Chapter 4 Habitats
Priority Conservation Action, Examples of Focal Species or Focal Habitats • Conduct shrew surveys to determine the distribution of Long-tailed, Pygmy, and Water shrews and surveys to document the response of shrews to disturbance/management. Long-tailed Shrew Pygmy Shrew Water shrew • Conduct surveys for rare salamanders as well as more common species to determine their actual distribution and better define their habitat associations. Northern Pygmy Salamander Southern Pygmy Salamander Seepage Salamander Tellico Salamander Weller’s Salamander Ravine Salamander 4.4.4.6.2 Monitoring Monitoring involves repeated observation and recording of specific parameters to show trends over time. Long-term monitoring that includes statistical and quantitative analysis in the design is critical to assessing species and ecosystem health and gauging the resilience of organisms to changing conditions (Gitzen et al. 2012, Lindenmayer and Likens 2009) . Monitoring efforts should include identification of population trends, as well as assessment of impacts from conservation or development activities. These efforts will inform species and habitat management decisions. Long-term monitoring sites need to be identified, and monitoring protocols developed for all priority species. Monitoring plans should be coordinated with other existing monitoring programs where feasible. Monitoring of aquatic taxa is critical to assessing species and ecosystem health and gauging the resilience of organisms to a changing climate. These monitoring efforts will inform future decisions on how to manage aquatic species. Priority Conservation Action, Examples of Focal Species or Focal Habitats • Establish monitoring systems and protocols and implement programs to monitor population trends for all high-elevation species. • Develop and implement monitoring systems and protocols for population trends for all high- elevation species, including those associated with northern hardwood forest, with top priority toward rare species and secondary priority toward all species occurring in this relatively rare community of the North Carolina landscape.
• Establish more Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship (MAPS) stations, point counts, and migration banding stations; montane birds are not adequately picked up in BBS routes.
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2025 NC Wildlife Action Plan
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