Measuring Habitat and Biodiversity Outcomes

1. Measuring Habitat and Biodiversity Outcomes Sara Vickerman and Frank Casey September 26, 2013 Defenders of Wildlife

2. What is biodiversity? Variety of life and its processes Genetic, species, habitat, large landscapes Defenders of Wildlife

3. Biodiversity conservation requires: • Right amount, configuration, and management of land and water in each region (coarse filter) • Attention to individual elements (fine filter) Defenders of Wildlife

4. Broad agreement that biodiversity is threatened by: • Human development • Degradation, conversion of native habitat • Invasive species • Toxics, other direct mortality • Climate change Defenders of Wildlife

5. Many approaches to tracking impacts and conservation outcomes to habitats and species but . . . Little progress reaching agreement on more consistent approach Defenders of Wildlife

6. Effectiveness of biodiversity conservation is difficult to measure • Goals often not stated or agreed upon • May conflict with human activities • Focus on single species, habitats • Need measures at multiple scales – species to landscapes Defenders of Wildlife

7. Status and trends for biodiversity poorly monitored • Nobody is responsible for comprehensive system • Biodiversity is not uniformly regulated • Tendency to re-invent the wheel • Low priority for public and policy-makers Defenders of Wildlife

8. Why consistent metrics? • To help improve conservation outcomes – what works, what doesn’t • Work across land ownership boundaries • Connect disparate program investments to address scale issues • Align management plans • Apply adaptive management Defenders of Wildlife

9. Level of involvement Capture everything Precision Practicality Speed Cost Defenders of Wildlife

10. Purpose • To examine a few efforts to date • Engage experts in conversation • Propose workable, practical framework • Test alternative approaches Defenders of Wildlife

11. Three approaches with considerable overlap • Individual habitat metrics • Ecological Integrity Assessments • Biodiversity Index Defenders of Wildlife

12. Site level metrics • Developed by Willamette Partnership and others • Prairie, wetland, salmon, water temperature • Focus on regulations that drive trading or mitigation programs • Measuring Up report outlined framework for biodiversity metrics Defenders of Wildlife

13. Defenders metrics • Natural Resources Conservation Service, Bullitt funded • Address unregulated biodiversity values in Western U.S. • Oak, floodplain, sage brush / sage grouse • Percent of optimal ecological functioning Defenders of Wildlife

14. What the metrics measure • Site level conditions • Context • Vegetation • Species • Abiotic • Practices • Risk Defenders of Wildlife

15. Sagebrush metric: Final scores Defenders of Wildlife

16. Where to find these metrics • Marketplace for Nature web sitehttp://marketplace.conservationregistry.org • Counting on the Environment – Willamette Partnership http://willamettepartnership.org/ Defenders of Wildlife

17. Challenge with site level metrics • Should they be habitat specific? • How many habitats? • Who develops, maintains, updates them? • How do they connect to larger landscape scale metrics? • Not useful for landscape scale conservation planning Defenders of Wildlife

18. Setting Ecological Integrity Goals Ecosystem Conservation Goal Increasing ecological integrity Rank A Rank B Rank C Rank D Increasing human disturbance

19. Ecological Integrity Monitoring Level 1) Remote assessment Level 2) Rapid field assessment Level 3) Intensive assessment

20. Level 1: Remote assessment Landscape context – Connectivity, surrounding land use, patch size, and stressors

21. Level 2: Rapid field assessment • Landscape characteristics • Vegetation cover and composition • Soil condition • Disturbance regimes • Wildlife abundance and composition • Stressors • Calibration of remote techniques

22. Level 2: Rapid field assessment Photo plots as example 1957 2006

23. Level 3: Intensive assessment

24. Application • Initially to select priority conservation areas • Useful where natural habitat of interest • Also used for wetland assessment, monitoring • Expanded to measure habitat quality • Can be applied at multiple scales • NatureServe network supports Defenders of Wildlife

25. Challenges • Might not fit where biodiversity is a secondary goal • Less useful where data are limited - like other methods, requires sustained investment Defenders of Wildlife

26. Challenge of representing biodiversity

27. Biodiversity is an ecosystem service • People harvest, consume wild plants and animals • Healthy ecosystems filter water, control erosion, pollinate crops • Nature has cultural (existence) values • Landscape pattern, functions, species, combine – Biodiversity Service Score

28. Biodiversity can be characterized by: • Mapped features • Quantitative tabular data • Narrative description

29. Assumptions underlying biodiversity framework • Coarse filter looks at habitat abundance, type, integrity, rarity and distribution • Fine filter looks at species needs not captured in coarse filter • Ecological integrity characterizes functioning systems that support native biodiversity

30. Ecological integrity • Vegetation, structure, composition • Ecological processes – fire, hydrology • Species composition • Common species • Invasive species • Rare, uncommon species not good indicators

31. Species measures • Rarity weighting applied – priority • Relevant regulations • Migratory patterns for some fish, wildlife • Population sizes • Biotic condition

32. Application for biodiversity index • Broad scale conservation planning • Context of ecosystem service assessments • Linked to social, economic factors • Impact of corporate sourcing decisions Defenders of Wildlife

33. Challenges • May be too complex as presented • Needs translation for broad application • Requires high quality, detailed information Defenders of Wildlife

34. Questions for the group • Examples of habitat/biodiversity measures ? • Other approaches? • Field applications? • Collaborate to find creative solutions? Defenders of Wildlife

35. Sara Vickerman Defenders of Wildlife Svickerman@defenders http://marketplace.conservationregistry.org/ Defenders of Wildlife