Download World Wildlife Fund - Global Restoration Network

World Wildlife Fund
Northern Great Plains Program
WWF’s Approach to Landscape-level Conservation in
the Northern Great Plains
Steve Forrest and Dennis Jorgensen
November 17, 2010
SER/WN Connectivity Workshop
How do we go from restoring local habitats to restoring large ecosystems
and landscapes?
WWF’s Global Ecoregional Assessment (Olson and Dinerstein 1998)
Published in 1998, WWF’s “Global 200” is a blueprint for WWF to identify the
areas of abundant and representative biodiversity around the world that must
be saved in the next 50 years.
WWF’s 19 Priority Places
WWF further refined our focus to 19 places of the highest priority based on the
diversity and abundance of life they support, the destructive challenges they
face, and our ability to impact them within the next decade.
Temperate Grasslands of the World
Protected Area Coverage by Biome (Green and Paine 1997, WWF analysis)
Alberta
0%
2%
4%
6%
Percent ProtectionManitoba
8%
10%
12%
14%
Mixed island systems
Subtropical/temperate rain
forests/woodlands
Mixed mountain systems
Tropical
MT humid forests
ND
UNK120551530
Biome Type
Tundra communities
Tropical
grasslands/savannas
Tropical dry
forests/woodlands
Cold-winter deserts
Temperate needle-leaf
forests/woodlands
Warm deserts/semideserts
Evergreen sclerophyllous
forests
Temperate broad-leaf
forests
SD
WY
NE
Lake systems
Temperate grasslands
6
16%
18%
Global Native Habitat Loss
Alberta
Manitoba
ND
MT
UNK120551530
SD
WY
NE
7
WWF’s Northern Great Plains Program
Alberta
The Northern Great Plains Ecoregion
Manitoba
 N.A. largest grassland ecoregion
 279,000 sq.
MT mi. spanning 5 states
and 2 provinces
UNK120551530
 Mixed-grass prairie and shrubsteppe
ND
SD
WY
NE
8
WWF’s Northern Great Plains Program
Alberta
Ocean of Grass (WWF 2004): An
Ecoregional Assessment
Manitoba
11 priority landscapes based on:
ND
MT
 High biodiversity value
UNK120551530
 No. of endemic species
 T&E species restoration potential
 Biodiversity widely distributed
SD
 Large-scale restoration potential





WY
Low road density
Untilled land
Low or declining human population
High proportion of public land
Sufficiently large and intact
landscapes (1 million + acres)
NE
9
# of species endemic to N. American Grasslands (after Mengel 1970)
Alberta
MT
Manitoba
Endemism
ND
SD
WY
NE
10
Percentage change
US State of the Birds 2009 – 1 index of grassland health
Year
23 spp. w/ data of 46 grassland breeding bird species (48%
are of conservation concern)
WWF’s Northern Great Plains Program

39 endemic N.A. grassland vertebrates
 15% Threatened and Endangered species (CAN/US)
 74% Species of Concern (CAN/US)
 17% Vulnerable/Imperiled globally
Our Vision for the Northern Great Plains
Alberta
Saskatchewan
Manitoba
Our vision: A healthy and well-managed landscape that conserves all
native species through a combination of:
ND
MT
 Conservation areas
 Sustainable farming and
ranching
SD practices
WY
 Thriving communities that
are integrated into the
landscape
13
Key Conservation Areas
Alberta
Saskatchewan
Manitoba
(1) Montana Glaciated Plains
ND
(2) Transboundary
Region
MT
(3) Conata Basin
SD
WY
NE
14
Our Work in the Montana Glaciated Plains
Alberta
Saskatchewan
MT
WY
Manitoba
Current Projects:














American Prairie Reserve
CCPI
Pronghorn Studies
ND
Greater Sage Grouse Studies
Cougar Study
Bison Reintroduction
BFF Habitat Restoration
SD
Long-billed Curlew
Study
Swift Fox Feasibility Study
Riparian Restoration
Upland Vegetation Restoration
Wind Energy SiteNESuitability
Grazing Allotment Auction
Climate Change Adaptation
The Montana Glaciated Plains - Large-scale Restoration Potential
Alberta
Manitoba
American Prairie Reserve
Currently: 121,000 acres
Proposed scale: 2.5 million acres
ND
MT
UNK120551530
SD
Bison restoration
WY
Currently: 220 bison
Proposed population: at least 10,000,
largest bison herd in existence
NE
16
Farm Bill – Cooperative Conservation Partnership Initiative
Restoring Ranch Lands for Priority Birds and Pronghorn in
Eastern Montana
Private lands within 1.5 million acre landscape
Partners: NRCS, EDF, RSA, TNC, WWF
Approx. $700,000 secured over five year to implement
conservation practices
18 miles of fence removed, 9 miles
modified or replaced for pronghorn,
24 miles of fence flagged for sage
grouse near leks
Escape ramps installed at 26 livestock
watering facilities
Range inventories of 6 ranches (47,000
acres) considering grazing
prescriptions for sage-grouse other
grassland birds.
17
Our Work in the Transboundary Region
Alberta
Saskatchewan
Manitoba
Current Projects:

Pronghorn Studies


Migration
Habitat use
ND
MT

Greater Sage Grouse Studies


ID critical winter habitat
ID migratory paths using genetics and
satellite telemetry
SD
WY

Grasslands National Park (224,000
acres)



Prairie dog habitat evaluation
NE
Black-footed ferret
reintroduced
Bison reintroduction (190 bison on
45,000 acres)
18
Connectivity – Pronghorn and Sage-grouse
Alberta
Manitoba
ND
MT
UNK120551530
SD
WY
NE
19
Our Work in the Conata Basin of South Dakota
Alberta
Saskatchewan
Manitoba
Current Projects:

WWF/TNC land acquisition to
expand functional habitat for
bison on Badlands National Park
ND
and prairie dog habitat on US
Forest Service grazing
allotments

SD
Protection of
ferret habitat
MT
WY



Abating prairie dog poisoning
Plague mitigation
Conservation
planning
NE
20
Metrics characterizing the local to the ecoregional
Example: Prairie dogs and black-footed ferrets
 Est. max. likely distribution of
prairie dogs at all scales
 Viable BFF pop. consists of an
effective breeding population
of 130 individuals
 Each pop. requires 20,000 to
30,000 acres of p. dog
complexes
 BFF conservation targets 15
pop’s (USFWS)
 Locally: patch contribution to
complex
 Landscape: acres to support
required complexes
 Ecoregion: Total habitat for
Climate change adaptation
Conserving the stage and understanding the set changes
 Conserving the stage (Anderson
and Ferree 2010): large landscape
conservation
 Understanding the set changes:
Climate-change impacts on
sagebrush habitat and West Nile
virus transmission risk and
conservation implications for
greater sage-grouse (Schrag et al.
2010; GeoJournal)
 Highest future suitability for
sagebrush core habitat (2030)
Thank you
23