Resiliency Initiative (based on TNC Terrestrial Resilience) Open Space Institute - - March; webinar

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1 HOUSEKEEPING Notes Recent/upcoming meetings related to connectivity: DEP Commissioner update - - March Division of Fish and Wildlife regional meetings - - March NJ Land Conservation Rally --March Resiliency Initiative (based on TNC Terrestrial Resilience) Open Space Institute - - March; webinar Habitat Connectivity Full Working Group update - - April; webinar New Jersey Chapter of The Wildlife Society --April NJ Open Space and Farmland Preservation Coordinators Roundtable Discussion (DVRPC; NJCF) April 19, 2013 ICOET: June 23-27, 2013 in Scottsdale, Arizona, USA. ICCB: Connecting Systems, Disciplines and Stakeholders July 21-25, 2013 in Baltimore, MD, USA File sharing site DEP has possibilities with Microsoft Office 365 Zotero

2 AGENDA Review of related projects in NJ Recap of other core team meetings Define core areas (what to connect) What have other states done Environmental variables Biological data Step back and make sure we understand species needs to accomplish our mapping goal Next steps: Subteam of species experts to: Assemble species list Put together list of questions that will help us better understand movement behaviors and needs of these species Finalize list of data availability to collect Meet to start looking at the data in pilot area

3 RELATED PROJECTS Crossing Structure Database

4 RELATED PROJECTS NJ Pilot Road/Stream Crossing Assessment Ellen Creveling, TNC 1. Characterize existing culverts 2. Identify ways to improve connectivity for aquatic wildlife passage and stream health

5 Progress to Date Field survey protocol developed Over 700 crossings surveyed in 4 watersheds: Paulinskill, Maurice, Cooper, Salem

6 RELATED PROJECTS Wildlife Guardian Project Goals/objectives: 1. Identify wildlife crossing hot spots in NJ 2. Gain insight into landscape characteristics associated with hotspots Volunteers Will: Adopt road transect Survey for road kill and wildlife crossing 3x per week March through May

7 RELATED PROJECTS Roadkill Data

8 RELATED PROJECTS Pre-Monitoring Mortality hotspot Movement corridor Planned roadwork Rte. 78 overpasses Bobcat using existing structure under Rte. 23 Post Monitoring Retrofits New construction

9 RELATED PROJECTS Transportation Enhancement Program One of 12 eligible activities: reduce vehicle-caused wildlife mortality while maintaining habitat connectivity Applied for funding for 3 wildlife mitigation projects in northern NJ

10 RELATED PROJECTS Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Land survey and design Conceptual drawings for Road/Wildlife BMPs

11 RELATED PROJECTS CONSERVE WILDLIFE MATCHING GRANT PROGRAM One of the priorities project areas in 2013 is Projects addressing human-wildlife conflicts and habitat connectivity $3,500 is the maximum amount available per proposal request ($1,000 is the minimum amount). The Conserve Wildlife matching grant is a 50:50 cost share grant - therefore, grant funds cannot exceed 50% of the total project cost. Must be a non-profit that applies Deadline 4/11/13

12 RECAP Communication Core Team Meeting Three February 26th, 10 am noon Assunpink Wildlife Management Area, Main Office Meeting attendees: Gretchen Fowles, Andrea Kornbluh, Bill Pitts, Brian Zarate Reviewed potential options for document storage (e.g. Zotero, Dropbox) Discussed the idea of having all 3 core meetings on a standing day each month Finalized team goals/objectives Drafted Habitat Connectivity Plan Goals Reviewed revamped task list Distributed annotated bibliography template for outreach materials from other states Tasks: Review working group website and consider improvements Review annotated bibliography and consider utility of Zotero Team member revamping Habitat Connectivity Project presentation for the public Review newly categorized task list and start prioritizing

13 RECAP Habitat Connectivity Plan Goals: A strategic plan promoting the long-term viability of terrestrial wildlife populations in New Jersey through a science-based, collaborative approach. The plan will consist of two tools that identify and recommend opportunities and priorities to conserve and restore habitat connectivity. A GIS-based map that identifies and characterizes critical habitat core and corridors. A guidance document that recommends conservation actions in areas identified by associated mapping of habitat cores and corridors.

14 RECAP Guidance Document Core Team Meeting Three February 22, 1-3 pm Assunpink Wildlife Management Area, Main Building Meeting attendees: Joe Bilinski, Gretchen Fowles, Heidi Hanlon, Dave Jenkins, Paula Scelsi, Lisa Stern, Joe Sweger, Nellie Tsipoura, Dane Ward, Brian Zarate A quick review of the previous GD meeting and Mapping and Communications team meetings. Each group did outreach to other states in support of their respective needs. We did a brief review of some additional projects ongoing that complement the work of the overall habitat connectivity initiative: The TNC culvert inventory, the Wildlife Guardian project by Montclair State University, and the road mitigation BMPs. At the end of the previous meeting, members volunteered to contact states to gather information on the development of other connectivity project guidance documents. We heard back from Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Massachusetts, Maine, New York, and Washington. We reviewed draft language of core team goals and objectives and made suggestions and edits.

