1) The presentation outlined approaches for vegetation management that considers both weed control goals and wildlife habitat needs. 2) Modifications to the timing, intensity, proportion, and scale of management activities can help reduce impacts on wildlife. 3) Coordinating with wildlife professionals and taking on some wildlife responsibilities can help achieve dual goals of weed control and wildlife habitat preservation through vegetation management.

1. Vegetation Management
with
Wildlife in Mind
Amy Yarger
&
John Vickery
COSA Annual Conference
Snowmass Village, CO
September 22, 2015
Butterfly Pavilion
Colorado Native Plant Society,
Education & Outreach Committee

2. Session outline
• Introductions
• Presentation (20’)
• Case studies in small groups (20’)
• Reporting back to entire group
• Entire/large group discussion
• Conclusions/wrap up

3. PRESENTATION OUTLINE
• Introductory sequence
– Definition: weed control; vegetation
management
– Dual goals; multi-purpose land/vegetation
management
– How animals utilize plants—weeds or otherwise
Or, Ecological services of weeds
• Modifications & examples
– Timing
– Proportion, Intensity, Scale, (Frequency)
– Targeted modifications—TE&S species
• Summary points, closing, acknowledgements

4. Vegetation
management
includes . . .

5. Ecological Services of Weeds:
Or, how animals utilize plants
Non-native plants
(noxious weeds or
otherwise) can be
important for native
animals:
• food
• direct consumption
• through food chain/web
• shelter, cover, shade
• nesting/denning material or
sites; egg laying
• perch & roost sites
Steve Burt
Bull thistle
CO noxious weed
B list

6. Dual goals
Most vegetated land can
serve as wildlife habitat
The impacts of weed control
and VM activities on
wildlife—both
vertebrate and invertebrates
—can be ameliorated via a
working framework of ‘dual
goals’:
1) the driving purpose for the
management activity
2) wildlife habitat OR
plant utilization by animals
[ecological services provided
by plants]
‘Jim Gilbert, Courtesy of Conserve Wildlife Foundation of NJ

7. Driving purposes
Driving purposes include economic
and VM activities such as
• Livestock grazing
• Ditch clearance
• Power transmission, utility ROW
maintenance
• Road and trail ROW
maintenance
• Invasive plant control/weed
management
• Habitat improvement, VM for
wildlife:
- weed control - prescribed fire
- restoration - woody plant thinning
Pinelands Commission, NJ
Boulder Open Space & Mountain Parks

8. 2nd goal: wildlife
The second goal is to reduce the
negative impacts of the driving
purpose (and in some cases,
improve wildlife habitat)
• vertebrates
• invertebrates
• terrestrial
• aquatic
• amphibian
Boulder Mountain Parks & Open Space
www.chriskaylerphotography.com
Rich Merritt
Pine Barrens tree frog
bobolink
stonefly

9. Two goals?
Modifications
The second goal can often be
achieved by modifying the
• Timing
• Intensity
• Proportion
• Scale
• (Frequency)
of weed & vegetation
management activities
Boulder Mountain Parks & Open Space
Courtesy of Lisabeth L.
Willey

10. Standard modifications
• Timing Where possible, these activities should be
carried out when animals are not present or not active.
• Intensity or degree Practioners may need to reduce
the intensity or degree of the activity:
– the duration, frequency, and level (stocking density) of
livestock grazing
– the height and frequency of mowing
– the temperature and duration of a prescribed burn
– the portion of the weed species present that are targeted
• Proportion Usually, only a part of the land to be
managed or a portion of a particular vegetation
community or habitat should be treated at any one time.
• Keep in mind: Scale Single site, multiple sites in
jurisdiction, local area/multiple jurisdictions, region,
river basin, ecoregion, etc.

11. Management modifications: Timing
Generally best to carry out VM:
• During absence from
• Site: Before, after migration
• Land: e.g., amphibious invert & vertebrates
• During times of inactivity
• Diapause, pre-hatch
• Pre-emergence--when they are still in burrow, den,
hive, nest (e.g., underground_ etc.
• Dormant season, winter
• Inactive portion of the day (light, temp)
• Before they are especially active or site-invested,
mating & nesting season (e.g., birds)
• After fledging or otherwise more mobile (e.g., ground
nesting birds)

12. Illinois*
Relict sand prairie
Prescribed fire
Ornate box turtle &
hognose snake
Conduct burns earlier in
spring prior to emergence
from overwintering burrows
*along eastern bank of the
Mississippi River, northern IL
(Upper MI NWR)
Management modifications: Timing

13. South Carolina
Woodland
Path mowing (June)
Eastern box turtle
1. Scout ahead
2. Raise mower blade
3. Limit mowing to
Dec-Feb √
Courtesy of Lisabeth L. Willey
Courtesy of Lisabeth L. Willey
Management modifications: Timing

14. screwleaf muhly
Muhlenbergia
straminea/virescen
s
Courtesy, San Rafael Valley Grass-Fed Beef
Southeastern AZ

15. Mgmt modifications: Proportion & Intensity
SLEVIN'S
BUNCHGRASS LIZARD
Sceloporus slevini
Plain form
Images Courtesy of Thomas C. Brennan ,
Reptiles & Amphibians of Arizona Example courtesy of David Scott,
via PARC listserve, Oct. 2010

16. NEW JERSEY PINELANDS
ELECTRIC-TRANSMISSION
RIGHTS-OF-WAY
VEGETATION-MANAGEMENT PLAN
New Jersey Pinelands National Reserve
Management modification: timing
Courtesy: John F. Bunnell,
Pinelands Commission
via PARC listserve, Oct. 2010

18. The specific goal of this project was to . . . create and
maintain relatively stable and sustainable, early
successional habitats . . .

