Facilitating multi-plot trials to quantify habitat alteration on vertebrate bioindicators: snowmobile and ATV

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This application outlines the need to acquire one two-seat ATV with equipment wagon and one two-seat, wide-track snowmobile for research on the impact of habitat alteration on river otters, chickadee species, moose and deer.  This work is conducted at the John Prince Research Forest (JPRF), Fort St. James, BC, a 13,000 ha working forest co-managed by UNBC and the Tl'atzt'en First Nation for sustainable logging.   The JPRF is funded through logging revenues, and has acquired a fishing resort to serve as a centrally-located field station.  The research forest contains a large mosaic of forest types and stand ages which are used for testing the interaction between resource management and the ecology of a number of bio-indicator wildlife species. The goal of this combined work is to determine the relative impact of human activities on the life-histories and ecology of a range of vertebrates.  By understanding how resource extraction affects resident species, we can better refine the land-management practices to achieve ecological sustainability.     The work we conduct requires travel to plots throughout the research forest, some of which are accessible by the limited number of logging roads in the region, but many of which are accessible only through trail or over-lake access.  Sites are separated by more than 10km in many circumstances, and the research requires visiting multiple sites per day.  We request all-terrain vehicles that can safely accommodate two researchers each in the winter (one snowmobile) and summer (one ATV).  Similar existing vehicles at the station are inadequate (single-passenger vehicles only) and are greater than 10 years old.  These vehicles are currently subject to frequent breakdown, and have significantly hampered our research in the past several years.  The requested infrastructure would be used to replace these vehicles, and would be actively utilized between three non-overlapping research projects that span more than 10 months of the year.