry Systems 24:21-37.)
14. Objectives are complex but that must not stop their articulation, analyses, and work to achieve them precisely.
15. Complex large systems need an gross analytical structure for analysis and design. Using the 5 Es can be helpful: Ecologic, Economic, Esthetic, Energetic, and Enforcement. Another E, "Equity" might be the link between "esthetic" (implying most of the ethical and social dimensions) and "enforcement" (including the legal, policy, regulatory, and direct monitoring and enforcement actions).
16. The resource benefits come from the wild faunal resource system enterprise, the whole thing.
17. People (human populations, just as faunal populations)can be managed; their behavior can be changed. There are many techniques for doing so. There are limits so clear objectives are needed for assessing the difference between the desired behavioral index and the measured index.
18. Faunal populations all have structure, dynamics, and relations.
19. There are many ways to estimate population densities but knowing the reasons why estimation should rarely be attempted is important.
20. There are now established relations between the weight of animals and the areas they occupy.
21. Genetic relations among populations and small groups of animals (metapopulations) are being discovered. Knowledge of how to change current management practices to be responsive to such knowledge is lacking (2004).
22. The major structural elements of populations are start-up, density, age classes, and sex classes. The manager needs to have estimates of each.
23. The major rates (the elements of so-called elements of "population dynamics") are innate, birth, survival (or its converse, mortality), and dispersal and migration.
24. Surviving populations , those that do not become extinct, replace themselves.
25. Richness means the count (a number) of the species present in an area at a time. (This is used by some people synonymously with biodiversity.)
26. There is bio-, phyto-, and faunal diversity. It may be diverse in an area, in time, and each in density of each species. Diversity of density among species can be addressed by the logarithm of the ranked densities. Spatial differences in diversity can be addressed with conventional statistical "variance" estimates.
27. Populations are rarely distributed uniformly across the land. They tend to have a random distribution. When the distribution is uniform, the mean-to-variance ratio (m/s²) is large; when random, the ratio is about 1.0; when clumped, the ratio is small.
28. The fundamental survival rules of biology work for faunal populations are: start, collect energy, store energy, reproduce.
29. Populations are a function of energy available.
30. Populations are energy budgeters. Like individuals, energy income must equal or exceed energy loss. There is always loss; the manager seeking population increase or stability works to reduce losses of energy to convective, conductive, and radiative losses.
31. Population losses are greatest in the first age class. Managers seeking increases need to reduce these losses.
32. The life group is the faunal element to be managed. Life groups may be more different within a species than between genera. They include major sex and age differences in feeding and other behaviors and needs.
33. The manager needs to concentrate on gaining population gains or losses by concentrating on the female part of the population.
34. Faunal space is the complex of factors affecting the population. It replaces "habitat" as too narrow and limiting a concept. It includes time and the presence of other animals (typically their positive influences and not predation, an excessively large topic) as they may affect survival. The manager changes faunal space.
35. Every spot on Earth, 10m x 10m, is unique. They may be called alpha units.
36. The alpha unit to be studied and managed is a volume, a column extending above and below the alpha unit.
37. Factors influencing animals may be within the alpha unit or near it. Nearness factors need to be included in analyses.
38. Populations of certain species are a function of edge volume.
39. Populations are a function of interspersion of humanly perceived vegetation types.
40. The juxtaposition of vegetation types and ages influences the relative suitability of sites for each faunal life group.
41. Population managers concentrate on supplying (or limiting) energy (phosphorus dependent),water, and protein (nitrogen dependent).
42. Plant communities are aggregates of plants and animals and other factors that develop unique characteristics (thus their name - the community blurred by definitions of ecosystems)
43. Natural communities are largely a function of slope, aspect, and elevation and presence of or nearness to water. These strongly influence the characteristics and thus naming of soils. Latitude is a surrogate for radiant energy received. Soil texture (measured as bulk density) is likely to be a dominant characteristic.
44. There are many ways for communities to reach the same perceived condition (equifinality).
45. Conditions in each unit change in predictable ways a phenomenon called "succession." Faunal life group densities show a direct respond to each stage. A transition matrix can be developed to show likely species in each age of the community (its age class, typically 5-year intervals).
46. The goodness of each stage for each species can be estimated and that goodness modified by interspersion,juxtaposition, and edge measures.
47. Age of a plant community is more important than type of a community for wild animal populations (clarified by life groups)
48. Predation evidence and predator populations are a function of the prey available; predator populations are limited by prey (food and energy). Individual animal behavior (vs that of populations) needs to be addressed individually.
49. "Vertebrate damage management" is the preferred expression suggesting comprehensive management of significant damage and its estimated value loss if real, not necessarily reducing populations or removing individuals.
50. There are few principles ... except this one.

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Last revision January 15, 2004.