Fred Johnson, Ph.D.
Fred Johnson is a Scientist Emeritus at the USGS Wetland and Aquatic Research Center.
EDUCATION
Ph.D., Wildlife Ecology and Conservation, University of Florida, 2010
M.S., Wildlife and Fisheries Science, Texas A&M University, 1981
B.S., Wildlife Resources (Magna Cum Laude), West Virginia University, 1978
RESEARCH
Fred Johnson's principal interest is in the application of decision science to problems in natural resource management. Such applications require a multi-disciplinary approach to engage stakeholders in the decision-making process, to predict the responses of ecological systems to controlled and uncontrolled drivers, to elicit societal values regarding the consequences of management policy, and to develop monitoring programs to compare predicted and realized system behaviors. Johnson is particularly active in migratory bird management, with experience in problems of recreational and subsistence harvest, pest control, and habitat management. His scientific expertise is mostly in the areas of population ecology, statistical inference, dynamic systems modeling, and optimal decision making.
BACKGROUND
1989 – 2007: Wildlife Biologist (Management), Division of Migratory Bird Management, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Laurel, Maryland - responsible for evaluating, designing, and conducting resource monitoring and assessment programs to improve conservation programs; functioned as an agency representative on technical matters at state, national, and international meetings and conferences where migratory bird management and research were planned, coordinated, and reviewed.
1981-1989: Waterfowl Management Program Coordinator, Florida Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission, Okeechobee, Florida - responsible for planning, implementing, and overseeing waterfowl conservation activities for the State of Florida.
Science and Products
Frequencies of decision making and monitoring in adaptive resource management
Evaluation of harvest and information needs for North American sea ducks
Implementation of the first adaptive management plan for a European migratory waterbird population: The case of the Svalbard pink-footed goose Anser brachyrhynchus
Expert elicitation, uncertainty, and the value of information in controlling invasive species
Structured decision making as a conservation tool for recovery planning of two endangered salamanders
Development of an adaptive harvest management program for Taiga bean geese
Application of decision science to resilience management in Jamaica Bay
Learning and adaptation in waterfowl conservation: By chance or by design?
Regulation of the hunting season as a tool for adaptive harvest management — First results for pink-footed geese Anser brachyrhynchus
Adaptive harvest management for the Svalbard population of pink‐footed geese: 2016 progress summary: Technical Report from DCE – Danish Centre for Environment and Energy, No. 86
State-dependent resource harvesting with lagged information about system states
Spatially explicit control of invasive species using a reaction-diffusion model
Science and Products
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Frequencies of decision making and monitoring in adaptive resource management
Adaptive management involves learning-oriented decision making in the presence of uncertainty about the responses of a resource system to management. It is implemented through an iterative sequence of decision making, monitoring and assessment of system responses, and incorporating what is learned into future decision making. Decision making at each point is informed by a value or objective functiAuthorsByron K. Williams, Fred A. JohnsonEvaluation of harvest and information needs for North American sea ducks
Wildlife managers routinely seek to establish sustainable limits of sport harvest or other regulated forms of take while confronted with considerable uncertainty. A growing body of ecological research focuses on methods to describe and account for uncertainty in management decision-making and to prioritize research and monitoring investments to reduce the most influential uncertainties. We used siAuthorsMark D. Koneff, Guthrie S. Zimmerman, Chris P. Dwyer, Kathleen K. Fleming, Paul I. Padding, Patrick K. Devers, Fred A. Johnson, Michael C. Runge, Anthony J. RobertsImplementation of the first adaptive management plan for a European migratory waterbird population: The case of the Svalbard pink-footed goose Anser brachyrhynchus
An International Species Management Plan for the Svalbard population of the pink-footed goose was adopted under the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds in 2012, the first case of adaptive management of a migratory waterbird population in Europe. An international working group (including statutory agencies, NGO representatives and experts) agreed on objectives andAuthorsJesper Madsen, James Henty Williams, Fred A. Johnson, Ingunn M. Tombre, Sergey Dereliev, Eckhart KuijkenExpert elicitation, uncertainty, and the value of information in controlling invasive species
