In highly impaired watersheds, it is critical to identify both areas with desirable habitat as conservation zones and impaired areas with the highest likelihood of improvement as restoration zones. We present how detailed riparian vegetation mapping can be used to prioritize conservation and restoration sites within a riparian and instream habitat restoration program targeting 3 native fish species on the San Rafael River, a desert river in southeastern Utah, United States. We classified vegetation using a combination of object‐based image analysis (OBIA) on high‐resolution (0.5 m), multispectral, satellite imagery with oblique aerial photography and field‐based data collection. The OBIA approach is objective, repeatable, and applicable to large areas. The overall accuracy of the classification was 80% (Cohen's κ = 0.77). We used this high‐resolution vegetation classification alongside existing data on habitat condition and aquatic species' distributions to identify reaches' conservation value and restoration potential to guide management actions. Specifically, cottonwood (Populus fremontii) and tamarisk (Tamarix ramosissima) density layers helped to establish broad restoration and conservation reach classes. The high‐resolution vegetation mapping precisely identified individual cottonwood trees and tamarisk thickets, which were used to determine specific locations for restoration activities such as beaver dam analogue structures in cottonwood restoration areas, or strategic tamarisk removal in high‐density tamarisk sites. The site prioritization method presented here is effective for planning large‐scale river restoration and is transferable to other desert river systems elsewhere in the world.

Coyote (Canis latrans) spatial and social ecology are variable, but have been little studied in high-elevation environments. In these temperate ecosystems, large ungulates are prevalent and coyote pack size may be large in order for them to scavenge and defend ungulate carcasses from conspecifics in neighboring packs. We initiated a study to understand the spatial and social ecology of coyotes on the Valles Caldera National Preserve, a high-elevation (2450-3400 m) protected area in northern New Mexico. Our objectives were to (1) describe the home range size and habitat use of coyotes in the preserve, (2) describe coyote movements within and outside of packs, and (3) to evaluate the relationship between coyote social cohesion and the amount of elk (Cervus elaphus) in the coyote diet. We acquired global positioning system and telemetry locations from 33 coyotes from August 2005 to July 2009. We classified 23 coyotes (70 % of individuals) as residents (i.e., territorial) during at least part of the study and ten coyotes (30 %) as transients. Overall mean home range size of resident packs was 10.6 ± 2.2 (SD) km 2 . Home range size varied between packs, but did not vary by season or year. Coyotes used dry and wet meadow habitats as expected based on availability; coyotes used riparian habitat more than expected, and forests less than expected. Social cohesion did not vary among biological seasons. Alpha coyotes were more socially cohesive with each other than with other pack members, and a transient exhibited temporal-spatial avoidance of pack members while inside the pack's territory followed by integration into the pack. Contrary to expectations, we found no relationship between coyote social cohesion and the proportion of elk in coyote diets. We concluded that coyote space use and sociality on the preserve were relatively stable year-round despite changes in biological needs, snow depth, and utilization of variously sized prey.

Satellite telemetry is a powerful tool used to follow animals through their annual life cycle, informing the understanding of behavior and distribution of many species. Because boreal‐ and arctic‐nesting North American sea duck populations are challenging to survey, satellite telemetry is important for describing breeding distributions and identifying breeding population structure. Accurate knowledge of breeding distributions is needed for effective habitat and harvest management, but satellite telemetry is expensive so it is important to consider the effort necessary to accurately map breeding distributions. We construct 3 theoretical breeding distributions using existing telemetry data from 3 species of sea ducks, Barrow's goldeneye (Bucephala islandica), surf scoter (Melanitta perspicillata), and black scoter (M. americana), by fitting kernel densities to approximate breeding locations of individual birds. Then we determined the minimum sample size needed to approximate these theoretical breeding distributions by assessing the overlap between breeding densities simulated by sampling from the distributions and the theoretical breeding densities. Diminishing information gains with additional effort (i.e., <1–5% improvement in prediction) were reached with sample sizes ranging from 80 to 130. Sea duck mortality, transmitter failure, and exclusion of non‐breeding individuals resulted in an effective sample size smaller than the number of birds originally marked. For the cases we considered, obtaining breeding locations for 80–130 individuals would require marking 11–41% more birds than the sample size goal. Thus, although satellite telemetry provides valuable information on sea duck populations, our analysis suggests that accurately estimating the extent and relative use of breeding habitats requires substantial investment. © 2018 The Wildlife Society.

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