SOE2010.WildlifeHabitatOutline

Stuff for march 12.



Intro document

T&E, chatham chart



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**​** Here are the proposed charts, maps, tables, etc. for the wildlife habitat portion. Still a work in progress. But most of it should be in there.

Comments from george ... % cover protected pie chart - lots of space, little info - esp if you do one per county. Might be easier to have stacked bars - county name on x-axis, stacked bar (%) on y; would also have a regional bar - each stacked bar has 3 entries, from bottom to top: protected, partial, unprotected

Land cover by time - should this be in introduction only (it's already there)? Also, where are you getting data for all of these time periods? I know of no such data.

Natural ecosystems and communities in the Triangle - want also a column for total

County plant and animal diversity pie charts - what is this a % of??

Where is very basic idea of % SNHA protected?

I feel overwhelmed when I look at this - (how) can we simplify our message? What are we trying to say?

- Dean Urban, Landscape Ecology professor, Duke University - Chris Moorman, Fisheries and Wildlife professor, NCSU - Jacquelyn Wallace, Biologist, NC Wildlife Resources Commission
 * here are the people under consideration for external review:**

TLC staff and members N.C. State, Duke and UNC faculty? Wildlife Resources Commission Natural Heritage Program Triangle J COG Parks & Rec Farming Associations? DENR
 * Potential audience**

- What we gain from preserving wildlife habitat - Indicators: which we have chosen, why, and what they tell us
 * Wildlife Habitat ** 0209

· Land cover change compared to population change · Developed acres as a percent of total acres · Total Natural Heritage sites in the Triangle · Acres of Natural Heritage sites protected (total number with Triangle map) · Breakdown of percentages for Triangle - Table 13 on page 32 of Orange County - pie chart with percentages of permanent/partial/unprotected · Overall TLC map of protected land, with Natural Heritage sites noted B. Open space/connectivity ** · Total acres protected - permanently protected, partially protected, unprotected (Pages 28-29 of Orange County report are a good example) · Public/private lands – could work with Connecting to Nature group Condition of biological communities – Overview by habitat type will include data on · Endemic species · At-risk plants, animals, communities · Non-native species · Biodiversity
 * Condition of habitat**
 * A. Land cover**
 * - Open space/connectivity -** Look at the spatial patterns of the protected lands. Patch Core Area – model assigns a value to wildlife habitat based on land cover, biodiversity and priority ecological systems ([])
 * C. ** **Ecosystem types** - graph showing decline in number of acres over time pgs. 4-5 (Georgia) graph and table showing land % change in land use over time
 * Mixed oak forest
 * Oak-hickory-pine forest
 * Southern floodplain forest
 * Mesic pine flatwoods
 * Oak-hickory forest
 * Mesic mixed hardwood forest
 * Pine/scrub oak sandhill
 * Xeric sandhill scrub
 * Streambed pocosin

Here is our Revised outline from 0204 -- I attached a Word document. I was having formatting issues pasting the text on the wiki.



Introduction - What we gain from preserving wildlife habitat - Indicators: which we have chosen, why, and what they tell us

Condition of habitat - Land cover - Open space/connectivity - Ecosystem types
 * Mixed oak forest
 * Oak-hickory-pine forest
 * Southern floodplain forest
 * Mesic pine flatwoods
 * Oak-hickory forest
 * Mesic mixed hardwood forest
 * Pine/scrub oak sandhill
 * Xeric sandhill scrub
 * Streambed pocosin

Condition of biological communities - Endemic species - At-risk plants, animals, communities - Non-native species - Biodiversity


 * TLC Benefit Description & Vision for Wildlife Habitat**

Natural areas and well‐managed forests support healthy ecosystems and biodiversity in our region. Wildlife habitat balances our built environment and provides opportunities for scientific research and educational experiences. Human activities are disrupting wildlife habitat and unalterably changing the natural world that we depend on for food, air, and water.

