In collaboration with Drs. Aaron Moody (UNC- Chapel Hill) and Bill Morris (Duke University), SEI Board members Drs. Jeffrey Walters and Nick Haddad are principal investigators for a research project designed to assess various conservation and land acquisition strategies designed to benefit a suite of species that are of management concern to the Department of Defense (DoD).  Movement data for RCWs, St. Francis satyrs (Neonympha mitchellii  francisci) and  eastern tiger salamanders (Ambystoma tigrinum)  will be collected within, and adjacent to, the Fort Bragg Military Installation.  Field data will be integrated with movement, habitat and landscape models in a spatially explicit analysis framework; this spatially explicit decision support system will then be tested at Marine Corps Base Camp LeJune and ultimately applied to other military properties where balance is sought amongst species at-risk, mission compatibility, and neighboring off-post development.

Dr. John Kappes, a postdoctoral research associate at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute’s Department of Biological Sciences, was lead field investigator on the study of RCW dispersal behavior on Fort Bragg.

Juvenile female RCWs which had remained within their natal family group were captured and affixed with a tail-mounted radio transmitter.  Transmitters were cast off with rectrices (tail feathers) during subsequent autumn molt.   Data on eighteen juvenile female RCWs  on western Fort Bragg (WFB) and fifteen individuals within Overhills (OHL) and the North East Area (NEA)  were obtained in 2006 and 2007.    Ultimate fate of these females during subsequent nesting seasons were recorded through traditional resight/color band observations. 

Movement data between OHL and NEA were of particular interest due to extensive development (non-habitat) between these blocks; in contrast WFB is forested with relatively contiguous pine habitat.  Dispersal behavior (e.g., habitat use and distance moved) will be incorporated into the spatially explicit analysis framework to direct optimum conservation and management approaches with regard to other listed taxa.