Helping Partners to Manage Alligator Gar and Their Habitats: Application of Landscape HSI Tools

DOI Fish and Wildlife Conservation Office Webinar Series

Abstract:

This presentation describes how FAC set out to develop useful landscape products that give managers the tools that identify habitat restoration opportunities that improve sustainability of alligator gar populations. One of the most important life history requirements is suitable spawning habitat. That habitat has been greatly diminished over much of the species range. The HSI tools that were developed at the Baton Rouge FWCO specifically to address the management need to identify the most effective places to restore that habitat. We work directly with National Fish Hatcheries and state managers for much of this work, but also connect broadly to the management community through the Southern Division American Fisheries Society Alligator Gar Technical Committee. Although the technical application of spatial data is innovative and important, the development of data products like these are often developed without sufficient attention to management utility. The presentation briefly covers the technical work, but focuses more on the attention to making science applicable to management. We present three real-world examples of how these products have been put into practice and will hear directly from the managers that benefit from these products.

By Glenn Constant, Kayla Kimmel, Robby Maxwell, Raynie Harlan, and Eric Brinkman

Glenn Constant is the Project Leader at the Baton Rouge FWCO. He holds a M.S. in Fisheries Biology from Louisiana State University and a B.S. Degree in Wildlife Management from the University of Lafayette, Louisiana. He previously worked for Louisiana State University and has 30 years of experience in floodplain rivers and coastal ecology. His primary career focus has been to identify, protect, and restore aquatic habitats. He serves as the Service’s representative to the Gulf of Mexico Fisheries management Council and the Gulf States Marine Fisheries Commission.

Kayla Kimmel is a Fish Biologist at the USFWS Baton Rouge Fish & Wildlife Conservation Office and has been with the Baton Rouge FWCO for 13.5 years. She holds a M.S. degree in Fisheries Science and a B.S. degree in Wildlife Ecology from Louisiana State University. Her Masters work focused on diet, age and life history of Alligator gar. She serves as the Secretary for the Alligator Gar Technical Committee and has previously held the Chair and Co-chair positions.

Robby Maxwell is the Inland Fisheries Technical Advisor with the LA Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF), where he works with a variety of issues including freshwater fisheries management, research, invasive species, flood risk reduction, and conservation. He obtained a B.S in Aquatic Biology and a M.S. in Aquatic Resources from TX State University before joining LDWF ten years ago. He currently resides in Lacassine, LA, with his family on a hectare of land with restored prairie and a small but impressive fish community.

Raynie Harlan is the Operation Manager for the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. Raynie has worked across the southeast U.S. with freshwater organisms for over 15 years. She currently serves as Operations Manager for the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries – Inland Fisheries Section, where she coordinates funding, monitoring and data management associated with freshwater fish and invertebrate communities. Before joining LDWF, she served as Research Associate in the laboratories of Dr. William Kelso and Dr. Stephen Golladay looking at landscape scale responses to floodplain habitat management and tracking aquatic species streams and rivers across Louisiana, Mississippi and Georgia.

Eric Brinkman is the District 7 Fisheries Supervisor with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission and an American Fisheries Society Certified Fisheries Professional. He serves as the Chairman of the Alligator Gar Technical Committee. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Biology from Arkansas Tech University and a Master of Science from Oklahoma State University with a focus on Alligator gar life history.

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