15 RECAP Mapping Core Team Meeting Three February 22nd, 10 am - noon Assunpink Wildlife Management Area, Main Office Meeting attendees: Bob Allen, Rick Brown, Patrick Carr, Margaret Conroy, Gretchen Fowles, Dave Golden, Heidi Hanlon, Dave Jenkins, Amy Miller, Tanya Nolte, Lisa Stern, Nellie Tsipoura, Dane Ward, Pete Winkler, Patrick Woerner, Brian Zarate Reviewed and finalized goals/objectives of NJ Connectivity Mapping Reviewed set of GIS layers that will likely be relevant to mapping (lulc, riparian, hydrology, topography, roads) Hands-on mapping exercise in 2 regions Reviewed attributes needed for availability of species data Tasks: Subteam to work on core area definition (what to connect)

16 MAPPING GOALS/OBJECTIVES Identify and characterize habitat cores and corridors that are critical for the long-term viability of terrestrial wildlife populations. The identified corridors are ones that: Provide live-in and move-through habitat [Serve to reconnect existing protected areas]* Enable species to meet basic daily and seasonal biological requirements (e.g. finding food, mates, cover) Provide for dispersal and recolonization of populations Enable redistribution of populations in response to climatic, environmental, and population level changes Facilitate genetic exchange among populations Consider connectivity across the state border []* This is a placeholder for a core areas definition. We have not yet decided if the areas we connected will necessarily all be protected areas.

17 CORE AREAS Definitions of cores used by others: Habitat blocks are areas large enough to sustain healthy wildlife populations and support essential biological processes into the future (Noss 1983, Noss and Harris 1986, Noss 1987, Noss et al. 1996).... make sure adequate size and with low enough levels of human disturbance (important for large, wide ranging, or highly specialized species) (Noess and Harris 1986) A specific type of habitat patch that contains critical habitat, that is unique or rare in its ability to provide all habitat needs (e.g., foraging/prey, cover, reproduction) or area of particularly high productivity (Schwartz et al. 2013)

18 CORE AREAS CA Natural Landscape Blocks: Large, relatively natural habitat blocks that support native biodiversity Index of ecological integrity or naturalness : The four scores were combined using Boolean logic, such that an area in good condition for supporting native terrestrial biodiversity must be not converted AND must have low impact from residential development AND must not be affected by roads AND must have good forest structure in the event it is forested Additional considerations: GAP status 1&2 regardless of ECI Have high biological value (E&T species critical habitat, vernal pool, wetland) Different thresholds of ECI and different rules per ecoregion Size threshold (most regions >10,000 acres) applied as well as edge affectedness

19 CORE AREAS WA 1. Developed habitat models for focal species. are defined as significant habitat areas that are expected or known to be important for focal species based on actual survey information or habitat association modeling. 2. Model connectivity between areas of high landscape integrity....areas that have low levels of human modification and are in relatively natural condition Pros Can be supplemented with fine-filter planning for species Require fewer data Require less knowledge about species habitat associations or behavior Transparent Repeatable Cons Difficult to validate

20 CORE AREAS WA Focal species: Selection (n = 16) 1. Species representative of a class or guild of many species. 2. Representative of region s geographic diversity. 3. Representative of region s vegetative community diversity. 4. Vulnerable to human activities and created barriers. Habitat Concentration Areas: 1. Modeled suitable habitat 2. Used species-specific size thresholds Landscape integrity 1. Core area minimum size=10,000 acres for all regions. 2. Core areas only include native land-cover types. 3. Core areas do not include freeways, major highways or secondary roads. 4. Core areas can include local roads with threshold densities that varied by ecoregion.

21 CORE AREAS TNC Ecological Assessment We defined matrix blocks within New Jersey as areas of 10,000 acres or larger, comprised of at least 75% natural lands cover, that are bounded by major roads (county, state, or federal roads) We defined umbrella blocks as areas 4,250 acres or larger, comprised of at least 75% natural lands cover, that are bounded by major roads (county, state, or federal roads) Rare species: we selected blocks of land which contain EOs, are 250 acres or larger in size, are comprised of more than 50% natural land, and are located within three miles of an umbrella or matrix block Secondary natural blocks: We defined these secondary natural blocks as roadbounded polygons of 250 acres or larger, comprised of at least 50% natural land cover, and are located within three miles of a matrix block or are touching a rare species block

22 CORE AREAS Discussed different elements that we could help define core areas Factors that will contribute to our decisions about what to connect as well as defining the matrix in between those core areas can be broken down into 2 main categories: environmental variables and biological data. It s then a matter of figuring out how to analyze the data, or combine these factors. In some cases others have developed their resistance surface first and then used certain threshold sizes, fragmentation metrics to pick out the core areas. Became clear that we have some unanswered questions...

23 CORE AREAS Step 1. Define type of connectivity to be modeled What is the conservation problem? What is (are) the species of concern? What type of movement(s) will best respond to the conservation problem for the given organism(s)? Specifically state the type(s) of connectivity to be modeled. Specifically, how will this type of movement improve the organism s fitness or resilience? What biological requirement is associated with the modeled movement? What is the state of the knowledge about the given organism s habitat preferences, life history, genetic, and demographic needs, and associated movement behaviors? What data are available, empirical or qualitative, about the organism s movement behaviors? What data are available that could be used as proxies for these behaviors, and do they represent appropriate proxies? Will one model be adequate to represent all types of movement or are different movement types sufficiently diverse to require different modeling approaches for each type of movement? Draw a conceptual model linking conservation problem, organism s fitness needs, type of connectivity, resistance layer development, and linkage modeling. What are the assumptions at each step?

24 CORE AREAS Word doc what we came up with as possible environmental variables and biological data

25 SPECIES DATA FIELD DESCRIPTION DATA TYPE Common Name text Scientific Name text SGCN Status Is it a Species of Greatest Conservation Need? yes/no Telemetry data yes/no Telemetry # individuals If yes, fill out Telemetry Data Details numeric Locational data yes/no Number of locations numeric Best data source text Data age % of locations newer than 2005? numeric Data extent Do the locations accurately reflects statewide distribution of species? yes/no Telemetry Data Details FIELD DESCRIPTION DATA TYPE Common Name text Scientific Name text Individual_ID text Telemetry data range text Telemetry fix interval text Best data source text