Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

The annual meeting of NC-1005 occurred on January 21, 2005 from 8:30a.m. to 11:15p.m. on the campus of the Arbor Day Foundation in Nebraska City, Nebraska. The meeting was chaired by Dr. William Clark (Iowa State University) and Dr. Kevin Kephart (South Dakota State University) participated as the Administrative Advisor. The meeting was called to order at 8:30am by the Chair, and participants introduced themselves. B. Menzel (CSREES Washington DC office) gave an overview of CSREES, various program areas, grant opportunites, and contact information. He also discussed the federal budget situation as it affects the grants programs. Future grant proposals should emphasize (a) integrated research, extension, education, and (b) impacts to stakeholders. He encouraged someone from NC-1005 to attend annual meetings of two other wildlife-related multi-state committees (NE-1005 and WE-995) to collaborate on grant proposals. Finally, he encouraged us to submit a proposal for developing a module for the national web-based learning center for private forest and rangeland owners (forestandrange.org). K. Kephart, Administrative Advisor, summarized reporting needs for the project. NC-1005 will go through a mid-term review. Needed documentation includes annual meeting minutes, and other information posted on the NIMSS web page. At our 2006 annual meeting, we should discuss the need and potential for renewing the project, currently due for termination in 2007. If we decide to renew, we need to complete a proposal for renewal by November 2006. R. Campa suggested that NC-1005 committee members attending TWS annual meetings in Madison (2005) and Anchorage (2006) meet informally to discuss progress on the current project and needs regarding possible renewal. K. Kephart also is administrator of a 2-year, rapid response committee NC-505 focused on transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSE). The NC-505 committee was asked by the Experiment Station Committee on Policy (ESCOP) to develop a white paper on TSE. J. Jenks from NC-1005 already has been participating in the prion meetings, and will contact A. Young (from NC-505) to offer collaboration for broadening the focus from a narrow, organismal disease issue to include ecological aspects. K. Kephart also encouraged NC-1005 committee members to keep their department heads and AES directors informed about the project. State reports then were made regarding current research activities and methods associated with NC-1005. All participants provided handouts or showed slides about their research efforts. Details of each states report for this meeting can be found through links on the NIMSS web page.

Objective 1: Assess dynamic interactions among physical landscape characteristics and white-tailed deer demographics. Relationships among recruitment, mortality, movement patterns and landscape characteristics are being assessed by participants in Michigan, Wisconsin, Nebraska, South Dakota, Minnesota, and Iowa. Generally high survival rates across the spectrum of habitat conditions are associated with high density estimates. Some patterns may be emerging with respect to home range size and landscape characteristics. In the mixed agricultural-suburban-forested areas of southern Wisconsin and southern Michigan, home ranges seem small relative to other areas. Various kinds of movements are being documented in several states. These include permanent dispersal, temporary exploratory movements, and in some cases, migratory behavior. Several techniques are being examined for estimating deer density. All the participating states use harvest data. Nebraska has used helicopter counts and fixed wing aircraft to try to assess density independent of harvest. Iowa and Wisconsin are developing computer simulation models to predict density based on habitat characteristics and to predict potential spread of Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD). Objective 2: Assess dynamic interactions among human dimensions characteristics of the landscape, wildlife stakeholder acceptance capacity (WSAC), and white-tailed deer demographics and management. In both Michigan and New York, participants have worked directly with landowners (including farmers and exurbanites) and deer hunters to assess the impacts from white-tailed deer that are deemed most important. Participants from Michigan and New York have collaborated to develop a mail survey to be implemented in spring 2005 in both states to confirm impacts of importance to stakeholders, verify the interactions among ecosystem components (including people) that influence those impacts, and determine how levels of those impacts might be managed. Participants in Wisconsin and Iowa have expressed interest in adopting these surveys for their states. In addition to the surveys developed to measure positive and negative deer-related impacts of importance to landowners and hunters, New York and Michigan participants are collaborating on efforts to develop a method for measuring the concept of wildlife stakeholder acceptance capacity (WSAC) based on desired and tolerable levels of impacts, compared to current levels. The capacity of any stakeholder group to accept a wildlife species occurring in their area depends largely on some combination of positive and negative impacts associated with that species. Management actions can then be identified to appropriately balance these positive and negative impacts. Nevertheless, the management challenge may be exacerbated because different stakeholders interact differently with deer, even within the same landscape area, and associate various impacts with the same deer population. Objective 3: Develop communication and outreach strategies from the research findings to assist in white-tailed deer management. In all participating states, researchers are collaborating with state wildlife staff to make informed management decisions ranging from refinement of hunting regulations, to development of communication and education strategies for landowners and motorists, to interventions to curb the spread of CWD and other diseases. In Nebraska recommendations were used by the USFWS and NGPC to establish special harvest seasons in the Boyer Chute NWR (antlerless, mentored youth), DeSoto NWR (antlerless, muzzleloader), and Gifford Point-Fontenelle Forest area (antlerless, urban archery, muzzleloader). Newspaper articles about the research in Nebraska have generated positive letters. State wildlife personnel, landowners, and hunters have been involved directly in development of research plans in both Michigan and New York, based on needs that stakeholders identified. Hunters and landowners within the study area in New York have been impacted directly by the research and have used study results to develop ideas for voluntary changes in landowners hunting access policies and implementation of antler restrictions. In Michigan, on-going research project developments and findings have been communicated to interested stakeholders by a Wildlife Extension Specialist who created a project summary flyer that has been distributed to conservation groups, landowners, natural resources professionals and civic groups such as Rotary Clubs. In addition, the following project web site was created: http://www.fw.msu.edu/deer/index.html which has been well received by numerous stakeholders. Our plans for next year include development of a series of manuscripts to facilitate collaboration and document findings from the project. Specific participants have agreed to develop an outline and synopsis for each of 5 manuscripts. The outlines will include: considerations for obtaining and analyzing data across multiple states (e.g., land classifications to be used, home range analysis, particular forms or types of data needed, statistical analyses to be conducted, etc). The leaders also are responsible for developing a time line and set of assignments to ensure completion of the manuscripts. All participants will have the opportunity to review each outline and decide if and how they can contribute to that manuscript.

Brinkman, T. J., K. L. Monteith, J. A. Jenks, and C. S. DePerno. 2004. Predicting neonatal age of white-tailed deer in the Northern Great Plains. The Prairie Naturalist 36:75-81. Brinkman, T. J., J. A. Jenks, C. S. DePerno, and B. S. Haroldson. 2004. Survival of white-tailed deer in an intensively farmed region of Minnesota. Wildlife Society Bulletin 32: 726-731. Brinkman, T. J., J. A. Jenks, C. S. DePerno, and B. S. Haroldson. 2004. Clostridium perfringens Type A induced disease in a free ranging white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) fawn in Minnesota? The Prairie Naturalist 36:181-185. Gilsdorf, J.M., S.E. Hygnstrom, K.C. VerCauteren, E. Blankenship, and R.M. Engeman. 2004. Evaluation of a deer-activated bioacoustic frightening device for reducing deer damage in cornfields. Wildlife Society Bulletin 32:515-523. Gilsdorf, J.M., S.E. Hygnstrom, K.C. VerCauteren, E. Blankenship, and R.M. Engeman. 2004. Propane exploders and electronic guards were ineffective at reducing deer damage in cornfields. Wildlife Society Bulletin 32:524-531. Zimmerman, T. J., J. A. Jenks, L. D. Holler, C. N. Jacques, and W. W. Morlock. 2004. Congenital Hypotrichosis in a white-tailed deer fawn from South Dakota. Journal of Wildlife Diseases 40:145-149.