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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