Chapter 7 Monitoring
reproducible techniques should be used, and new population-monitoring techniques should be evaluated as needed.
Emerging technologies, research methods, and wildlife issues will require more genetics research and DNA analysis to better understand disease, conduct forensic analysis, and improve taxonomic identification and classification. These new opportunities for generating datasets need protocols and methods that will minimize problems with sharing data (Taberlet and Luikart 1999; Bonin et al. 2004; Waits and Paetkau 2005; Lukacs and Burnham 2005; Schwartz et al. 2007) . Participation in a clearinghouse could facilitate sharing data among partners. Regional and national coordination is needed to evaluate the capacity of existing state programs to combine and monitor populations across their range. One effort is the USGS’s Species Management Research Program, which supports and provides collection and analysis of biological data for local, regional, and national assessment of biological resources and the ecosystems that support them. Information is available online https://www.usgs.gov/programs/species-management-research-program. 7.1.3 Indicators and Targets The Southeast Conservation Adaptation Strategy (SECAS) worked collaboratively with numerous agencies and organizations to develop 60 natural resource and cultural resource indicators that represent terrestrial, freshwater, and coastal/marine ecosystems (SECAS 2025) . An indicators list is available online https://secassoutheast.org/pdf/IndicatorCheatSheet_2024.pdf The number of agencies and organizations tracking trends associated with particular habitat types or regions of the state can make coordination and statewide assessments difficult. There is variability in terms of what is monitored, the indicators and criteria that are measured, and methods used to measure those indicators. A key improvement should be the establishment of a statewide clearinghouse of information for assessing habitat status and environmental trends information across North Carolina.
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2025 NC Wildlife Action Plan
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