We illustrate the utility of expert elicitation, explicit recognition of uncertainty, and the value of information for directing management and research efforts for invasive species, using tegu lizards (Salvator merianae) in southern Florida as a case study. We posited a post-birth pulse, matrix model in which four age classes of tegus are recognized: hatchlings, 1 year-old, 2 year-olds, and 3 + yAuthorsFred A. Johnson, Brian J. Smith, Mathieu Bonneau, Julien Martin, Christina Romagosa, Frank J. Mazzotti, J. Hardin Waddle, Robert Reed, Jennifer Kettevrlin Eckles, Laurie J. VittStructured decision making as a conservation tool for recovery planning of two endangered salamanders
At least one-third of all amphibian species face the threat of extinction, and current amphibian extinction rates are four orders of magnitude greater than background rates. Preventing extirpation often requires both ex situ (i.e., conservation breeding programs) and in situ strategies (i.e., protecting natural habitats). Flatwoods salamanders (Ambystoma bishopi and A. cingulatum) are protected unAuthorsKaty O'Donnell, Arianne F Messerman, William J. Barichivich, Raymond D. Semlitsch, Thomas A. Gorman, Harold G Mitchell, Nathan Allan, Dante B. Fenolio, Adam Green, Fred A. Johnson, Allison Keever, Mark Mandica, Julien Martin, Jana Mott, Terry Peacock, Joseph Reinman, Stephanie S. Romañach, Greg Titus, Conor P. McGowan, Susan C. WallsDevelopment of an adaptive harvest management program for Taiga bean geese
This report describes recent progress in specifying the elements of an adaptive harvest program for taiga bean goose. It describes harvest levels appropriate for first rebuilding the population of the Central Management Unit and then maintaining it near the goal specified in the AEWA International Single Species Action Plan (ISSAP). This report also provides estimates of the length of time it woulAuthorsFred A. Johnson, Mikko Alhainen, Anthony D. Fox, Jesper MadsenApplication of decision science to resilience management in Jamaica Bay
This book highlights the growing interest in management interventions designed to enhance the resilience of the Jamaica Bay socio-ecological system. Effective management, whether the focus is on managing biological processes or human behavior or (most likely) both, requires decision makers to anticipate how the managed system will respond to interventions (i.e., via predictions or projections).AuthorsMitchell J. Eaton, Angela K. Fuller, Fred A. Johnson, M. P. Hare, Richard C. StedmanLearning and adaptation in waterfowl conservation: By chance or by design?
The most recent revision of the North American Waterfowl Management Plan seeks to increase the adaptive capacity of the management enterprise to cope with accelerating changes in climate, land-use patterns, agency priorities, and the waterfowl and wetlands constituency. Institutional and cultural changes of the magnitude envisioned are necessarily slow, messy processes, involving many actors who aAuthorsFred A. Johnson, David J. Case, Dale H. HumburgRegulation of the hunting season as a tool for adaptive harvest management — First results for pink-footed geese Anser brachyrhynchus
Adjustment of hunting season length is often used to regulate harvest of waterbirds but the effects are disputed. We describe the first results of season length extension on the harvest of the pink-footed goose, which has been selected as the first test case of adaptive harvest management of waterbirds in Europe. In Denmark, the season (previously 1 September to 31 December) was extended to includAuthorsJesper Madsen, Kevin K. Clausen, Thomas K. Christensen, Fred A. JohnsonAdaptive harvest management for the Svalbard population of pink‐footed geese: 2016 progress summary: Technical Report from DCE – Danish Centre for Environment and Energy, No. 86
This document describes progress to date on the development of an adaptive harvest management strategy for maintaining the Svalbard population of pink‐footed geese (Anser brachyrhynchus) near their agreed target level (60,000) by providing for sustainable harvests in Norway and Denmark. This report provides an assessment of the most recent monitoring information (1991-2015) and its implications fAuthorsFred A. Johnson, Jesper MadsenState-dependent resource harvesting with lagged information about system states
Markov decision processes (MDPs), which involve a temporal sequence of actions conditioned on the state of the managed system, are increasingly being applied in natural resource management. This study focuses on the modification of a traditional MDP to account for those cases in which an action must be chosen after a significant time lag in observing system state, but just prior to a new observatiAuthorsFred A. Johnson, Paul L. Fackler, G Scott Boomer, Guthrie S. Zimmerman, Byron K. Williams, James D. Nichols, Robert DorazioSpatially explicit control of invasive species using a reaction-diffusion model
Invasive species, which can be responsible for severe economic and environmental damages, must often be managed over a wide area with limited resources, and the optimal allocation of effort in space and time can be challenging. If the spatial range of the invasive species is large, control actions might be applied only on some parcels of land, for example because of property type, accessibility, oAuthorsMathieu Bonneau, Fred A. Johnson, Christina M. Romagosa