Resilient Sites for Terrestrial Conservation in the Northwest

The purpose of this project, funded by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, is to identify the most resilient sites in the Northwest that will collectively and individually best sustain native biodiversity even as the changing climate alters current distribution patterns, in order to guide future conservation investment. The central idea is that by mapping key geophysical features and evaluating them for landscape characteristics that buffer against climate effects, we can identify the most resilient places in the landscape.

The Northwest study area in the 2014 report covers 67 million hectares (165 million acres) and includes all of the East Cascades/Modoc Plateau, Columbia Plateau and Middle Rockies/Blue Mts. Ecoregions and the U.S. portion of the Canadian Rockies ecoregion.

This comprehensive final report describes in detail the methods used and products produced, while the geodatabase contains all the spatial data inputs and outputs for the 4 ecoregion area.

As part of this project, we:
Created a comprehensive map of Geophysical Settings (the “Stage”) using Soils, Elevation, and Slope.
Created a comprehensive map of landscape characteristics essential to assessing the resilience of a site by combining local permeability with microclimate diversity.
We assessed Conservancy conservation portfolio sites across the study area to evaluate the adequacy of representation of Geophysical Settings, and also ranked the sites based on the amount of resilient landscapes (cells) within them.
Using landscape resiliency data, we inform the selection of a new set of conservation sites in the SE Oregon portion of the Columbia Plateau and set the stage for adoption of these methods elsewhere.

- See more at: https://www.conservationgateway.org/ConservationByGeography/NorthAmerica...