Optimal economic management of wildlife, over-time, with special reference to Canada geese of the Swan Lake National Wildlife Refuge
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"Objectives: This study is concerned with optimal management of wildlife over time. The primary concern is with management of a single species of wildlife. The questions for which this study attempts to provide answers are: 1. Given the present level of population of a species of wildlife and the harvest, what is the probability distribution associated with reproduction of this species? 2. Given the level of harvest of a species of wildlife, how can the value of not social benefit associated with this harvest level be measured empirically? 3. How should harvesting of a species of wildlife be managed, when the probability distribution of the reproduction and the net social benefit function associated with this species are known, so that expected discounted net social benefits are maximized over a period of n years? Moro specifically, the objectives are: (1) To develop stochastic reproduction models for any species of wildlife. (2) To develop demand and net social benefit models for any species of wildlife. (3) To develop a programming model for analysis of wildlife management over time, using the dynamic programming technique. (4) To apply empirically the models developed in (1) and (2) to a specific species of wildlife, Canadian geese, on the Swan Lake Wildlife Refuge. (5) To illustrate the types of information which can be generated from application of programming analysis to management of Canadian geese. The management area is the Swan Lake Wildlife Refuge. The planning period for economic management of Canadian geese is 50 years. In the maximization of present value of expected net social benefits associated with harvesting of this species, two conflicting forces are operating: On the one hand, the decision determining how many geese to harvest during a forthcoming period can be made most advantageously by waiting until the beginning of the period and utilizing the information about the peak population of geese at that time. On the other hand, greater net benefits can be obtained by advance planning as far as increases in demand are concerned. The usual time period for harvest decisions is one year. The Canadian geese management policy defines the total harvest level annually during a fifty-year period; the primary decision variable here is the level of population of this species at the beginning of the planning horizon."--Page 3.
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