Female Deer Movements Relative to Firearms Hunting in Northern Georgia, USA

Perceived risk associated with hunters can cause white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) to shift their activity away from key foraging areas or alter normal movements, which are important considerations in managing hunting and its effects on a population. We studied the effects of seven firearms hunts on the movements of 20 female deer in two Wildlife Management Areas within the Chattahoochee National Forest of northern Georgia, USA, during the 2018-2019 and 2019-2020 hunting seasons. Deer populations and the number of hunters in our study area have declined significantly since the 1980s. In response, hunting regulations for the 2019-2020 hunting season eliminated opportunities for harvesting female deer. To evaluate the indirect effects of antlered deer hunting on non-target female deer, we calculated 90% utilization distributions (UDs), 50% UDs, and step lengths for pre-hunt, hunt, and post-hunt periods using the dynamic Brownian bridge movement model. Data included 30 min GPS locations for 44 deer-hunt combinations. Pre-hunt 50% UDs (x- = 7.0 ha, SE = 0.4 ha) were slightly greater than both hunt (x- = 6.0 ha, SE = 0.3 ha) and post-hunt (x- = 6.0 ha, SE = 0.2 ha) 50% UDs (F = 3.84, p = 0.03). We did not detect differences in step length, nor did we detect differences in size or composition of 90% UDs, among the periods. Overall, our results suggest that the low level of hunting pressure in our study area and lack of exposure to hunters led to no biologically significant changes in female deer movements. To the extent of the findings presented in this paper, adjustments to the management of hunting in our study area do not appear to be necessary to minimize hunting-related disturbances for female deer. However, managers should continue to consider female deer behavior when evaluating future changes to hunting regulations.

Analysis of YOLOv5 and DeepLabv3+ Algorithms for Detecting Illegal Cultivation on Public Land: A Case Study of a Riverside in Korea

Rivers are generally classified as either national or local rivers. Large-scale national rivers are maintained through systematic maintenance and management, whereas many difficulties can be encountered in the management of small-scale local rivers. Damage to embankments due to illegal farming along rivers has resulted in collapses during torrential rainfall. Various fertilizers and pesticides are applied along embankments, resulting in pollution of water and ecological spaces. Controlling such activities along riversides is challenging given the inconvenience of checking sites individually, the difficulty in checking the ease of site access, and the need to check a wide area. Furthermore, considerable time and effort is required for site investigation. Addressing such problems would require rapidly obtaining precise land data to understand the field status. This study aimed to monitor time series data by applying artificial intelligence technology that can read the cultivation status using drone-based images. With these images, the cultivated area along the river was annotated, and data were trained using the YOLOv5 and DeepLabv3+ algorithms. The performance index mAP@0.5 was used, targeting >85%. Both algorithms satisfied the target, confirming that the status of cultivated land along a river can be read using drone-based time series images.

Patterns of rangeland productivity and land ownership: Implications for conservation and management

Rangelands cover 40-50% of the Earth's terrestrial surface. While often characterized by limited, yet variable resource availability, rangelands are vital for humans, providing numerous ecosystem goods and services. In the conterminous United States (CONUS), the dominant component of rangeland conservation is a network of public rangelands, concentrated in the west. Public rangelands are interspersed with private and tribal rangelands resulting in a complex mosaic of land tenure and management priorities. We quantify ownership patterns of rangeland production at multiple scales across CONUS and find that both total production and average productivity of private rangelands is more than twice that of public and tribal rangelands. At finer scales, private rangelands are consistently more productive than their public counterparts. We also demonstrate an inverse relationship between public rangeland acreage and productivity. While conserving acreage is crucial to rangeland conservation, just as critical are broad-scale ecological patterns and processes that sustain ecosystem services. Across CONUS, ownership regimes capture distinct elements of these patterns and services, demonstrated through disparate production dynamics. As ownership determines the range of feasible conservation actions, and the technical and financial resources available to implement them, understanding ownership-production dynamics is critical for effective and sustained conservation of rangeland ecosystem services.