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Washington Wildlife Habitat Connectivity Working Group Tools and Products

Statewide_Final_CoverWashington Connected Landscapes Project Analyses:

Statewide Analysis (2010)

Climate Gradient Corridors Report (2011)

Columbia Plateau Ecoregional Analyses (2012-2015)

An Evaluation of the Utility of Fine-Scale, Downscaled Climate Projections for Connectivity Conservation Planning in Washington State (2013)

British Columbia – Washington Transboundary Habitat Connectivity Scoping Report (2013)

Providing a Regional Connectivity Perspective to Local Connectivity Conservation Decisions in the British Columbia–Washington Transboundary Region: Okanagan-Kettle Subregion Connectivity Assessment (2016)

Connectivity Analysis Tools:

Linkage Mapper (2010)

HCA Toolkit (2010)

Related Policies, Plans, and Assessments

US Fish and Wildlife Service Landscape Conservation Cooperatives. Two LCC’s that overlap Washington State: Great Northern and North Pacific, while the Cascadia Partner Forum links practitioners on the ground in British Columbia and Washington to both LCC’s.

Washington’s Wildlife Action Plans

Washington Ecoregional Assessments, The Nature Conservancy

Washington’s Climate Adaptation Planning and Strategy

Western Governors Association Wildlife Council (includes meeting minutes, the Wildlife Corridors Initiative, CHAT decision support tool, and council information including their workplan)

WSDOT’s Executive Order 1031 “Protections and Connections for High Quality Natural Habitats”

Other Connectivity Analysis within and/or including Washington

Cascadia’s Connectivity Priorities, a report prepared for the Cascadia Partner Forum in November 2015.  Sonia Hall, SAH Ecologia LLC.

Cougar population structure and spatial genetic variation in Washington and southern British Columbia, poster presentation.  Matt Warren, David Wallen, and Richard Beausoleil.  Associated thesis paper prepared in July 2013 by Matt Warren entitled “Cougar genetic variation and gene flow in a heterogeneous landscape.”

Landscape permeability for large carnivores in Washington, a geographic information system weighted-distance and least-cost corridor assessment.  Singleton, Peter H.; Gaines, William L.; Lehmkuhl, John F.

Mountain Goat Genetic Diversity and Population Connectivity in Washington and Southern British Columbia.  Thesis report by Leslie C. Parks.

National Environmental Framework for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) produced by John Richardson et al.  Currently available is a description document detailing the background to this effort, and a brochure including a map that highlights ecological hubs and corridors connecting those hubs.

The Washington-British Columbia Transboundary Climate-Connectivity Project (2016).  Krosby et al.

Use of Linkage Mapping and Centrality Analysis  Across Habitat Gradients to Conserve Connectivity of Gray Wolf Populations in Western North America.  Carrol et al.

Other Connectivity Analyses outside of Washington

California Essential Habitat Connectivity Project: A Strategy for Conserving a Connected California

Arizona’s Wildlife Linkages Assessment

Linking Colorado’s Landscapes

South Coast Ecoregion Missing Linkages, a wildland network for the southern California coast

Wildlife Connectivity Across Utah’s Highways

Connectivity research and publications

** placed by articles that mention our working group

Ability of Wildlife Overpasses to Provide Connectivity and Prevent Genetic Isolation by Luca Corlatti, Klaus Hacklander, and Fredy Frey-Roos

An annotated bibliography on definitions/metrics for fragmentation, by Vera Pfeiffer

Circuitscape, a tool for landscape ecology

Conserving Connectivity: Some lessons from Mountain Lions in Southern California, PDF file from Conservation Biology, Vol 23, No. 2, 2009

Convention on Biological Diversity, Technical Series No.32 Chapter 10, Didier, K and Thomson J (2008)

Landscape connectivity modeling for sharp-tailed grouse and greater sage-grouse – An overview of current research in Washington State, USA. ** (2011) by Leslie Robb and Michael Schroeder.  Article within the Grouse News Issue 42, page 14.

Maintaining Populations of Terrestrial Wildlife Through Land Management Planning:  A Case Study. Suring, L. et al (2011)

The Effects of Climate Change on Agriculture, Land Resources, Water Resources, and Biodiversity in the United States. Backlund, P., et al. (2008) U.S. Climate Change Science Program, (addressing superimposition of climate change on existing fragmentation)

The Role of Landscape Connectivity in Planning and Implementing Conservation and Restoration Priorities.  ** Issues in Ecology:  Fall 2012, Report 16.  Deborah A. Rudnick et al.

Toward Best Practices for Developing Regional Connectivity Maps **.  Beier, P et al (2011)

Use of Empirically Derived Source-Destination Models to Map Regional Conservation Corridors, PDF file from Conservation Biology, Vol 23, No 2, 2009

Use of Linkage Mapping and Centrality Analysis Across Habitat Gradients to Conserve Connectivity of Gray Wolf Populations in Western North America by Carlos Caroll, Brad McRae, and Allen Brookes (2011)

Where to restore ecological connectivity?  Detecting barriers and quantifying restoration benefits ** by Brad McRae, Sonia Hall, Paul Beier, and David M. Theobold (2012).

Other Resources

Conservation Corridor:  A website connecting science and conservation

An interactive map of British Columbia biodiversity

Species Fact Sheets for some of Washington’s wildlife