Electronic Toolbox for Fish and Wildlife Habitat Management

Updated 10/12/2006

How this toolbox will help you:

Keeping up with all of the technical information pertaining to fish, wildlife, and habitat management is a tremendous challenge in the information age. All of us have been stymied by the inability of find and access new or old information. Indeed, nothing is more frustrating than being unable to locate a resource that you know to be buried somewhere in your office.

Assembling and organizing a library containing all of the technical resources needed to achieve the Agency’s conservation goals is simply not feasible for most of us. Thanks to the Internet, however, a lot of the information that is needed to plan, implement, and monitor terrestrial and aquatic resources is now available online. This etoolbox offers links to many of these resources and is organized into NRCS’s planning framework for ease of navigation. By clicking on any of the primary resource categories you can swiftly locate information that will help you research the projects you are working on. The quality and quantity of information available is better for some subjects (e.g. birds) than it is for others (e.g. amphibians and reptiles), but electronic access to needed resources is only going to improve and this site will be updated accordingly.

How to use this site:

Suppose you are interested in designing a WRP site near Ames, IA to benefit migratory birds.  
First: You might want to start by gathering information about this tallgrass prairie region and about the associated bird conservation priorities. To do so, you would visit "Planning", then onto "Conservation Priorities." This will lead you to a page with links to information on both habitat and birds.  
For avian breeding and wintering distribution information, as well as occurrences and population trends, you would visit "Planning", go to "Fish and Wildlife Habitat Requirements" and/or "Inventory of Resources." There are links on both of these pages that will get you to the information you're looking for. In fact, as you're exploring this etoolbox, you'll notice that many links are listed multiple times, on different pages and under different topics. That's because many of these links offer information useful for wildlife and habitat planning, implementing, and monitoring. 
Second: Another important step in the planning process of this project would be to acquire some detailed information on the habitat requirements of priority bird species in the area. To do this, you would visit "Planning", then on "Fish and Wildlife Habitat Requirements." Once there, check out the links to "Partners in Flight" and "Birds of North America." Also check out TNC's state GAP websites for information on the conservation status of area plants and animals by following "planning" to "Conservation Priorities" to "Gap Analysis Program."
Third: Once you're ready to move beyond the planning stage of your project, be sure to check out various links related to implementation and monitoring. For example, you would visit "Monitoring",  then on "Designing Monitoring Programs" for guidance designing a bird monitoring program.  
Fourth: It's always a good idea to read about how other people have designed, implemented and managed projects similar to yours. To find that information, all you need to do is visit the "Case Studies" and "Technical Notes" pages of this etoolbox. Each category (planning, implementing, and monitoring) has these pages, so all you have to do is pick a category - like "Monitoring" - and then click on "Case Studies" or "Technical Notes" to view relevant web sites and printed resources.

Although it may seem confusing at first, after a few minutes of exploring this etoolbox you'll get the feel for how the information is organized and how to efficiently navigate to your areas of interest.

Comments and suggestions on the organization and content of this Electronic Toolbox and other sources of information are always welcome.

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