D
Deerslayer
Guest
Living Between the Roads.....
Wild animals have a difficult time adjusting to man and his machines. For example, even though bald and golden eagles hang out around the roadside smorgasbords, they preferentially nest away from roads. If not starving or habituated to Hostess Twinkies, black and grizzly bears shift their home ranges away from areas with high road densities. Mountain lions and wolves do the same thing.
There's a lot going on that doesn't meet the eye, too. Researchers have found that heart rate and therefore metabolic rates and energy expenditures of female bighorn sheep increase near roads. Roads can also affect an animal's reproduction success. In Oregon, productivity of nesting bald eagles was found to decline near roads. Sandhill cranes also avoid nesting near paved and graveled public roads. Both elk and mule deer winter away from active road systems.
Roads affect fish. Road crossings commonly act as barriers to the movement of fish like the cutthroat trout. Although many headwater populations of trout are natuarlly migratory, they are often isolated in headwaters today, largely because of barriers created by road crossings that fail to provide for fish passage. Raods generally change the routing of runnoff and cause unusually high flows that can trigger erosion. The fine sediments produced during these events end up in our streams and reduce the productivity, survival, and growth of fish. Biologists with the Game and Fish Department are struggling with many issues affecting roads in Wyoming. For instance, some coal-bed methane developments in the Powder River Basin have resulted in the construction of 4 to 5 miles of road per square mile. This type of development is expected to occur over millions of acres. To make matters worse, leafy spurge, the supreme invasive weed of the West, loves the disturbed soild around roads, well pads, and pipelines.
The cumulative effect of agriculture conversions of sagebrush to row crops and non-native haylands, thousands of miles of new road and pipelines, well pads and compressor station yards, and the efforts to kill sagebrush to facilitate the control of leafy spurge will result in significant losses. These are some of the reasons that, over the last 30 years, shrub-steppe birds have declined more consistently than any other group of birds in the country.
To make matters worse, nesting birds may not use much of the sagebrush that remains between roads. A researcher in southwestern Wyoming discovered that there is a 50% reduction in sagebrush-obligate songbirds nesting withing 100 meters of gasfield roads. Coal-bed methane developments may have a significant impact on populations of Brewer's sparrows,sage sparrows, sage thrashers, and vesper sparrows. This analysis raises another concern---the effects coal-bed methane developments may have on sage grouse, another sagebrush obligate.
Roads also affect elk, another "between the roads" species. Dozens of researchers have found that elk in hunted populations do best away from open roads. Elk recover from the stress of the previous winter with lush feed and a relatively quiet lifestyle during the spring and summer. In addition to rendering habitats less useable, roads force elk onto private lands where most hunters can't reach them, making it difficult for the Game and Fish Department to manage the herd. The most important consideration of elk management is insuring security from human disturbance, and roads are the greatest detriment to security.
Lots of roads plus lots of hunters equal very few mature bulls. Very few mature bulls equals more restrictive hunting seasons to maintain the number of bulls needed in the herd. To maintain liberal bull-elk hunting seasons, Game and Fish biologists are working with Bighorn National Forest personnel to determine how to manage their 1,600 miles of roads and 1,500 miles of trails to maintain elk security areas. So far, more than half these hidey-holes have been eliminated. The challenge is to maintain access for people while providing a place for wildlife between the roads.
When you look at a map of the roads of Wyoming, there's not much "in between" remaining. Because of the increasing rarity of roadless areas and the wildlife that depend on them, it's CRITICAL that we retain what's left. While road kill deer demonstate and obvious impact of roads, biologists are quick to acknowledge that there are plenty of indirect effects we don't fully understand.
Wild animals have a difficult time adjusting to man and his machines. For example, even though bald and golden eagles hang out around the roadside smorgasbords, they preferentially nest away from roads. If not starving or habituated to Hostess Twinkies, black and grizzly bears shift their home ranges away from areas with high road densities. Mountain lions and wolves do the same thing.
There's a lot going on that doesn't meet the eye, too. Researchers have found that heart rate and therefore metabolic rates and energy expenditures of female bighorn sheep increase near roads. Roads can also affect an animal's reproduction success. In Oregon, productivity of nesting bald eagles was found to decline near roads. Sandhill cranes also avoid nesting near paved and graveled public roads. Both elk and mule deer winter away from active road systems.
Roads affect fish. Road crossings commonly act as barriers to the movement of fish like the cutthroat trout. Although many headwater populations of trout are natuarlly migratory, they are often isolated in headwaters today, largely because of barriers created by road crossings that fail to provide for fish passage. Raods generally change the routing of runnoff and cause unusually high flows that can trigger erosion. The fine sediments produced during these events end up in our streams and reduce the productivity, survival, and growth of fish. Biologists with the Game and Fish Department are struggling with many issues affecting roads in Wyoming. For instance, some coal-bed methane developments in the Powder River Basin have resulted in the construction of 4 to 5 miles of road per square mile. This type of development is expected to occur over millions of acres. To make matters worse, leafy spurge, the supreme invasive weed of the West, loves the disturbed soild around roads, well pads, and pipelines.
The cumulative effect of agriculture conversions of sagebrush to row crops and non-native haylands, thousands of miles of new road and pipelines, well pads and compressor station yards, and the efforts to kill sagebrush to facilitate the control of leafy spurge will result in significant losses. These are some of the reasons that, over the last 30 years, shrub-steppe birds have declined more consistently than any other group of birds in the country.
To make matters worse, nesting birds may not use much of the sagebrush that remains between roads. A researcher in southwestern Wyoming discovered that there is a 50% reduction in sagebrush-obligate songbirds nesting withing 100 meters of gasfield roads. Coal-bed methane developments may have a significant impact on populations of Brewer's sparrows,sage sparrows, sage thrashers, and vesper sparrows. This analysis raises another concern---the effects coal-bed methane developments may have on sage grouse, another sagebrush obligate.
Roads also affect elk, another "between the roads" species. Dozens of researchers have found that elk in hunted populations do best away from open roads. Elk recover from the stress of the previous winter with lush feed and a relatively quiet lifestyle during the spring and summer. In addition to rendering habitats less useable, roads force elk onto private lands where most hunters can't reach them, making it difficult for the Game and Fish Department to manage the herd. The most important consideration of elk management is insuring security from human disturbance, and roads are the greatest detriment to security.
Lots of roads plus lots of hunters equal very few mature bulls. Very few mature bulls equals more restrictive hunting seasons to maintain the number of bulls needed in the herd. To maintain liberal bull-elk hunting seasons, Game and Fish biologists are working with Bighorn National Forest personnel to determine how to manage their 1,600 miles of roads and 1,500 miles of trails to maintain elk security areas. So far, more than half these hidey-holes have been eliminated. The challenge is to maintain access for people while providing a place for wildlife between the roads.
When you look at a map of the roads of Wyoming, there's not much "in between" remaining. Because of the increasing rarity of roadless areas and the wildlife that depend on them, it's CRITICAL that we retain what's left. While road kill deer demonstate and obvious impact of roads, biologists are quick to acknowledge that there are plenty of indirect effects we don't fully understand.
