Steve Fuller, 2013, North Atlantic LCC Wildlife Action Plan Assistance. Mapping Species and Habitats across State Boundaries

1. North Atlantic LCC Wildlife Action Plan
Assistance:
Mapping Species and Habitats across State Boundaries
Steve Fuller & Lori Pelech
Conservation Design Specialist
North Atlantic LCC
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
1

2. Objective NE Conservation Synthesis for State
Wildlife Actions Plans
• To synthesize regional conservation information
into a consistent format that states can easily
access and incorporate into their Wildlife
Actions Plan revisions
• To this information easily accessible to states
and conservation partners.
2

3. 3
How does NALCC help the Northeast States with their Wildlife
Action Plans?
•We compiled species data for the “RSGCN”
•We compiled data layers on relative condition of habitats
•We are building a national network of information platforms
•We fund and negotiate data sharing agreements
•We resolve data compatibility issues across state lines
•We are not here to make decisions about Wildlife action Plans or SGCN
data, but we can provide assistance
•We can “crunch” big datasets to help analyze the distribution, abundance
and condition of populations, species, and habitats
•We agree to put sensitive results back in State protection
•We aim to help satisfy the 8 Elements of Wildlife Action Plans

4. 4
Why is a regional context important ?

5. 5
Missing Data?
The image shown is
for demonstration
only and does not
represent actual data

6. 6
Uneven effort?
The image shown is
for demonstration
only and does not
represent actual data

7. 7
OMG
A nice data set?
The image shown is
for demonstration
only and does not
represent actual data

8. 8
Rarity?
Severe
decline?
The image shown is
for demonstration
only and does not
represent actual data

9. 9
The image shown is
for demonstration
only and does not
represent actual data

10. 10
What is the role of LCCs in Wildlife Action Plans?
We want to create baseline landscape conservation
science for voluntary use in Wildlife Action Plans:
•Data layers summarizing environmental conditions
that describe the status of species and habitats
•Data layers summarized at multiple scales to
describe the collective status of species and habitats
within important geographies or jurisdictions

11. 11
WE HAVE
ASSEMBLED THE
DATA TO DO ALL
THESE THINGS.

12. 12

13. 13
ScienceComplexity
Time to Adoption
Limited adoption!
Useful
Science
We think about science utility and adoptability every day.

14. 14
What is the role of LCCs in Wildlife Action Plans?
•After 10 months negotiating agreements, acquiring data, and cleaning it up…
•one week we summarized the security, fragmentation, connectivity, and many other
factors for over 300,000 records of top priority Northeast RSGCNs
•Building a multi-state Conservation GIS involves a lot of “grunt” work…
•It is the only way to see the big picture!!
•We are here to provide capacity to assemble consistent data across boundaries and
provide useful analyses to our partners
•We need states Wildlife Action Planners to
decide what to do with landscape analysis results!
Getting data is the hard part.

15. NE Terrestrial Habitat Map
A consistent classification and map across 13 states
Above Zoom-in:
Pitch Pine Barren
Acidic Swamp
Rocky Oak Woodland
Pine-Oak Forest
App Hemlock-N Hardwood Forest

16. Size
Gradient
TemperatureGeology

17. Possible Metrics for each
Terrestrial and Wetland Type
Biotic and Geophysical Indicators
•Richness of rare species
•TNC Portfolio
•SWAP Portfolio
Ecological Setting
• Size of patch and core Area
• Size of Block
• Number of landforms / Ecological land units
• Connectedness of patch
• Distance /Adjacencies to other patches
Human Modification
• Type and number of bounding and internal roads.
• Fragmentation index
• Housing Density Pressure
• Landscape context / Isolation index
• Degree of Cutting (FIA – types only)
• Age/Size class statistics (FIA – types only)
• Risk of Pollution (acid ep, ozone)
Securement
•% of Secured Land by GAP Status
•% of Secured Land by Ownership Classes
•Secured Land by % Interest Types

18. Completeness Bar as of 4/5/2013:
0% 100%
0% 100%
0% 100%
0% 100%
0% 100%0% 100% 0% 100%
Habitat
Maps
%
Conserved
Securement
Habitat
Names
Habitat Descriptions
State Crosswalks
Places to Visit
0% 100%
Associated
Wildlife

19. Habitat Guide
Page 1
• Map
• Description (NS)
• Similar Habitats
• Ecological Setting
• Securement
• Wildlife
– Birds
– Herptiles
– Mammals
– (From Literature)

20. 20
this is a rat
this is a snake
What do
landscape data
tell us about
species?

21. 21
this is a rat
this is a snake

22. 22
this is a rat
this is a snake

23. 23
this is a rat
this is a snake
this is a dead rat

24. 24
NE Regional SGCN 538 Species
A dataset of 300,000 species “presences” across 13 states
What are the applications
of a multi-state habitat
classification and a species
presence dataset?
Data-driven best-
available science!!
Raw Data Points:
NatureServe
State Data
Bird Atlases
eBird
Researchers
Species data
hotspots
QUANTIFY the relative condition of populations, patches….
Then prioritize across species, habitats, and landscapes
…more efficient than QUALITATIVE rankings!!!

25. Connectivity
∑ …of factors ABCD for each point or “patch”
= index of relative condition of a population or
patch of habitatResiliency
Integrity
•RSGCN
•T&E
•Surrogate species
Vulnerability
Security
Development
Habitat Class

26. 26
Landscape conditions
summarized for each point…
•Relative condition of
populations
•Relative condition of habitat
patches
Landscape condition
summarized across points…
•Prioritize Species
•Prioritize Habitats
•Prioritize Locations
•Prioritize Actions

27. 27
What is the role of LCCs in Wildlife Action Plans?
SWAP CHAPTER
TEMPLATE
Prioritizing
Actions

28. 28
•Reports and data will be packaged so that they can be used voluntarily in
SWAP revisions
•Each state will choose how to use our results in collaboration with their
partners
•Reports and data will be made accessible via the NALCC web portal
•Regional tools will allow states to plan locally for species needs in the context
of their regional distributions
•The regional context may help prioritize decisions about which things NOT to
work on.

29. 29
•Emphasis on State-Federal collaboration in the
Northeast Conservation Framework
•We know we NEED to collaborate managing BIG
datasets is a challenge
•We schedule joint meetings & fund complementary
projects to States
•NEAFWA Directors asked us to help with information
management and synthesize landscape analysis
•We created capacity in FWS, WMI and TNC to help states
How do States and NALCC stay connected?