3 - Strategies

Summary

Utilitarian managers regulate harvests and manipulate habitats for wild species of interest. Wild products can be legally harvested for recreation, commerce, or subsistence under certain circumstances. Illegal traffic in wild plants, animals, or their products for commerce threatens many species. In populations that are regulated by density-dependent processes near carrying capacity, sustained yield can be maximized if harvests take place when populations are near half the environment’s carrying capacity. Harvests may be sustainable if mortality from the harvest is compensatory. Habitats can be modified by changing the arrangement and structure of habitat components to provide cover, by conserving soil, and by modifying succession, for instance, with the use of fire. The amount of edge or interspersion between different habitats is an important component of habitat quality.