Access management for wildlife conservation

石油和天然气开采、采矿和木材采伐的工业发展导致了阿尔伯塔西部大量的道路建设。众所周知，道路和人类对道路的使用会影响麋鹿、狼和灰熊等敏感野生动物的分布、运动和死亡率。为了减轻工业发展对当地野生动物的影响，人们提议对通往道路的休闲通道进行封闭式管理。我们提出了一项实验研究，以评估道路封闭通道管理对阿尔伯塔西南部东坡野生动物的有效性。我们将使用重复的前后控制干预（BACI）研究设计和全球定位系统（GPS）无线电遥测来监测麋鹿、狼和灰熊的运动、栖息地使用和死亡率。我们将在地理信息系统中使用新开发的统计方法来绘制通道管理对野生动物分布和运动的影响，并确定应作为运动走廊进行管理的地点。我们将评估生境选择和适合度组成部分之间的关系，以及道路和通道管理如何改变这些关系。我们将开发空间结构的捕食者-猎物模型（麋鹿/狼和熊），使我们能够识别道路和通道管理对捕食者-猎物相互作用的影响。我们的研究将评估具有成本效益的方法，这些方法可以在工业发展的情况下使敏感的野生动物得以延续。

Industrial development for oil and gas extraction, mining, and timber harvest has resulted in extensive road construction in western Alberta. Roads and human use of roads is known to influence the distribution, movement, and mortality of sensitive wildlife species including elk, wolves, and grizzly bears. Gated management of recreational access to roads has been proposed to mitigate the effects of industrial development on indigenous wildlife. We propose an experimental study to evaluate the effectiveness of gated access management of roads on wildlife on the east slopes of SW Alberta. We will use a repeated before-after-control-intervention (BACI) study design and global positioning system (GPS) radiotelemetry to monitor movements, habitat use, and mortality of elk, wolves, and grizzly bears. We will use newly developed statistical methods in a GIS to map the influences of access management on the distribution and movement of wildlife, and to identify localities that should be managed as movement corridors. We will evaluate the relations between habitat selection and components of fitness and how these are modified by roads and access management. We will develop spatially structured predator-prey models (elk/wolves & bears) that allow us to identify the effect of roads and access management on predator-prey interactions. Our research will evaluate cost-effective methods that can allow persistence of sensitive wildlife in the face of industrial development.