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Full-Text Articles in Environmental Sciences
A Natural Resource Management Plan For The Historic Ramsey House, Brianna Saylor, Cole Oakey, Devin Hevener, Everett Williams, Haley Cox, Rachel Carpenter
A Natural Resource Management Plan For The Historic Ramsey House, Brianna Saylor, Cole Oakey, Devin Hevener, Everett Williams, Haley Cox, Rachel Carpenter
Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects
No abstract provided.
Effect Of Prescribed Fire And Mechanical Treatments On Northern Bobwhite Occupancy In Mesic Pine Flatwoods, Sarah K. Brown, William E. Palmer
Effect Of Prescribed Fire And Mechanical Treatments On Northern Bobwhite Occupancy In Mesic Pine Flatwoods, Sarah K. Brown, William E. Palmer
National Quail Symposium Proceedings
We examined whether roller-chopping, mowing, and prescribed fire used to restore groundcover in pine flatwoods habitats affected northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus; hereafter, bobwhite) occupancy. We surveyed bobwhites using repeated point counts (n = 3), April–June each year, to determine response to prescribed fire and mechanical treatments on Osceola National Forest (Osceola, 78 plots) and St. Sebastian River Preserve State Park (Sebastian, 11 plots) in Florida, USA, 2013–2019. We measured groundcover each year at randomly placed transects within 200-m radius point-count plots. To assess the importance of management covariates, we fit single season occupancy models to predict occupancy …
Retention And Efficacy Of Citizen Scientist Volunteers Of The Texas Quail Index, Kelly S. Reyna, Dale Rollins
Retention And Efficacy Of Citizen Scientist Volunteers Of The Texas Quail Index, Kelly S. Reyna, Dale Rollins
National Quail Symposium Proceedings
The Texas Quail Index (TQI) was a 5-year, science-based project that utilized citizen scientists to collect data in the field, including 5 indices of bobwhite abundance in the spring, and 3 indices of bobwhite abundance in the fall. Over the course of the study, 84% of all volunteers dropped out of the program and <8% of all data sets were complete. Accordingly, we surveyed the volunteers by mail to determine the rate and cause of participation decline and to identify characteristics of a reliable volunteer. Results indicated that annual volunteer participation rate declined more rapidly as time and labor requirements increased. Similarly, 74.3% of survey respondents who dropped out of the study reported leaving because the project required too much time and work. Motives may have contributed to the volunteer attrition as 72% of volunteers joined the program to learn more about quail management; however 71% of those that left the program reported not gaining knowledge in that area. We recommend that project designs, for citizen-science projects, should incorporate the motives of volunteers and recruit those whose motives best align with project goals. We also recommend that citizen-science coordinators keep volunteer tasks short and within the interest of the volunteer, to increase retention. Finally, we recommend stipends for volunteers on large-scale, laborious projects.