20. Courtesy of Chris Kayler Photography
Courtesy of Conserve Wildlife Foundation of NJ
Larry Allain @ USDA-NRCS PLANTS Database Courtesy of Dennis D. Horn via U.TN Herbarium
www.chriskaylerphotography.com
narrowleaf primrose-willow pine barrens bellwort
pine barrens tree frogbobolink 2 spans w timing restrictions 144 spans w timing restrictions

21. Weed/vegetation managers should
take into account or consider:
• Significance of the plant community
• Status of affected animals (T/E/SofC)
• Availability of (& access to) alternatives
(food sources, etc.)
• Mobility of the animals of concern
• Timing of control measures
• Adjusting intensity, frequency,
proportion phasing, scale of control
• Planting replacement native plants—
weed control
• Other human activities
• Natural events/circumstances
Key points: wildlife-friendly VM
Boulder OSMP

22. Encouraged:
Weed control and
vegetation management
folks should:
• Coordinate with wildlife
professionals
And/or
• Assume some wildlife-
related responsibilities
Terry Gray
American goldfinch on bullthistle

23. Dual goals approach
Wildlife-friendly
vegetation and
weed management
Heidi Genter
Common mullein
CO noxious weed
List B

24. Megan Bowes, Open Space & Mountain Parks, City of Boulder
John F. Bunnell, Pinelands Commission
Fred Janzen, Dept. of Ecology, Evolution, & Organismal
Biology, Iowa State University
Mary Lang Edwards, Dept. of Biology, Erskine College
David Scott, Savannah River Ecology Laboratory,
University of Georgia
Acknowledgements

25. For more information
or to
suggest other examples of
‘Wildlife-friendly vegetation management’
Contact:
John Vickery
jvickery_(at)_mcg.net

26. BREAK OUT SESSION OPTIONS
1. Native pollinators AND revegetation, restoration
2. Wildlife AND public relations
3. Prairie dog colonies AND vegetation management
4. Woody plant control AND various control
methods (mechanical, chemical, M+C, biological)
5. Terrestrial invertebrates AND herbaceous weed
control & prescribed fire
6. Ground nesting birds AND agricultural practices
7. Wildlife AND Mowing

27. BREAK OUT SESSION OPTIONS
1. Native pollinators AND revegetation, restoration
Case study: Big Dry Creek Open Space, Westminster, CO
2. Wildlife AND public relations
Case study: Monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus), Butterfly Pavilion and local OS systems
[Includes potential for unauthorized VM]
3. Prairie dog colonies AND vegetation management
Generalized example: Northern Colorado Front Range urban-to-exurban or ‘confined’ colonies
4. Woody plant control AND various control methods (mechanical, chemical, M+C,
biological)
Case study: tamarisk control AND TES species—sw willow flycatcher (CO, adjoining states)
5. Terrestrial invertebrates AND herbaceous weed control & prescribed fire
Case study: musk thistle control, fire suppression AND TES species—Pawnee montane skipper
Upper Platte River watershed (Jefferson, Douglas, Teller & Park counties)
6. Ground nesting birds AND agricultural practices
Case study: TES species—bobolink AND haying [Boulder, CO]
Option 1: focus on TES status species
Option 2: focus on agricultural practices
7. Wildlife AND Mowing
Not a case study: presented in general terms
[Presentation examples: - eastern box turtle and trail mowing (SC, IL)
- power line ROW maintenance in Pinelands National Reserve (NJ)

28. BREAK OUT SESSION OPTIONS
1. Native pollinators AND revegetation, restoration
Case study: Big Dry Creek Open Space, Westminster, CO
2. Wildlife AND public relations
Case study: Monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus), Butterfly
Pavilion and local OS systems
[Includes potential for unauthorized VM]
3. Prairie dog colonies AND vegetation management
Generalized example: Northern Colorado Front Range urban-to-
exurban or ‘confined’ colonies
4. Woody plant control AND various control methods
(mechanical, chemical, M+C, biological)
Case study: tamarisk control AND TES species—sw willow
flycatcher (CO, adjoining states)

29. BREAK OUT SESSION OPTIONS
5. Terrestrial invertebrates AND herbaceous weed control &
prescribed fire
Case study: musk thistle control, fire suppression AND TES
species—Pawnee montane skipper
Upper Platte River watershed (Jefferson, Douglas, Teller & Park
counties)
6. Ground nesting birds AND agricultural practices
Case study: TES species—bobolink AND haying [Boulder, CO]
Option 1: focus on TES status species
Option 2: focus on agricultural practices
7. Wildlife AND Mowing
Not a case study: presented in general terms
[Presentation examples:
- eastern box turtle and trail mowing (SC, IL)
- power line ROW maintenance in Pinelands Natl. Reserve (NJ)