Abstract

The University of Wyoming's Spatial Data and Visualization Center (SDVC) and the Biological Resources Division (BRD) of the U.S. Geologic Survey have created a partnership to implement a county-level planning support project. This project will assist Lincoln County, Wyoming in creating a biological decision support system in a desktop computing environment to help promote biological considerations in traditional land use planning and management decision making processes. The system will incorporate biological and other natural resource databases with a simple graphical user interface and custom designed tools that will not require prior knowledge of GIS or biology on the part of the planning staff. The support system will be a tool that Lincoln County's planners may use to (1) asses their current land use plans and zoning in relation to biological resources, and (2) identify potential conflicts between biologically-significant habitats and proposed development.

Introduction

The federal government has traditionally been thought of as the primary entity at which to address endangered species and the loss of biodiversity. Many believed that only federal resource management agencies had the administrative expertise and management capacity to identify species in need of protection and to design scientifically credible recovery programs. Only recently have we come to accept that species conservation within local governments is both feasible and desirable, and that it is needed to strengthen endangered species protection (Press et al. 1996). Local conservation efforts including land trusts, habitat conservation plans, county open-space districts, greenbelts, and parks can play a significant role in biological conservation, especially for localized endemics which typically have their entire geographic ranges encompassed by only one or two counties within a single state.

In the Western United States, the role of local governments in biological conservation is becoming increasingly more important as an unprecedented number of people move into the region. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the Mountain and West regions are the two fastest growing regions in the United States (U.S. Bureau of Census, 1997). As a result, thousands of acres of natural landscapes in these regions have been sub-divided by rural development. For example, Harting and Glick (1994) estimated that one million acres have already been subdivided within the Greater Yellowstone Area. In similar landscapes along the Front Range of Colorado, Long (1996) characterized open space as a feature "in danger of becoming a privilege" due to the urban and rural sprawl taking place there. Such growth has raised concerns about the impacts of development on wildlife resources. The primary cause of concern is the compartmentalization of large, spatially continuous areas of wildlife habitat otherwise known as habitat fragmentation. Examples of features that create new divisions in the natural landscape include buildings, paved roads, parking areas, wire fences, clearcuts, canals, and plowed fields. Isolated development of such structures does not necessarily equate to immediate habitat fragmentation. However, over an extended period of time, such impacts may become cumulative.

The negative impacts of habitat fragmentation on wildlife may be traced to the founding principles of island biogeography (MacArthur and Wilson 1967). Fragmentation reduces the amount of available habitat for wildlife and may affect dispersal and migration of animals if habitat patches become isolated. Fragmentation also increases the ratio of edge habitat to interior habitat which most conservationists believe is detrimental to the maintenance of species diversity (see Conservation Biology 1988).

One recommended strategy to reduce habitat fragmentation is to identify "primary conservation areas" that should be addressed in the development plan and buffered with additional open space for added protection whenever feasible (Arendt, 1996). Primary conservation areas should be combined with current and proposed development in a county-wide map. The composite map brings together all the published data pertaining to natural features and other limiting factors that should be avoided when planning future development. Such tools can be used to identify a network of habitat corridors that connect any number of new subdivisions. In California, this concept has been applied by the San Diego Association of Governments or SANDAG who is seeking to create a regional preservation system based on the characteristics of habitats rather than jurisdictional boundaries (Fairbanks and Toma, 1994). SANDAG, working with private consultants, created a GIS database of the region's habitats and then developed a model to evaluate the quality of the habitats depending on its vegetation, presence of sensitive species, soil types, connectivity, and extent of micro-habitats. These digital maps were combined with information on existing and planned land uses, ownership, and land costs to determine how much high-quality habitat will be protected when the complete preserve program is in place.

The task of mapping primary conservation areas is an important component to sustainable land use planning. However, few counties have the resources to accurately map primary conservation areas for the entire county. Some Wyoming counties have developed "natural resource overlays" which identify the locations of biologically significant areas. The problem with such overlays is that they typically address only a small number of endangered or economically important. For sustainable land use planning to be successful, planners must have access to comprehensive tools which can address the diversity of wildlife that inhabit their county and also be able to asses the status of species in a county, state, and regional context to know what responsibility the county shares in their conservation.

Gap Analysis

In December 1996, the Wyoming Gap Analysis (WY-GAP) Project was completed by the U.S. Geologic Survey/Biological Resources Division and the University of Wyoming (Merrill et al., 1996). The WY-GAP Project successfully identified species and habitats throughout the state that are under-represented within existing managed areas designed to protect natural resources (gaps). The project developed statewide GIS maps of vegetation, land ownership, and predicted distributions of 445 terrestrial vertebrates species known to occur in Wyoming. These databases are now available for use by planners in Wyoming. However, the integration of the WY-GAP databases with county land use databases for planning purposes has not yet been tested.