TLC envisions a Triangle Region in which verdant habitat and healthy ecosystems support a wide diversity of native plant and animal populations.

<>

3. Wildlife Habitat
 * Statement of vision and goals – repeat – straight from TLC
 * Summary – Where are we? What do we know? What don’t we know? **<< <<< We are finding that all of the counties have had inventories of natural communities prepared. Not all are recent. NHP and TLC have been involved in most of these. We have tracked down much of this info on the web, but I was wondering if we could raid TLC's library of these documents. If not, we may have to purchase publications from NHP. There's quite a lot of data to synthesize. Looking for ideas on how best to present this - natural communities, vegetative classification, etc. We've organized everything on a county -by-county basis. AMW 1/28>>>>>**
 * Brief background info on Significant Natural Heritage Areas and Element Occurences << Amanda Willis 1/22: This is my master's project (to create an inventory for Wake County)>> - []
 * % Significant Natural Heritage Areas in protected conservation land -
 * % Natural Heritage Element Occurrences in protected conservation land - []
 * # & % native species at risk (not sure anyone actually has this on a regional basis – need to meet with Natural Heritage people) - << might also want to look at the trend/ increase over last however many years
 * List of natural lands where scientist/ educators have access (especially to rare/ native species) and description of their usage Katherine 1/19>>
 * TLC’s role and contribution- << number of conservation plans TLC has assisted with, # of workshops held or landowners assisted in making these plans Katherine 1/19>>
 * Amount and portion of SNHAs / EOs protected by TLC property
 * <<Another site that might be helpful- NC One Naturally- []
 * Other ideas based on review of Heiz report- a way of looking at the natural habitats for wildlife in a more suburban/urban context- on the basis that habitat protection is not just large pieces of land but connecting lands, edge lands, water sources, forests etc.
 * Area and Composition of the Urban and Suburban Landscape- National Land Cover Dataset
 * Patterns of Forest Landscapes
 * Natural Lands in the Urban and Suburban Landscape Katherine 1/19>>
 * I agree that it is important to look at the spatial patterns of the protected lands (connectivity/patchiness is important). Maybe we could come up with some configuration metrics from landscape ecology. (size distribution, connectivity, adjacency, shape complexity) -Ginevra 1/20
 * Are there invasive alien species in this area that should be taken into consideration? -elina 1/21

[] > --Amanda C 1/20>>
 * I found some interesting links online (too many to put in here, but I've compiled some in a Word document that I can send everyone. The Arizona DOT also did a habitat linkages assessment that is pretty interesting. I doubt we have similar information available, but it might be worth taking a look at. (Steve Allen)[| http://www.azdot.gov/Highways/OES/AZ_WildLife_Linkages/PDF/assessment/section_vii_potential_linkage_zones.pdf]
 * **North Carolina Examples (Steve Allen) –** some good stuff here from the western part of the state[]
 * **Powerpoint -** shows what they did, types of charts, GIS, used to display information http://linkinglands.org/WHAppt.pdf
 * **Ecological assessments –** has a good wildlife, water and agricultural lands section[| http://linkinglands.org/EcologicalAssessments.html]
 * [] Teaming/index.php and the NC Wildlife Action plan that is linked to on this site
 * <>
 * Present Use Value for Wildlife Conservation (I think this PUV began in 2010) ... here's a link to the program description : kb1/20
 * % of Important Bird Areas in protected conservation land (from Audubon Society) -Ginevra 1/20
 * <<Priorities I can think of for habitat conservation include: wetlands, old growth forests, meadows/prairies, organic farms, lands that can have several purposes such as forests that are also in a sensitive watershed, lands that are close to people so that they can be accessed, larger contiguous tracts, small parcels that are in highly urban areas that have few natural spaces. Once these are determined, a table of acreage saved by each type of priority area can show progress.
 * Two maps of specific natural areas, one by biome, one by ownership (public, private, state park, TLC, etc.)