Download Conservation Easements - Natural Resources Class 2013

Conservation Planning
with a focus on
Wildlife:
Cores, Corridors, and Buffers
Natural Resources Stewards Training
Fall 2011
Many reasons for conservation planning
Protect resources for human benefit
Many reasons for conservation planning
Maintain working landscapes and local economies
Many reasons for conservation planning
Conserve natural resources
Many reasons for conservation planning
Planning with a vision for the future ecological
health of an area
Conservation to maintain
natural processes
Conservation Planning for Wildlife:
Why be concerned?
1930’s
1990’s
Development results in a direct loss of wildlife habitat
Conservation Planning for Wildlife:
Why be concerned?
As land gets developed the
remaining habitat gets
fragmented into smaller
habitat blocks
This habitat fragmentation
has many consequences
to wildlife
Consequences of habitat fragmentation to wildlife:
1-99
acres
20-99
acres
100-499
acres
500-2500
acres
Undeveloped
As the size of a
habitat block
decreases…
The number of
wildlife species
supported by the
habitat block
declines
Consequences of habitat fragmentation to wildlife:
As habitat block size decreases we see a shift toward more
“generalist” types of wildlife species (many of which are predators)
These species can utilize a variety of different types of food and
cover, and will tolerate living in close proximity with people
Consequences of habitat fragmentation to wildlife:
As habitat block size decreases, wildlife species with large
home-ranges are lost from the landscape
bobcat
fisher
Many of these species won’t tolerate
human disturbance that is common in
developed landscapes
goshawk
Consequences of habitat fragmentation to wildlife:
ovenbird
Ground-nesting birds are
especially vulnerable to
increased predation
pressure associated with
small habitat blocks
Predation from house cats
is a significant form of
mortality for songbirds
(and possibly for some reptiles
and amphibians too)
Consequences of habitat fragmentation to wildlife:
piping plover
Predation by feral housecats
is an important limiting factor
inhibiting the recovery of the
endangered piping plover
population in Hampton and
Seabrook, New Hampshire
Consequences of habitat fragmentation to wildlife:
Roads, curbing, and lawns can
create barriers that limit the ability of
some wildlife to move between
required habitats (especially reptiles
and amphibians)
Road-kill is a form of
mortality for many wildlife
species
Road-kill can result in
population declines for some
species such as Blanding’s
turtle
NH State Endangered Blanding’s turtle
Consequences of habitat fragmentation
Forcing wildlife to live in close proximity to people can result in
a variety of human-wildlife conflicts…
• Property damage or loss of human life
due to vehicle collisions with wildlife
• Deer browsing damage on
expensive ornamental plantings
• Disease transmission between
wildlife and people
While development is inevitable and
some will even be required…
It is our role as natural resource professionals to assist in
identifying ways for minimizing the impact that development can
have on wildlife and our natural resources
Who’s conserving land?
Towns
State & Fed. Govt.
Private Individuals
Non-Profits
Regional & Local Land Trusts
Common tools for conserving land
Land-use zoning
Purchase by conservation group
Permanent conservation easement
Common tools for conserving land
Conservation Easements
Landowner sells or donates certain rights to their land
allowable &
restricted uses
written into each
easement’s
language
Most commonly
permanently removes:
• Right to development the land
• Right to extract minerals or water commercially
Common tools for conserving land
Conservation Easements – The “Easement Holder”
• Fed/state/local govt., non-profit, land trust
• Responsible for:
• regular monitoring of easement
• enforcing terms of easement
• maintaining required
conditions on the land
Permanently Conserving Land
Requires Large Investment
Outright purchase by
conservation group
Permanent conservation
easement
BIG $
Limited financial and staff resources must be carefully
invested in properties that result in the biggest return
How do you prioritize what land should
be conserved for wildlife?
Prioritizing Areas for Wildlife Conservation
• Large Unfragmented Habitat Blocks
Often:
•
contain a diversity of habitats
•
provide habitat for areasensitive species
•
allow animals to travel freely
between required habitat
patches within the block
•
support larger populations of
species
Probability of a local population going
extinct increases as patch size decreases
Prioritizing Areas for Wildlife Conservation
• Large Unfragmented Habitat Blocks
• Known Habitats of Uncommon Wildlife,
Exemplary Natural Communities
•
ideally these occur within larger
blocks
•
protected area must be at least as
large as species’ area requirements
•
often referred to as “core” habitats
If these occur in small patches the risk of edge effects increases…
What are “edge effects”?
