Conservation Tools

This guide is designed to provide land trusts with insight into understanding Trout Unlimited chapters and programs, and how TU supports land conservation and land trusts in conserving coldwater streams and watersheds. By partnering with land trusts, TU can better help protect and restore critical coldwater fisheries habitat.

This guide covers everything a TU grassroots volunteer needs to know about working with land trusts. Starting with the whats and hows of land trust operations, the handbook also covers the details of conservation easements and TU’s role in their creation, public angling access, funding and technical support, and communicating with landowners.

A Plague of Rats and Rubbervines takes a compelling look at this underappreciated problem and sets forth positive suggestions for what we as consumers, gardeners, travelers, nurserymen, fishermen, pet owners, business people - indeed all of us who by our very local choices drive global commerce - can do to help.

Audubon Pennsylvania offers a comprehensive approach to conservation that achieves measurable results.

The purpose of this book is to provide a reference guide for field workers and land managers concerning the historical and current status of the biological control of invasive plant species in the eastern United States. Weeds associated with lakes, ponds and rivers (Section I); wetlands (Section II); prairies and grasslands (Section III); old fields and pastures (Section IV); and forests (Section V) are discussed, by authors who are leaders in research on biological control of the plant species they discuss. Each chapter compiles published articles, unpublished reports and personal experiences of the authors, and provides the most up-to-date and accurate information concerning biological control of each invasive plant species.

A partnership of the Nature Conservancy and other organizations this website is a place where people doing conservation can share their experiences in “workspaces” for their projects.

A collection of case studies based on sustainable park management strategies.

Evaluation of floristic quality assessment as a potentially an important tool for conservation efforts in the northern Great Plains of North America.

This bulletin focuses on lead- and arsenic-contaminated soils, based on the premise that reducing exposure to soil lead and arsenic, regardless of their concentrations, will help protect human health.

The golf course "Green Toolbox" will identify multiple environmental benefits that can be achieved through best management practices (BMPs). The project is funded by a PA Department of Environmental Protection Growing Greener grant.

This site includes all completed IBA conservation plans in Pennsylvania, along with land cover and wetland maps, and IBA acreage statistics.

This two-page brochure gives a brief overview of the IBA program in the United States, including achievements of the program nationwide.

Two-page deer management guide for landowners including information on predator-prey balance and tools and options available to private landholders.

Convened by Audubon Pennsylvania and the Pennsylvania Habitat Alliance to compile and examine the pertinent research, enlist other expertise, weigh the issues, and set forth a vision of what ecosystem-based deer management might entail in large forested areas of the eastern United States, using Pennsylvania as an example.

This web page shows how photography and GPS technology were used to document and study changes in the biodiversity of the Puget Sound area. Protocols used as well as results are shown.

McCoy-Linn Dam was removed from Spring Creek, Centre County in 2007 through an extensive private and public partnership that included ClearWater Conservancy, PA Fish and Boat Commission, and American Rivers among many others.

Has a downloadable publication: Stewardship Handbook for Natural Lands in Southeastern Pennsylvania and case studies and resources as well as a description of planning and stewardship services offered by the Center.

In June 2007 the Pennsylvania Environmental Council released its Climate Change Roadmap for Pennsylvania. The Roadmap presents a series of policy and action item recommendations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in Pennsylvania.

The Pennsylvania Energy Impacts Assessment seeks answers to the impacts of energy development on our natural resources so that conservationists can work more effectively with energy companies and government agencies to avoid, minimize or mitigate habitat impacts in the future.

Two-page fact sheet for landowners, planners, and others to maintain grassland birds, which have declined in recent years. Information covers causes of decline, importance of agricultural lands, amount of land needed for nesting, and what landowners and planners can do to help.

This book includes chapters on the disturbance processes, how the disturbance causes necrosis or death to individuals, and their effects on population or community processes.

The manual presents a detailed overview of invasion biology and history as well as methods for establishing control efforts. Generalizations about invaders are derived from the literature and a suite of species that have affected several locations, most notably, South Africa, Australasia, Mauritius, and Hawaii. Species invasive in Europe, North America, and elsewhere are also included.

This is the current version of the book. The 1979 version is also recommended, and used copies can be found from online book sellers.