Goals

The primary objective of this pilot project will be to develop a cooperative biological decision support system which will utilizes the GIS databases developed by the WY-GAP Project in combination with other natural resource and county land use databases. The support system will be used to: (1) assess a county's current plans and zoning in term of managing local biological resources, (2) identify significant species' habitats to be considered in future planning efforts, and (3) establish and maintain a permanent, dynamic system for routine use in planning and land-use evaluations.

Selection of Pilot County

The county selected for this pilot study is Lincoln County, Wyoming. Located in southwest Wyoming, Lincoln County is the southern-most county in the Greater Yellowstone Area. The area of Lincoln County is 4,057 sq. mi. and consists of basin and range topography ranging in elevation from 5,630 to 11,198 ft. (Figure 1). Based on the Federal-State Cooperative Program for Local Population Estimates (U.S. Bureau of Census, 1997), Lincoln County had a projected 13,971 residents in 1996, including the communities of Kemmerer (3,117 [1994 est.]) and Afton (1,515 [1994 est.]), which make up almost 33% of the county's population (U.S. Bureau of Census, 1990). Lincoln county is the third fastest growing county in Wyoming, averaging 10.7% population growth since 1990 (U.S. Bureau of Census, 1997).

Lincoln County consists of two distinct geographic areas representing two different economies. The Star Valley area in the northern part of the county has the largest concentration of dairy producers in Wyoming (Fletcher et al. 1989). The economy is heavily dependent upon agriculture, timber, small manufacturing, and related service industries. The southern part of the county relies heavily on extractive resources. Natural gas, oil, coal, generation of electrical power, and range livestock are the basic industries found in this area of the county.

Lincoln county has a diverse array of wildlife habitats (Figure 2). Wyoming big sagebrush (947,784 ac) is the dominant habitat type in the county. Lodgepole pine (347,643 ac), mountain big sagebrush (244,622 ac), subalpine meadow (188,348 ac) and desert shrub (158,930 ac) are other significant habitats found within the county. These habitats are home to 292 terrestrial vertebrate species (Merrill et al., 1996a, 1996b). The majority of these species are concentrated in the riparian areas of Lincoln County (Figure 3). The county contains 7 mammal species, 24 bird species, and 3 amphibian/reptile species that are of management concern to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Forest Service, Wyoming Game and Fish Department, and The Nature Conservancy (Table 1).

SPECIES                            USFWS*   WGFD*     USFS*  TNC*         

Boreal western toad                C                         S1           
Eastern short-horned lizard        C2                        S4           
Northern sagebrush lizard          C2                        S5           
Ring-billed gull                                             S1B          
California gull                                              S1B          
Herring gull                                                 S1B          
Caspian tern                                SSC3             S1B          
Forster's tern                              SSC3             S1B          
Black tern                         C2       SSC3             S1B          
Common loon                                 SSC3      S      S2B          
Western grebe                                                S2B          
Clark's grebe                                                S2B          
American white pelican                      SSC3             S1B          
White-faced ibis                            SSC3             S1B          
American bittern                            SSC3             S3B          
Snowy egret                                 SSC3             S1B          
Black-crowned night-heron                   SSC3             S2B          
Columbian sharp-tailed grouse                         S      S1           
Whooping crane                     LELT                      S4B          
Mountain plover                    C                         S2B          
Bald eagle                         LT       SSC2             S1B          
Ferruginous hawk                            SSC3             S4B          
Northern goshawk                                             S2B          
Merlin                                      SSC3             S2B          
Peregrine falcon                   LE       SSC3             S1B          
Long-billed curlew                 C3       SSC3             S3B          
Lewis' woodpecker                           SSC3             S3B          
Long-legged myotis                          SSC2             S4           
Spotted bat                                 SSC2      S      S1           
Townsend's big-eared bat                    SSC2      S      S3           
Western small-footed myotis                 SSC3             S4           
Long-eared myotis                           SSC2             S4           
Swift fox                          C        SSC3             S3           
Dwarf shrew                                 SSC3             S3           

*USFWS : "LE" and "LT" are federally endangered or threatened species, as listed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. "C" refers to species which are candidates for federal listing (Department of Interior, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 1996).

