The
Wildlife Community ProjectThe
Wildlife Community Project
Wildlife Project Species Research Information - click here for links on your species!
Wildlife Project Homework Worksheets
Congratulations, you have just become a member of the City Council in your community! You have been elected to the Wildlife Management Committee, and now your job is to figure out how best to conserve the wildlife of your area, while maintaining a self-sufficient community. You have a challenging job: balancing the needs of your human constituents and those of your local wildlife. At the Town Meeting on May 27th you will present your recommendations of what to include in the community’s Wildlife Conservation Plan. The plan will address questions such as:
What are your local wildlife species and what is their natural history? (i.e. teach us about your animal —its adaptations, tracks, other interesting things) See attached informational example on the opossum.
What are the habitat (food, water, shelter, space) requirements of your species?
What principles of landscape ecology and wildlife management will you employ to protect your animal? (i.e. managing the food web, dealing with habitat fragmentation, wildlife corridors, edge interactions, etc.)
What changes will you need to make to your community in order to employ the above principles? (i.e. create reserves, relocate houses, businesses, or roads, special farm procedures, change land uses (logging, etc.), build special nesting spots, community education, etc.)
Who are the stakeholders in your community and what are their needs?
What problems/conflicts do you anticipate between your community and the local wildlife? How will you settle them?
What laws will you create (or follow) to protect your wildlife and why?
Project Grading
|
Due Date |
Points Possible |
|
| Question Sheet #1: Habitat |
April 22nd |
50 |
| Question Sheet #2: Landscape Ecology |
April 29th |
50 |
| Your animal’s natural history info and pictures as you will show them during your presentation (+ sources listed - 50 points) opossum natural history example |
May 20th |
250 |
| Question Sheet #3: Food web |
May 13th |
50 |
| Presentation |
May 27th |
100 |
| Take-home analysis |
June 3rd |
150 |
| Total points |
650 |
This will not be graded as a group project, though you will be grouped with several of your classmates who will also be on the Wildlife Management Committee in your community. You will each represent a different animal species and human stakeholder group. After your hear the presentations to your committee, you will have one week to review one of the other committee member’s plans, analyze and evaluate its effectiveness, and detail requirements to make it compatible with your plan.
This project counts for a little over a quarter of your grade. You are expected to spend about one to two hours a week outside of class on this project. In the last week of class your analysis of another member’s plan will take you two to three hours, so plan accordingly as this is the last week of school.
After class on April 15th, 29th, and May 13th you will receive question sheets for homework. These sheets will be based on what we discussed in class that day, and are designed to get you thinking about some of the above questions you will need to answer during your presentation. You will turn these in the following week, and receive comments back by the next class.