The precedent: California just finished their statewide analysis. It required painstaking ID of core areas to connect.

These are shown by the colored “sticks” connecting core areas

The precedent: California just finished their statewide analysis. It required painstaking ID of core areas to connect.

These are shown by the colored “sticks” connecting core areas

Once “sticks” were identified, California modeled linkages one-by-one, taking months and tens of thousands of dollars in analyst time.

And that was for just one integrity-based analysis, compared to 16 focal species plus integrity in WA.

We need to avoid this and automate as much as possible!

How to accomplish something comparable but automatable?

Need to create informative maps for 16 focal species + landscape integrity

Habitat Concentration areas (HCAs)

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Candidate map #1: Cost-weighteddistances to all 11 HCAs using resistance surface

See notes attached to this and following slides

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Masked out areas beyond 300km

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Cost-weighted distance from HCA #3

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Sum of cost-weighted distances from HCAs 3 & 5 = Least-cost corridor

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Problem #1: How to get a map like this….

From a bunch of maps like this?

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Proposed method:Minimum of all normalized least-cost corridors

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Proposed method:Minimum of all normalized least-cost corridors

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Proposed method:Minimum of all normalized least-cost corridors

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Problem with overlapping corridors

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Problem # 2: Which HCAs to connect?

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Proposed method:If a least-cost corridor passes through an intermediate HCA, don’t map the corridor

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Creates a network of HCA’s

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Proposed method:If a least-cost corridor passes through an intermediate HCA, don’t map the corridor

Assume it can be represented by individual corridors

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Candidate map product 2: Minimum of all normalized corridor layersusing network of HCA’s

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Candidate map product 3: Some measure of corridor quality

Here, I’ve divided each corridor by the geographic distance between the HCAs it connects

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Candidate map product 3: Some measure of corridor quality

Here, I’ve divided each corridor by the geographic distance between the HCAs it connects

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Circuitscape results- pinch points and redundancy between HCAs 3 and 5

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Circuitscape results- important barriers separating HCAs 3 and 5

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Candidate map product 4: Circuitscape results showing pinch points and areas important for network

Brighter areas are pinch points and/or have higher centrality (meaning they’re important for multiple pairs of HCAs).

May be more appropriate for ecoregional and local analyses.

Candidate map product 5: Circuitscape results showing important barriers in network

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Problem: Some maps display well at larger extents…

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Normalized corridors

Problem: Some maps display well at larger extents…

…and some don’t

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Corridor quality

If needed, “sticks” can be color coded to indicate corridor info (like quality) without need to create additional hi-res maps

(Some concern about landowner sensitivity)

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NEEDS-Funds to develop climate-smart linkage design strategies

-GIS Tools!• Automate connectivity modeling, facilitate repeat analyses, streamline ecoregional analyses

• Integrate into Decision Support Systems

• Get tools into hands of other states and planners

-New ways to share maps, tools, and data on the web

Opportunities & Risks-Rare opportunity to influence connectivity conservation throughout west (& elsewhere!)-Highly fundable (WCS, WGA, LCCs, etc.)-Critical planning needs (e.g. for greater sage-grouse)

-All eyes are on Washington

-Large partnerships and limited capacity = potential for timeline slippage-We’re on hook for Columbia Plateau analysis (Aug 2011)-Maps take on lives of their own (So do tools!)