Elk (Cervus elaphus) are increasing in fragmented landscapes that result from exurban human development throughout western North America, which increases human-wildlife conflicts and poses a challenge to wildlife managers. Elk hunting must often be intensively managed to reduce population growth rate, crop depredation, and habituation to humans. However, little was known about the indirect effect hunting has on anti-predator behavior, movement, resource selection, and human-elk conflicts. We outfitted elk with global positioning system (GPS) collars in the wildland-urban interface (WUI) of Missoula, Montana, USA, 2007, to test the indirect effects of hunting on elk. We used data from 9 GPS-collared adult female elk during 3 hunting seasons with increasing hunting pressure (2007)(2008)(2009) to test relationships between movement rates measured by first passage time (FPT) and resource selection. Elk movement rates were lower approximately 750 m from houses and trails, resulting in resource selection for areas approximately 1,200 m from houses and trails; this suggested that habituation to humans contributed to humanwildlife conflict. Movement rates increased with increasing hunting pressure, and were lower in general versus focal hunting seasons and with archery versus rifle hunting. Thus, intensive hunting seasons in the WUI increased elk movement rates and exposure to hunter predation risk, as predicted. These results support the hypothesis that elk modify their behavior in relation to temporal and spatial variation in human predation risk. In the intensively managed WUI, our results demonstrate that even small increases in the area hunted and increases in intensity can indirectly change resource selection and movement rates of elk, potentially reversing recent trends of increasing habituation in WUI elk populations. ß 2012 The Wildlife Society.

The relative roles of science and human values can be difficult to distinguish when informal processes are used to make complex and contentious decisions in wildlife management. Structured Decision Making (SDM) offers a formal process for making such decisions, where scientific results and concepts can be disentangled from the values of differing stakeholders. We used SDM to formally integrate science and human values for a citizen working group of ungulate hunting advocates, lion hunting advocates, and outfitters convened to address the contentious allocation of harvest quotas for mountain lions (Puma concolor) in west-central Montana, USA, during 2014. A science team consisting of mountain lion biologists and population ecologists convened to support the working group. The science team used integrated population models that incorporated 4 estimates of mountain lion density to estimate population trajectories for 5 alternative harvest quotas developed by the working group. Results of the modeling predicted that effects of each harvest quota were consistent across the 4 density estimates; harvest quotas affected predicted population trajectories for 5 years after implementation but differences were not strong. Based on these results, the focus of the working group changed to differences in values among stakeholders that were the true impediment to allocating harvest quotas. By distinguishing roles of science and human values in this process, the working group was able to collaboratively recommend a compromise solution. This solution differed little from the status quo that had been the focus of debate, but the SDM process produced understanding and buy-in among stakeholders involved, reducing disagreements, misunderstanding, and unproductive arguments founded on informal application of scientific data and concepts. Whereas investments involved in conducting SDM may be unnecessary for many decisions in wildlife management, the investment may be beneficial for complex, contentious, and multiobjective decisions that integrate science and human values. Ó

Determining how streams develop naturally, particularly the ecological role of newly developed riparian canopy cover, is essential to understanding the factors that structure new stream communities and provides valuable information for restoring highly disturbed ecosystems. However, attempts to understand primary succession in riverine ecosystems have been hindered by a lack of data owing to the infrequent formation of new rivers on the landscape. In the present study, we used five streams formed following the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens (WA, USA) to examine the influence of canopy cover development on algal and benthic macroinvertebrate assemblages, biomass, and organic matter processing. Newly established closed canopy reaches had less available light, but no significant differences in algal biomass or macroinvertebrate assemblages compared to open canopy reaches. Instead, algal and macroinvertebrate communities were structured mainly by hydrologic differences among watersheds. In contrast, organic matter processing rates were sensitive to canopy cover development, and rates were faster under closed canopies, especially in late summer or after terrestrial preconditioning. After 40 years of stream and riparian primary successional development, canopy cover strongly influences ecosystem function, but aquatic organism assembly was more influenced by physio-chemical and hydrologic variation. Our findings provide insight into the development of in-stream assemblages and ecosystem functions, which is also relevant to efforts to address major disturbances to stream channels, such as volcanic eruptions, floods, forest fires, and clear-cut logging.