Ecology and Conservation of Forest Birds is a unique review of current understanding of the relationships between forest birds and their changing environments. Large ecological changes are being driven by forest management, climate change, introduced pests and pathogens, abiotic disturbances, and overbrowsing. Many forest bird species have suffered population declines, with the situation being particularly severe for birds dependent on attributes such as dead wood, old trees and structurally complex forests. With a focus on the non-tropical parts of the Northern Hemisphere, the text addresses the fundamental evolutionary and ecological aspects of forest birds using original data analyses and synthesising reviews. The characteristics of bird assemblages and their habitats in different European forest types are explored, together with the macroecological patterns of bird diversity and conservation issues. The book provides a valuable reference for ecologists, ornithologists, conservation professionals, forest industry employees, and those interested in birds and nature.

Human-wildlife conflict (HWC) is one of the most complex and urgent issues facing wildlife management and conservation today. Originally focused on the ecology and economics of wildlife damage, the study and mitigation of HWC has gradually expanded its scope to incorporate the human dimensions of the whole spectrum of human-wildlife relationships, from conflict to coexistence. Having the conflict-to-coexistence continuum as its leitmotiv, this book explores a variety of theories and methods currently used to address human-wildlife interactions, illustrated by case studies from around the world. It presents some key concepts in the field, such as values, emotions, social identity and tolerance, and a variety of insights and solutions to turn conflict into coexistence, from individual level to national scales, including conservation marketing, incremental and radical innovation, strategic planning, and socio-ecological systems. This volume will be of interest to a wide range of readers, including academics, researchers, students, practitioners and policy-makers.

Retrogressive thaw slumps (RTS) are caused by thaw of massive ground ice on slopes and combine subsidence, mass movement, and water erosion. They can expose several hectares of bare soil that is susceptible to erosion into nearby water bodies. In the summers of 2010 and 2011, oblique aerial-photographs of 26 RTS in Noatak National Preserve (NOAT) and Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve (GAAR) were taken with a hand-held, 35-mm digital camera. Accurate ground control was obtained at 23 of the slumps by surveying the location of temporary targets that were captured on the aerial photographs and then removed. These photographs were used to create high-resolution three-dimensional topographic models with photographic overlay. Photographs were taken in both years at 18 of the RTS. The current report: 1) documents changes in the slumps that had photographs from both years, and 2) describes a new slump photographed for the first time in 2011.

A land cover map of the National Park Service northwest Alaska management area was produced using digitally processed Landsat data. These and other environmental data were incorporated into a geographic information system to provide baseline information about the nature and extent of resources present in this northwest Alaskan environment. This report details the methodology, depicts vegetation profiles of the surrounding landscape, and describes the different vegetation types mapped. Portions of nine Landsat satellite (multispectral scanner and thematic mapper) scenes were used to produce a land cover map of the Cape Krusenstern National Monument and Noatak National Preserve and to update an existing land cover map of Kobuk Valley National Park Valley National Park. A Bayesian multivariate classifier was applied to the multispectral data sets, followed by the application of ancillary data (elevation, slope, aspect, soils, watersheds, and geology) to enhance the spectral separation of classes into more meaningful vegetation types. The resulting land cover map contains six major land cover categories (forest, shrub, herbaceous, sparse/barren, water, other) and 19 subclasses encompassing 7 million hectares. General narratives of the distribution of the subclasses throughout the project area are given along with vegetation profiles showing common relationships between topographic gradients and vegetation communities.

In the winter of 1996–97, state and federal authorities shot or shipped to slaughter more than 1,100 Yellowstone National Park bison. Since that time, thousands more have been killed or hazed back into the park, as wildlife managers struggle to accommodate an animal that does not recognize man-made borders. Tensions over the hunting and preservation of the bison, an animal sacred to many Native Americans and an icon of the American West, are at least as old as the nation's first national park. Established in 1872, in part “to protect against the wanton destruction of the fish and game,” Yellowstone has from the first been dedicated to preserving wildlife along with the park’s other natural wonders. The Smithsonian Institution, itself founded in 1848, viewed the park’s resources as critical to its own mission, looking to Yellowstone for specimens to augment its natural history collections, and later to stock the National Zoo. How this relationship developed around the conservation and display of American wildlife, with these two distinct organizations coming to mirror one another, is the little-known story Diane Smith tells in Yellowstone and the Smithsonian. Even before its founding as a national park, and well before the creation of the National Park Service in 1916, the Yellowstone region served as a source of specimens for scientists centered in Washington, D.C. Tracing the Yellowstone-Washington reciprocity to the earliest government-sponsored exploration of the region, Smith provides background and context for many of the practices, such as animal transfers and captive breeding, pursued a century later by a new generation of conservation biologists. She shows how Yellowstone, through its relationship with the Smithsonian, the National Museum, and ultimately the National Zoo, helped elevate the iconic nature of representative wildlife of the American West, particularly bison. Her book helps all of us, not least of all historians and biologists, to better understand the wildlife management and conservation policies that followed.

Long-term trends in deer abundance provide one measure of assessing their potential as a problem for a park. Documenting long-term patterns in deer numbers allows one to evaluate correlations with changes in vegetation (e.g., through restoration of the cultural landscape). With this information resource managers can more effectively identify and potentially mitigate damage caused to vegetation communities and endangered plant populations by deer. Monitoring data also helps managers assess safety risks from collisions and disease transmission. Long-term monitoring of deer numbers is critical in evaluating any population control measures a park may implement.

The newly acquired, nearly complete coverage of ARCN by high-resolution satellite imagery has allowed the NPS to make a comprehensive survey of erosion features caused by permafrost thaw in the Noatak National Preserve (NOAT). The author combined automated mapping methods with visual recognition of geomorphic features to make a comprehensive map of ALD and RTS in NOAT. The purpose of this report is to present the results of mapping in NOAT. Mapping in three other NPS units (Bering Land Bridge National Preserve (BELA), Cape Krusenstern National Monument (CAKR), and Kobuk Valley National Park (KOVA) was reported previously.

The Arctic Network Inventory and Monitoring program (ARCN) encompasses five park units including Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve (GAAR) and Noatak National Preserve (NOAT). The landbirds assemblage (passerines, near-passerines, raptors and galliformes) was chosen by the ARCN for long-term monitoring because it includes many species that spend the majority of their lives in terrestrial environments. Specific objectives of the ARCN landbird monitoring program are to: 1) determine annual longterm trends in density and frequency of occurrence of 5-10 of the most commonly detected landbird species along selected river corridors across ARCN during the breeding season (June); 2) determine annual long-term trends in landbird species composition and distribution in selected sites across ARCN during the breeding season (June); and 3) improve understanding of breeding bird-habitat relationships and the effects of invasive plants and climatic changes on bird populations.