Health Assessment of Actively Poached Galax Populations to Inform Restoration Need and Law Enforcement Approach
Fonda M. 2021. Health Assessment of Actively Poached Galax Populations to Inform Restoration Need and Law Enforcement Approach. University of Georgia
Natural Resource Condition Assessment, Focused Condition Assessment Project Exploitation is a key factor in global biodiversity declines and poaching as a subset of exploitation threatens many plant species. Non-timber forest products (NTFPs) are harvested for a variety of uses and poaching is a major concern for their conservation. The southern Appalachians are a hotspot of NTFP biodiversity and harvest, and a variety of measures have been used to prevent poaching and overharvest of NTFPs. Leaves from Galax urceolata (galax) are harvested for use in the floral industry, and galax poaching occurs in the Blue Ridge Parkway (BRP). We assessed potential poaching prevention strategies for galax, using mixed-effects modeling approaches to analyze trends in galax density, large-leaf counts, and patch extent at nine sampling locations. Poaching type was positively associated with some of these galax metrics, potentially indicating site-selection preferences of poachers. Park-wide estimates indicated that galax trends are stable, but some plot-level estimates showed more substantial declines.
- Type
- Academic
- Authors
- Fonda, Michelle
- Date of Issue
- 2021-12
- Publisher
- University of Georgia
- Units
- BLRI
- Keywords
- Exploitation, FCA, Focused Condition Assessment, Galax urceolata, Harvest, lme4 Package, Mixed-Effects Modeling, Natural Resource Condition Assessment, NRCA, Plants, Poaching, R, RStudio, Sampling Plot, Statistical Analysis, thesis, Transect, Trends