The book analyzes the factors that shape an invader s progress through four stages: arriving through one of many possible ports of entry, reaching a threshold of survival, thriving through proliferation and geographic spread, and ultimate impact on the organism s new environment. The book also reviews approaches to predicting whether a species will become an invader as well as the more complex challenge of predicting and measuring its impact on the environment, a process involving value judgments and risk assessment. This detailed analysis will be of interest to policymakers, plant scientists, agricultural producers, environmentalists, and public agencies concerned with invasive plant and plant pest species.

The Important Bird Area (IBA) Program in the United States has grown to include over 2100 sites (National Audubon Society 2008), leading to the inevitable challenge of how to advance conservation at numerous sites with limited resources.

Two-page fact sheet on this aphid-like creature that feeds on hemlock trees. Information includes a description of the pest, its life history, and what landowners can do to help control and eliminate the woolly hemlock adelgid.

Two-page fact sheet about sustainable forestry for the benefit of birds and other wildlife. Information covers selective cutting, stewardship practices, composition of forest for nesting birds and forest health, and implementation tips.

The manual includes keys to families, genera, and species; extensive diagnostic illustrations; scientific and common names; and data on distribution ranges, relative frequency, rare and endangered species, blooming and fruiting periods; with taxonomic notes and an illustrated glossary. The information meticulously reflects the plants as represented in Pennsylvania and is derived from specimens collected within the state.

The Stewardship Handbook is a compilation of the knowledge gained from the organization’s four decades of experience managing its 20,000-acre network of nature preserves in the region. The 220-page book serves as a resource for professional land managers and planners as well as to homeowners seeking to adopt a greener approach to caring for their properties.

This vol. is the first published product of the Pennsylvania Flora Database, created & maintained at the Morris Arboretum of the Univ. of Pennsylvania. The database has its roots in the work of Edgar T. Wherry, John M. Fogg, Jr., & Herbert A. Wahl, the “Atlas of the Flora of Pennsylvania”, published by the Morris Arboretum. Over a period of 40 years, Wherry & his colleagues gathered data from the major Pennsylvania herbaria & manually placed a quarter of a million dots on over 3500 maps. The Pennsylvania Flora Database retains the emphasis on specimen-based, site-specific data. The checklist of included taxa has undergone extensive review to reflect recent taxonomic & nomenclatural revisions. Questionable specimens have been re-evaluated with the result that several taxa included in earlier works were dropped. Recent discoveries have been added & distribution data has been updated. This vol. also includes collections made in the 1990s in conjunction with the Pennsylvania Natural Diversity Inventory (PNDI), the state heritage program. The maps present the accumulated collection of information for each taxon as represented in the herbaria. Illus., reprinted 1996.

Website with articles and resources for invasive species, including information on partnerships, grants, laws and regulations.

Secures long-term access through and to property for the purpose of remediating the effects of abandoned mine drainage.

In the present study, prioritization of Karso watershed of Hazaribagh, Jharkhand State, India was carried out on the basis of average sediment yield data estimated from Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE). Remote sensing (RS) technology provides the vital spatial and temporal information on some of these parameters. A recent and emerging technology represented by Geographic Information System (GIS) was used as the tool to generate, manipulate and spatially organize disparate data for sediment yield modeling. Thus, the Arc Info GIS and RS (ERDAS Imagine 8.4) provided spatial input data to the model, while the USLE was used to predict the spatial distribution of the sediment yield on grid basis.

A partnership between the National Park Service and the Center for Invasive Species and Ecosystem Health at University of Georgia, this website has a profile of hundreds of invasive plants with pictures, maps of where they are found, and links to other websites with information about their control.

This book describes reconciliation ecology, “the science of inventing, establishing, and maintaining new habitats to conserve species diversity in places where people live, work, and play.” Available at retail book websites.

This manual summarizes the morphological characteristics, habitat requirements, life history, and possible methods of control for several common invasive plant species. Botanical terms used in the plant descriptions are not available on-line at this time. A reference section is included to acknowledge sources of information and to provide a reference to the literature addressing the problem of invasive species in Wisconsin. Sources for weed control tools, organizations, and other useful information are included in this section. Recommendations included here are limited to the control of some of the more problematic invasive plant species of Wisconsin. As control information on additional invasive species becomes available, and as users request information on other problem plants, these species may be added to the manual.