*WGFD: Wyoming Game and Fish Department's Species of Special Concern (SSC). Values range from 1 to 3 with 1 being of highest management concern (Wyoming Game and Fish Department, 1996).

*TNC: The Nature Conservancy's state rank for species, "S1"-"S5" with "S1" being of highest concern. "B" denotes a bird which breeds in the state (Garber, 1995).

Seventy-five percent of Lincoln County is under federal ownership (Figure 4, Table 2), most of which is under the management of the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management. Private lands comprise 20% and exist mostly in the southern half of the county interspersed with BLM lands. State trust lands, state parks and lands managed by the Wyoming Game and Fish Department make up less than 5% of the county's land base. Lincoln County contains three natural resource management units which contribute to the conservation of wildlife: (1) Cokeville Meadows National Wildlife Refuge, and (2) Fossil Buttes National Monument, and (4) Greys River Wildlife Habitat Management Unit. Cokeville Meadows and Fossil Buttes are managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Park Service respectively. The Greys River unit is maintained by the Wyoming Game and Fish Department.

Land Owner                                      Area (ac)  

Bureau of Land Management                          995,172 
U.S. Forest Service                                946,833 
Private Land                                       530,410 
Wyoming State Land                                 100,306 
National Park Service                                8,344 
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service                       1,485 
State Park                                             953 
Wyoming Game and Fish Department                        48 

Different threats to biological resources exist within the two distinct regions of Lincoln County. In the Star Valley area, the predominant threat to biological resources is rural development where small acreage "ranchettes" are common. For instance, one of the largest contiguous ranches in Star Valley was subdivided into 1,924 individual parcels (Mike Archibald, pers. com.). In the southern portion of the county, geophysical exploration and extraction of mineral and gas resources are the primary threats to biological resources. Commodity resources extracted in southern Lincoln County include natural gas, coal, sodium, oil shale, phosphate, and various other locatable minerals (Bureau of Land Management, 1985). Such activities have the potential to impact big game species especially during wintering and calving seasons. Wildlife-development conflicts also exist in sage grouse nesting/strutting areas, bald eagle roosting areas, and near golden eagle, ferruginous hawk, and prairie falcon nesting sites.

Methods

Development of the biological decision support system for Lincoln County will consist of six specific tasks to be completed by the SDVC and USGS/BRD.

1) Database Construction - Phase I. Compile the existing GIS databases from the WY-GAP Project specifically for Lincoln County. These databases consist of county-wide layers of land cover (Figure 2), land ownership (Figure 4), and predicted distributions for 292 terrestrial vertebrate species (Figure 3).

2) Database Construction - Phase II. Compile additional natural resource GIS databases that will be integrated with the WY-GAP databases. Big game seasonal range maps, Colorado River cutthroat trout distribution maps, and rare plant locations maintained by the Wyoming Natural Diversity Database and Rocky Mountain Herbarium are some examples of GIS databases that may be compiled for Lincoln County. Physical natural resource databases to be compiled include Known Mineral Deposit Areas (KMDAs) developed by the U.S. Bureau of Mines, and existing digital wetland maps developed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's National Wetland Inventory.

3) Database Construction - Phase III. Compile selected GIS databases developed by Lincoln county (Table 1) which may be useful in biological resource planning. These include parcels, landuse, townsites, political boundaries, tax districts, public land survey, irrigation and water districts.

4) GUI Development. Using databases from the WY-GAP Project, Lincoln County, and other natural resource management agencies, the SDVC will develop an interface within Arcview GIS 3.0 to provide a "toolbox" of biological planning functions to assist Lincoln County officials in biological decision support. For example, an operator of the biological DSS would select a parcel or land use zone of interest. The system would return warning messages listing the species/habitats that are sensitive or conditionally sensitive and would generate an output report that describes the appropriate action for the county to take. Some examples may be:

- "Known occurrence of legally protected element in vicinity, contact Natural Heritage Program for consultation."

- "Possible occurrence of legally protected element in vicinity, request field confirmation of occurrence."

- "Predicted at-risk species/plant communities with severely limited protection throughout western range. Limit disturbance to natural land cover as much as possible, further habitat degradation may lead to threatened or endangered status."

- "Predicted at-risk species/plant communities with severely limited protection within county. Limit disturbance to natural land cover as much as possible, further habitat degradation may lead to extirpation from county."

- "Predicted at-risk species/plant communities protected within county but with severely limited protection throughout their western range. Additional habitat conservation is needed but not necessarily within the county."