Factors outside a habitat patch reduce the quality of habitat inside the
patch
How can we minimize the “edge effect” and the influence of
surrounding land uses within conserved lands?
What are “edge effects”?
Factors outside a habitat patch reduce the quality of habitat
inside the patch
•Higher diversity and density
of prey results in higher
predation risk along habitat
edges
•Higher risk of nest
parasitism by brownheaded cowbirds
•cowbirds lay eggs in nest of
other bird species
How can we minimize the “edge effect” and the influence of
surrounding land uses within conserved lands?
Minimize “edge effect” and influence of surrounding land uses
• Conserving as large an area as
possible reduces edge effects
and maintains interior habitat
• Round or square reserve
areas result in less edge than
linear shaped habitat blocks
• Buffers may be critical for maintaining the functions and values of the
habitat you are trying to protect!
This wetland was
“protected” but…
The upland habitat required by the amphibians using this wetland
was completely eliminated
Fertilizers leaching from the adjacent lawns will alter the water
chemistry within the wetland
To minimize “edge effect” and the influence of surrounding land uses
• conserve a buffer of supporting
habitat around core habitat areas
• the surrounding land required
to maintain ecosystem
processes within the core
area you are trying to protect
What questions must you ask
to determine
What size buffer is needed?
What are you trying to buffer from?
Do you want the buffer to provide functional habitat?
Recommended minimum buffers for various objectives
Some Help for Identifying Core
Habitats and Supporting Landscapes
New Hampshire
Wildlife Action Plan
• Highest Ranked Habitat by
Condition in NH
Habitat Ranking within Biological Regions
Highest Ranked Habitat by
Condition in Biological
Region
Eco-regional Subsection or
Watershed Group
NH Wildlife Action Plan
Pink = Highest Ranked Habitat
in the state
Green = Highest Ranked
Habitat in Ecoregion
or watershed
Orange = Supporting Habitat
Buffer
Just one tool to help identify &
prioritize conservation areas
Maximizing habitat value of conserved lands
• Maximize the functional area of individual
conserved parcels by grouping them
together as close as possible
• blocks of nearby habitat may
function as one larger contiguous
block for some mobile species
What determines if a species can disperse between adjacent blocks?
• Specific wildlife species
• distance between
adjacent habitat blocks
• types of barriers
Major highways, large rivers, extreme
elevation are barriers to all but the
most mobile wildlife species
Potential role of small conserved blocks
Large blocks may contain greater habitat diversity than smaller blocks…
• A collection of smaller blocks may
capture a greater array of
habitats and support more rare
species than a single larger block
• Small blocks may serve as
“stepping stones” to facilitate
movement between larger blocks
• larger blocks might otherwise
be beyond dispersal distance
• may increase local population
persistence above larger
blocks alone
Complete corridors may further increase connectivity
between adjacent habitat blocks
Makes sense in theory, but true
effectiveness of corridors is largely
untested…
• perhaps most beneficial to
species incapable of
crossing simple barriers
•
some insects, salamanders,
turtles, small mammals
• may be unnecessary for
birds and large mammals
• may be all edge and create
Conserving upland corridors may require
a habitat sink
funds that might be better spent elsewhere
Example: Bear-Paw Regional Greenways Land Trust
Southeastern New Hampshire
Mission: “To permanently conserve a network
of lands that protects our region’s water,
wildlife habitats, forests, and farmland
• Working to connect large conserved
blocks within a 7 town region
• funded largely by private
donations
• Holds easements on or owns
4,270 acres
• Helped protect another
3,265 acres
7,535 acres permanently protected
Example: Quabbin to Cardigan Collaborative
Monadnock Highlands MA-NH
• Effort to protect and connect large
unfragmented forests in 2 million
acre region
• one of largest ecologically
intact forest areas in NE
• 27 private organizations and
public agencies coordinating land
conservation
• 600,000 acres of core habitat
• 400,000 supporting landscape
Such larger regional efforts may be
important to allow wildlife and habitats
to adapt to a changing climate
“Conservation Development”
Clusters buildings to allow residential or commercial development while
protecting natural resources, more open space, rural character
Often better, but rarely should be promoted as great habitat
“Conservation Development”…some additional considerations
• What is the long-term
habitat value of protected
land where all recreation is
focused?
If objective is habitat:
• Avoid “common areas” that
are owned and managed by
an association
Is your conserved habitat area the
neighborhood dog park?
• Open-space area should be
attached to one large lot
with a single owner