Abstract

Geospatially Enabling Biologists' Knowledge to Inform a National Conservation Plan
Track: Forestry and Wildlife Management
Authors: Theron Terhune, William Palmer

The National Bobwhite Conservation Initiative (NBCI) is a range-wide habitat plan for recovering northern bobwhites and restoring functional grassland ecosystems. The original initiative lacked a detailed spatial component, thereby limiting its pragmatic implementation and its efficacy to assess spatial and temporal success. We used a suite of GIS tools and programming (ArcGIS, Python, VBA and ArcGIS server) to coalesce biologists' knowledge of landscape characteristics generating a geo-spatial layer of ranking information linked to major land-use opportunities for and constraints to habitat management. Using this spatially enabled information, known as the Biologist Ranking Information (BRI), and various spatial analyses, we demarcated priority landscapes whereby bobwhite and grassland conservation has a relatively high potential for success and minimal number of impediments over the long-term. Summary of the BRI ranking data for 16 BCRs identified 195 million acres (23.6%) of habitat having relatively high potential for Northern Bobwhite conservation.