The final plan should be free of grammatical and typographical errors and scientifically sound. For the final plan, you must demonstrate a thorough knowledge of the selected species, its habitat requirements, natural history and ecology. Then using what you have learned in this course, develop your own comprehensive management plan that will bring the population of the select species back from the brink of threatened or endangered status. You must clearly identify the factors or threats affecting your species of choice, link the management actions you propose to the threats the species faces, explain your methods of management, offer support as to why you chose the methods you did, and explain how you will monitor the implementation of your proposed plan to measure its success. Cite all of your sources you correctly in APA format within the text and at the end of your plan. The plan must be at least 2250 words (excluding title page and reference section) and contain ≥ 10 citations, ≥ 5 from peer-reviewed journal articles. Please submit your plan as a Word Document.
Writing ability counts as wildlife managers need to effectively communicate what is needed, why, and what the anticipated results will be. Pay special attention to crediting your sources, spelling, grammar, sentence structure and the logical progression of thought within your document. The final paper should be formatted in APA style. It should be written in essay format, but a few bulleted or numbered lists within the text is fine where appropriate.
You cannot submit a document that you used for a different course. It must be original. If your TurnItIn Score is greater than 45%, you should strongly consider revising it and submitting it again.
For the plan, include the following main sections as headings (subcategories are not required, but should be considered). This should be a complete proposal, not an outline.
Background on Target Species (e.g., common name, scientific name, state and federal listing status (e.g, endangered, threatened) and year of listing, historic range, current range.
Habitat and food sources used throughout all life phases.
Threats the selected species faces, now and in the future.
Goals & Objectives of the Management Plan
Goals: long term desires
Objectives: short term actions to meet goals
Resource Inventory
Topographic map
Soil survey
NWI map – if water features exist on the property
Local or regional field guides available
Review of earlier management plans
Management Compartments
How will you divide the territory into management units
Include an annotated aerial image or map (e.g., Google Earth)
Evaluate habitat quality for target species in each compartment
Management Practices (i.e., what actions are you proposing?)
Physical actions
Chemical actions
Biological actions
Costs
Time frame/timing concerns
Alternatives – consider alternatives and construct a table to evaluate important and practical options
Summary
Literature Cited
Note that each reference in your Literature Cited section must be cited within the text.
