Marc Devokaitis: Sharp-shinned Hawk in the Yard→

Cornell Lab of Ornithology:

“Raptors—especially Cooper’s Hawks and Sharp-shinned Hawks—have become a familiar presence at urban and suburban feeders around North America. But it wasn’t always this way.

In a 2017 retrospective of Project FeederWatch results, we noted that Cooper’s Hawks increased their presence fourfold at FeederWatch sites over the past two decades. The agile accipiters occurred at just 6% of feeders in 1989, but by 2016 had increased to around 25% of feeders. Cooper’s Hawks have historically been thought of as a rural species, picking songbirds from branches in surprise attacks in the woodlands and forests. But one clear factor in the surge of FeederWatch reports has been their expansion into suburban and urban areas.

Scientists from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology took these results and went further, trying to find out what might be behind these increases. ”

Leidy Klotz: Little-Known Behavioral Scientist Who Transformed Cities→

The Behavioral Scientist:

Cris Tagupa/Unsplash

““Why are you architects not interested in people?” Ingrid Gehl asked her new husband, Jan. “What do you think about the fact that your architecture professors take their photos at four o’clock in the morning … without the distraction of people in the photos?”

In the early 1960s, and in many cases still today, these were forbidden questions, particularly among those we think of as designers—architects, city planners, and engineers. Then and now, designers consider human needs for health, survival, safety, and comfort through building codes and best practices. Psychological needs are only an afterthought—at best.

Ingrid, however, was no conventional designer—she was a psychologist. And by entertaining such questions, Ingrid and her husband took the first steps on a journey to create city spaces for the full range of human needs. The Danish couple’s ideas have since made life better in cities like New York, Moscow, Buenos Aires, Sydney, and London. Of course, many parts of many cities still seem optimized for buildings and cars. But the story of Ingrid and Jan is a model for what partnerships between behavioral scientists and designers can look like today.”

In the 1960s and 1970s, William Whyte was studying human behavior in New York City and applying similar thinking in the United States.

Natalie Sopinka: Fish Habitat Loss in Canada→

Canadian Science:

“Favaro and Olszynski quantified a net loss of over 2 million m2 of fish habitat. This loss of habitat was calculated assuming perfect compliance of habitat compensation requirements. The net loss of habitat jumped to almost 4 million m2 when only 80% of required habitat compensation occurred.

An overall loss of fish habitat suggests effectiveness of policies should have been enhanced not reduced; the former Act did not go beyond conservation goals (e.g., no net loss of habitat) as the goals were not even being met. If the HADD regime as previously set out in the Fisheries Act was not adequately protecting habitat why change what the law says? Why change the rigor of how projects causing harm are reviewed? Favaro and Olszynski contended the language of the former Act (i.e., inclusion of HADD) should be reinstated and that future amendments be informed by data accessible to all stakeholders. The authors obtained data for the study through the Access to Information Act and recommended a public registry of DFO authorizations be created. Favaro and Olszynski published their findings earlier this year in the Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences (CJFAS) and submitted them to FOPO.”

AnnaKay Kruger: A Lake's Woody Habitat→

UW: Center for Limnology:

“Michaela Kromrey clips herself into her bulky waders, fitting the straps over her shoulders and sealing herself into their protective rubber lining. We’ve dropped anchor near the shore of Jute Lake, and waves whip the side of the boat vigorously in the high wind. It’s a beautiful day, utterly devoid of cloud cover, but the wind is sharp and swift over the water, forcing us to don our sweatshirts and windbreakers to stave off the chill. Michaela and I, both UW-Madison undergraduates, wait in the boat while Ellen Albright, a student at Minnesota’s Macalester College, wades along the shoreline, dragging a tape-measure behind her.”

Let Fallen Trees Lie→

Tom Spears, reporting for the Ottawa Citizen:

Macomb Paynes; Flickr

“Jereme Gaeta and his research group at the University of Wisconsin were studying what biologists call coarse woody habitat — trees that die and fall into the water near shore, where they become waterlogged and sink. Property owners often get rid of these slimy old logs. They get in the way of swimmers and boats. They look messy.

But Gaeta’s team says it’s better to let fallen logs lie. This is going to do bad things to fish. In their little lake just south of Lake Superior, the Wisconsin group watched as species either became more rare or disappeared completely. “When lake levels go down,” Jereme Gaeta says in a news release, “they lose all that refuge, so they’re pretty much forced to live in the foraging arena, where they’re directly interacting with their predators — in our case largemouth bass.” He said the vulnerability of the small fish goes “through the roof.””

Drought-driven lake level decline: effects on coarse woody habitat and fishes by Jereme W. Gaeta, Greg G. Sass, Stephen R. Carpenter

Power Line Rights of Way: Opportunities for Cost Savings and Habitat→

Richard Conniff, writing for Yale360 Environment:

dalioPhoto, Flickr

“The open, scrubby habitat under some transmission lines is already the best place to hunt for wild bees, says Sam Droege of the U.S. Geological Survey’s Patuxent Wildlife Research Center in Maryland, and that potential habitat will inevitably become more important as the United States becomes more urbanized. He thinks utility rights-of-way — currently adding up in the U.S. to about nine million acres for power transmission lines, and another 12 million for pipelines — could eventually serve as a network of conservation reserves roughly one third the area of the national park system.

Remarkably, some power companies agree. Three utilities — New York Power Authority, Arizona Public Service, and Vermont Electric Power Company — have already completed a certification program from the Right of Way Stewardship Council, a new group established to set standards for right-of-way management, with the aim of encouraging low-growth vegetation and thus, incidentally, promoting native wildlife. Three more utilities, all from Western states, are currently seeking certification.”

Many of our solutions depend on changing our point of view.

Fish forced into the ‘foraging arena’ when lakes lose their trees→

Adam Hinterthuer, writing for University of Wisconsin-Madison:

As water levels drop and submerged trees rise above the waterline, some fish are forced into the "foraging arena" to face predators

“In attempts to predict what climate change will mean for life in lakes, scientists have mainly focused on two things: the temperature of the water and the amount of oxygen dissolved in it.

But a new study from University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers is speaking for the trees — specifically, the dead ones that have toppled into a lake’s near shore waters.

For fish in northern Wisconsin lakes, at least, these trees can be the difference between pastures of plenty and the Hunger Games.”

Interesting study from the Center of Limnology.