VNP part of 2-year study on Canada lynx, By LAUREL BEAGER, Editor

A two-year study on habitat and movement of Canada lynx will include Voyageurs National Park.
And local outdoors enthusiasts can help in the study by reporting lynx tracks.
The study in the park and the Grand Portage area is an extension of an earlier three-year study conducted by the Natural Resources Research Institute of Duluth, explained Ron Moen, lead biologist in the study.
The Canada lynx was listed in 2000 as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act.
“The Endangered Species Act is the law of the land and we should obey it, but more importantly is the issue of managing a low population and possibly getting it back to a level where it doesn’t need to be listed as an endangered species,” said Moen.
 In November, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service designated 1,841 square miles as critical habitat for lynx in the nation. Of those miles, 317 are located in Voyageurs, excluding private property. The park, and other national parks elsewhere in the nation, are designated as critical habitat because their management plans lack specific guidance on lynx conservation, explained Steve Windels, terrestrial ecologist at VNP.
The critical habitat designation is not expected to affect any of the park’s current actions or policies, said Windels. The designation will be considered in any new actions or projects in the park that may affect lynx habitat on the ground, such as construction of new roads or trails.
“The critical habitat designation requires that we now also consider the physical impacts of management actions on lynx habitat, in the context of how that affects critical habitat for lynx nationwide,” Windels said.
The information provided by the study is expected to aid in the park in making those management decisions, said Windels.
In addition, the park will integrate the information into its visitor education efforts, he added.
Meanwhile, Brice Hansen, a graduate student, is expected to do much of the work in the VNP study.
The Voyageurs study involves determining if the habitat is suitable for lynx; and if they are present in the park, to what extent the park is used by lynx as opposed to using Ontario or adjacent areas, explained Moen.
Collars that provide global position system information were placed on 33 lynx in the earlier NRRI study. The collars provided 15,000 locations of the lynx.
“That told us a lot about habitat use and survival for the core area of central northeastern Minnesota,” Moen explained.
That study helped identify preferred habitats of lynx  which will give researchers a clue about where to look for lynx in Voyageurs, said Moen.
And, he noted, the study will be aided by reports from the public about lynx tracks.
“We will look for tracks and will be taking calls and e-mails from people who think they’ve seen lynx tracks,” Moen said.
When tracks are verified, Moen said researchers will attempt to collect scat (******), and hair samples. Scientists will use the scat and hair to genetically identify the animal by comparing it to the collared animals.
In addition, researchers will look for snowshoe hare pellets to provide information on habitat. “If we find a lot of pellets, it means there are a lot of hare,” explained Moen. “They have a threshold for them to live in the area.”
Voyageurs is not big enough for a large number of lynx to call home, said Moen.
“Lynx are looking for snowshoe hare in younger forests. And there is less of that in Voyageurs than in adjacent areas. In that sense, logging is good for lynx.”
The best case scenario for the park study is the collaring of some lynx over the winter. And at the least, the study will provide an analysis of the habitat in the park and information about prey.
“One thing we will be able to do is test predictions of habitat suitability developed for previous parts of the study in an area where we haven’t had collared animals,” he said. “That makes possible extending predictions of suitable habitat over a much broader area.”
Another aspect of the study will involve lynx movement between the U.S. and Canada. “These animals are considered threatened here and 50 miles north the animal is managed as a furbearer,” Moen said.
The regulatory actions involving lynx creates concern in some people, Moen said. However, he noted that the areas studied previously show that lynx and people coexist well.
“We need to learn and manage for lynx, but we have more examples of coexistence of lynx and people than negative ones,” he said.
Meanwhile, 16 of the lynx collared earlier are dead, he noted. The study has helped to understand how the lynx have died which may lead to reducing mortality rates.
Just how many lynx are in Minnesota? That’s a tough question to answer because they are difficult to count, said Moen.
The range — some travel more than 100 miles away from their home base and back — make it difficult to count. Some follow roads while others cross boundary waters.