Public interest in urban forests has resulted in significant investments by local agencies in the inventory, care, and monitoring of trees. The use of a geographic information system (GIS) by local agencies presents an opportunity to incorporate information relating directly to the management of urban wildlife and a vehicle to provide information to the public about urban wildlife habitat relationships in a graphical, easily understood manner. Many species of wildlife have adapted to urban areas and the urban forest. The American crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos) underwent an "urbanization" to the extent that communal night roosts, formerly in rural locations, are now commonplace in urban settings. Using crows as an example, we illustrate the integration of data from scientific research and three city departments, and how output from GIS can be used for urban wildlife management. With data describing roosts, a city tree inventory catalog, and information about land use and traffic flow patterns, we used GIS to illustrate roost locations in the city, and the seasonal patterns of occupancy with winter roosts in commercial areas and summer roosts in residential areas. GIS output helped us explain roost characteristics regarding tree species and tree size parameters, substrate types, and disturbance indices. Drawing from a logistic regression model me used GIS in a predictive mode to identify new roosts that might form following control activities to disperse crows from existing roosts.
|
