Wildlife, fish, and biodiversity [Chapter 11]
| Authors: | Curtis H. Flather |
| Year: | 2016 |
| Type: | General Technical Report |
| Station: | Rocky Mountain Research Station |
| Source: | In: USDA Forest Service. 2016. Future of America's Forests and Rangelands: Update to the 2010 Resources Planning Act Assessment. Gen. Tech. Report WO-GTR-94. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service. p. 11-1 - 11-16. |
Abstract
The 2010 Resources Planning Act (RPA) Assessment (2010 RPA) reviewed recent trends in wildlife, fish, and biodiversity, showing varied responses, depending on the resource, suggesting varied conditions that depend on region, species group, or habitat type. For this RPA Update, we focused on four topics that were motivated by questions stemming from 2010 RPA findings or that were designed to improve on the resource analysis capability originally reported in the 2010 RPA. First, we extended the work that documented elevated housing growth in the amenity-rich areas near protected areas. Although the 2010 RPA speculated that other natural resources may be impacted by development near protected lands, for this RPA Update, we specifically tested whether biodiversity (as reflected by bird communities) on the boundary of and internal to protected areas was affected by housing development near public lands. Second, we provided a more detailed case study of wildlife habitat stress attributable to climate change across the RPA Rocky Mountain Region. This work improved on the analyses presented in the 2010 RPA by increasing the spatial resolution of the analysis grid, incorporating the results from a new dynamic vegetation model, and examining the effects of wildfire management on evaluations of wildlife habitat stress. Third, we updated the status of imperiled species, using a new approach for assessing the distribution of formally listed and imperiled species that was based on an equal-area grid. Finally, the 2010 RPA noted that taxonomic groups associated with aquatic habitats had higher proportions of imperiled species than other kinds of species. Because of the high degree of imperilment among aquatic taxa, we analyzed at-risk aquatic species occurrence and drinking-water protection as an example of the potential joint benefits that can accrue to both drinking-water quality and species conservation.