Midwest Fish & Wildlife Conference 2018

AUTHORS. Alexander Latzka, Lori Tate - Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources

ABSTRACT. A key challenge for fish and wildlife agencies is integrating, analyzing, and sharing the wealth of data that comes with statewide monitoring and research. Such data sharing may be mandated, and can inform decision-making and management by partners both within and outside the agency. The recent development of new tools and packages in R has enabled a unification of data management, analysis, visualization, and sharing via web applications. At the Wisconsin DNR, we are using these tools to interface with our statewide fisheries database, automate standardized analyses, and share data, figures, and formatted reports within and outside the agency. When published, external users will be able to select a lake, view and download survey and stocking data, inspect summary figures like length-frequency diagrams or time series of catch per unit effort, compare the lake to others with similar attributes, and more. They can use this information to help justify stocking or grants for habitat improvement, and generally learn about their lake’s fisheries in the context of the broader landscape. Internally, DNR biologists can use this information to easily and quickly analyze data to inform changes to regulations, stocking, and survey designs, and to easily summarize information to share externally. W With management resources spread thin across thousands of lakes, these tools may allow for more streamlined and efficient integration of extensive fisheries data into fisheries management. In this talk, we will share our applications, highlight their strengths and limitations, and discuss ideas for implementation in decision-making processes.