A Structured Decision-Making Workshop for Indigo Snake Conservation

One of the foremost challenges in conservation biology is making decisions with limited information. Rare species are often difficult to study, and there can be large gaps in our basic understanding of their ecology and behavior. These data gaps can then lead to an inability to understand processes that might improve or limit the success of on-the-ground conservation actions. It is often clear that a problem exists even without having all of the necessary information to make an informed decision about the best action to take. Thus, conservation practitioners must make do with the information that is available, develop methodologies to understand unknown processes, and assess what effects uncertainty could have on conservation outcomes.

Efforts to reintroduce indigo snakes into the western portion of their historic range have been ongoing for more than a decade. Indigo snakes were once found in southern Alabama and the Florida Panhandle but were extirpated from these regions for a variety of reasons (e.g., collection for the pet trade, declines in Gopher Tortoise populations, and habitat loss). One of the priority conservation goals established by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for indigo snakes is the establishment of at least two populations within this portion of the range. To accomplish this, a large group of partners has been releasing captive-bred snakes annually at two sites (one in Alabama and one in the Florida Panhandle). The long-term goal of this effort is to establish self-sustaining populations of indigo snakes that can persist on the landscape without continued interventions. While this is a relatively straightforward goal, measuring this outcome in the field at the reintroduction sites is challenging. This creates uncertainty about when to determine that releases have succeeded (or failed) and when to redirect resources toward other release sites or conservation projects.

To address this issue, we recently participated in a Structured Decision-Making workshop designed to improve outcomes for the ongoing indigo snake reintroduction effort. This workshop brought together partners from 11 different organizations:

• The Orianne Society
• Auburn University / Alabama Natural Heritage Program
• U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
• Florida Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit / USGS
• U.S. Forest Service
• Zoo Atlanta
• Orianne Center for Indigo Conservation at the Central Florida Zoo
• Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources
• Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission
• Georgia Department of Natural Resources
• Jones Center at Ichauway

The goal of the workshop was simple: partners need a methodology to understand how to determine success (or failure) at a reintroduction site. Many common metrics describing the ‘health’ of a population are challenging to measure at release sites because indigo snakes are difficult to find after release. Creating an up-to-date list of metrics based on previous experience with this project will allow partners to critically assess how current monitoring techniques align with the ultimate goals of the project.

Over four days, discussions were led by Dr. Conor McGowan from the Florida Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit. The workshop was organized using a standardized PrOACT (Problem, Objectives, Alternatives, Consequences, and Trade-offs) decision-making framework that is commonly applied to problem-solving in the conservation field. After much discussion, the participants gravitated toward using a suite of metrics that describe the released population as a formal methodology to evaluate success. These criteria will be based on data collected from wild indigo snake populations in Georgia, linking conservation efforts across the species’ range. Some of the metrics that were discussed included evidence of movement and use of habitats other than the original release site, observed sex ratios similar to those in wild populations, and evidence of reproduction and recruitment of subsequent generations post-release.

The next steps are to ensure that the currently available data and monitoring methods align with the metrics discussed at the workshop through a follow-up survey with participants. Depending on the results, current field methods may need to be altered, and some new data analyses could be needed to meet the outlined goals. Even with clear metrics, defining a stable and self-sustaining indigo snake population will still be a challenging, multi-year endeavor. Partners plan to come together again next year for a second workshop to continue discussing this project and working toward success.

This workshop was funded by a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Recovery Challenge Grant. These grants are designed to help achieve recovery goals so that species can ultimately be delisted and removed from the Endangered Species List. Without this support, we would not have been able to gather such a diverse group of stakeholders to make meaningful progress toward indigo snake conservation.