5 ) Implementation. Work with officials from Lincoln county and representatives from the USGS /BRD to test the applicability of the biological decision support tools to ongoing planning initiatives within the county. The SDVC and USGS/BRD will collaboratively develop a report summarizing the accomplishments of the pilot project.

6) Information Transfer. Present the results of the Lincoln County pilot project to professionals in the planning and wildlife management communities. Currently, four conferences have been targeted for either oral or on-line poster presentations.

Time Table

The following time table outlines the expected duration and completion of each task associated with the Lincoln County pilot project. The time tables begins March 1, 1997 and ends April 1, 1998 (Figure 5).

Personnel

University of Wyoming

Tom Kohley
GIS/GPS Research Scientist
Spatial Data and Visualization Center
University of Wyoming
Box 3067 University Station
Laramie, WY 82071
Voice: (307) 766-2734
Email: kohley@uwyo.edu

Jeff Hamerlinck
Technical Coordinator
Spatial Data and Visualization Center
University of Wyoming
Box 3067 University Station
Laramie, WY 82071
Voice: (307) 766-2734
Email: Itasca@uwyo.edu

U.S. Geologic Survey

Patrick Crist
GAP Program Coordinator
U.S. Geologic Survey, Biological Resources Division
530 S. Asbury St., Suite 1
Moscow, ID 83843
Voice: (208) 885-3901
Email: pcrist@uidaho.edu

Lincoln County

Randy Wilson
Director of Planning
Lincoln County - Office of Planning and Development
P.O. Box 468
Kemmerer, WY 83101
Voice: (307) 877-9056 ext.338

Mike Archibald
GIS Coordinator
Lincoln County - Office of Planning and Development
P.O. Box 468
Kemmerer, WY 83101
Voice: (307) 877-9056 ext.338

References

Archibald, Mike. GIS Coordinator, Lincoln County - Office of Planning and Development, personal communication, January, 1997.

Archibald, M., K. Connelly, S. Points, T. Cooper. Date Unknown. Lincoln County GIS - Draft System Operations Plan. Lincoln County GIS Department, Kemmerer, Wyoming.

Arendt, R. G. 1996. Conservation Design for Subdivisions; A Practical Guide to Creating Open Space Networks. Island Press, Covelo, California, 184 pp.

Bureau of Land Management, 1985. Draft resource management plan / environmental impact statement for the Kemmerer Resource Area, Kemmerer, Wyoming. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C.

Department of Interior, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 1996. Endangered and threatened wildlife and plants; animal candidate review for listing as endangered or threatened species. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C.

Fairbanks, J., and L. X. Toma. 1994. Room to Roam. Planning. p. 24-26.

Fletcher, R. R., D. T. Taylor, J. M. Oster. 1989. Sales of selected industries in Lincoln County. County fact sheet number B-927.2, Department of Agricultural Economics, College of Agriculture, University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyoming 82071.

Garber, C. S. 1995. Wyoming vertebrate species of concern list. Unpublished Report., Wyoming Natural Diversity Database, Laramie, Wyoming. 26 pp.

Harting, A., D. Glick. 1994. Sustaining Greater Yellowstone, a Blueprint for the Future. Greater Yellowstone Coalition, Bozeman, Montana. 222 pp.

Long, M. E. 1996. Colorado's Front Range. National Geographic, Vol.190, No.5 pp. 87-103.

MacArthur, R. H., and E. O. Wilson. 1967. The Theory of Island Biogeography. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Merrill, E. H., T. W. Kohley, M. E. Herdendorf, W. A. Reiners, K. L. Driese, R. W. Marrs, S. H. Anderson. 1996. Wyoming Gap Analysis: a geographic analysis of biodiversity. Final Report, Wyomng. Cooperative Fish & Wildlife Research Unit, University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyoming.

Merrill, E. H., T. W. Kohley, M. E. Herdendorf. 1996a. Amphibian, reptiles, and mammal atlas, Wyoming Cooperative Fish & Wildlife Research Unit, University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyoming.

Merrill, E. H., T. W. Kohley, M. E. Herdendorf. 1996b. Bird atlas, WY. Coop. Fish Wildl. Res. Unit, Univ. WY., Laramie, Wyoming.

Press, D., D. F. Doak, P. Steinberg. 1996. The role of local government in the conservation of rare species, Conservation Biology, vol.10, no.6, pp. 1538-1548.

U.S. Bureau of Census. 1997. U.S. Bureau of Census World Wide Web home page URL http://www.census.gov/.

Wyoming Game and Fish Department, 1996. Draft Nongame bird and mammal plan. Nongame program, Wyoming Game and Fish Department, Lander, WY. 186 pp.