June 7-11, 2010
Presented by Drs. Jim Nichols, and Julien Martin,
The US Geological Survey and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission are offering a free short course, designed to expose scientists and managers to the basic components and process of adaptive management. This approach is relevant to any sort of management decision that is repeated over time and may be useful in some cases with spatially replicated, one-time decisions. We begin with a discussion of structured decision making, an umbrella process of which adaptive management is a special case. We then focus on the key elements of structured decision making and adaptive management: objectives, potential management actions, models of system behavior, optimization methods, and monitoring programs. We discuss approaches for selecting appropriate objectives and show how general objectives can be formalized into explicit objective functions. We discuss management actions for different classes of problems. We describe the development of models designed to project the consequences of the potential management actions on system behavior. We will briefly discuss optimization methods to identify decisions that are optimal with respect to the management objectives. Because estimates of system state are typically needed for informed management, we provide a general approach to developing a monitoring program, as well as discuss the specific roles of resulting data in the decision process. Finally, we show how these components combine in the adaptive management process. We argue that this process is ideal for management in the face of uncertainty and provides a natural mechanism for the conduct of science useful to management. Throughout the course, we will illustrate general approaches and concepts with a specific application involving possible management of disturbance of nesting golden eagles in Denali National Park.
Objectives:
1- Provide the participants with an understanding of the fundamental principles of structured decision making and adaptive management for natural resource management.
2- Expose participants to classes of analytical methods useful for implementing adaptive management and, more generally, for addressing management and conservation problems.
3- Illustrate the approach with a real case study.
Webinar:
Because of travel restrictions, we will need to conduct the short course over the web. You will be able to view PowerPoints and demonstrations on your computer screen. You can listen either using your computer speakers or by calling a phone bridge long distance. Power point presentations, lecture notes, background information, and recordings of the sessions will be posted on the web. If you use the telephone or have a headset or microphone, you can ask questions orally. Otherwise, you can type in your questions.
Register:
The course is open to all who are interested without charge. Please register for the webinar at https://www1.gotomeeting.com/
You are encouraged to register, even if conflicts prevent you from participating in some or all of the sessions or if you are only interested in some sessions. You can participate in the sessions that you are interested in and that are at a convenient time. You can watch the recordings of other sessions at a more convenient time. Registering will allow us to provide you with updates and more information about the course. There is no charge. Some people on military bases have had a problem with this link. If you have a problem, please call Paul at 970-226-9482, and he will register you over the phone.
Certificates of participation are available to those who participate. US Department of the Interior employees can receive credit through DOI Learn.
For more information, please see the course website (http://www.fort.usgs.gov/
