Interpolating a Vegetative 250-Meter Point Grid to Determine Suitability of Wintering Deer Habitat in Northern Vermont

Author: Sandra Jonker
Organization: Colorado State University

500 W. Prospect Rd.
Apt 5-I
Fort Collins, CO 80526
USA

Phone: 970-491-0743
Fax: 970-491-2255
jonkers@cnr.colostate.edu

Natural resource delineation for multi purpose management is becoming more
critical as the social and biological demands on land use increases. The
continued development of accurate management tools inventorying resources
and predicting resource availability, use, and development are essential
for successful long term natural resource management.
A habitat and wildlife inventory was completed in the 15,000 acre Nulhegan
Deer Wintering Area in Vermont. In a pilot section of 3 square miles in
this deer wintering area, Global Positioning System (GPS) technology was
used to ground truth established winter deer corridors. Using a grid
transect of 104 points at 250 meters apart (created through PC ARC/INFO
Generate), point locations were ground truthed using Real Time GPS as a
navigational tool. At each point Trimble PRO-XR GPS Data Logger were used
to collect 14 species habitat requirement variables selected from DeGraaf's
Index on New England Wildlife: Management of Forested Habitats.
The purpose of our analysis was to determine, using Geographical
Information System (GIS) ArcView Spatial Analyst through interpolation
modeling, where the highest probability is of finding White-tailed Deer
(Odocoileus virginianus) winter yard habitat in the Nulhegan Basin based on
using DeGraaf's index as a predictive model with the ground truth habitat
variable data. The resulting composite suitability map representing high,
medium, and low probable occurrence of optimal nonbreeding, winter shelter
and feeding habitat for white-tailed deer was overlaid onto the deer
corridor data to determine if indeed what the deer were actually using
corresponded with what the model had predicted as optimal deer habitat. The
model accurately predicted moderate to high probability of optimal deer
habitat along the ground truthed GPS deer corridors. The ramifications of
using Real Time GPS and GIS technologies as natural resource management
tools will benefit future land use and species conflict resolution, leading
to enhanced long term management objectives with increased accuracy and
efficiency.

Key Words: Global Positioning Systems (GPS), Geographic Information System
(GIS), Spatial Analysis, White-tailed deer optimal winter yard habitat
management, multi purpose management using GPS/GIS technology.