Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Units Program: Vermont
Education, Research and Technical Assistance for Managing Our Natural Resources

A primary principle guiding the management of the state and federal lands is to conserve and enhance habitats that support a full range of native flora and fauna. Two serious forces threaten the viability of native flora and fauna today: land use change and global climate change.

Confronting these resource management challenges requires, first and foremost, robust data to accurately predict how biodiversity will respond to land-use and climate change, and a process that links this information to landuse planning efforts and resource management in a continual way (i.e., adaptive management). The first step in this process, gathering and monitoring biodiversity data, is extremely challenging. First, the sampling area is vast. Second, not all wildlife species can be monitored; many are secretive or rare and are not easily counted by humans (e.g., black bears). Third, even if a few, target species were monitored, field-based monitoring by humans across the entire state of Vermont would be cost prohibitive.

One potential solution to these challenges is to establish an acoustical monitoring network, where 1) vocalizations made by indicator wildlife species are recorded continually at sampling stations located throughout the sampling area, 2) recorded sounds are delivered to a central database where computers are used to identify species-specific sounds, and 3) the acoustical data can be accessed and used by natural resource managers in a structured decision making/adaptive management framework.

Our goal in this pilot effort is to field test acoustical techniques, database development, computer-automated animal identification, and programmatic methodologies. Through this study, we hope to identify opportunities and constraints for establishing a large-scale acoustic monitoring program. This pilot study is a partnership between the National Park Service, the National Phenology Network, the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department, and the Vermont Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit.