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Staying Connected in the Northern Appalachians: Mitigating Fragmentation and Climate Impacts on Wildlife through Functional Habitat Linkages

HomeConnect and ShareFind Conservation ProjectsStaying Connected in the Northern Appalachians: Mitigating Fragmentation and Climate Impacts on Wildlife through Functional Habitat Linkages

Project Description

Project Map

Publicly Accessible: Yes
County: Aroostook County, ME; Bennington County, VT; Chittenden County, VT; Coos County, NH; Oneida County, NY; Orleans County, VT
Project Size:

• 1.00137288E8 acres

Project Sites

• Adirondacks - Tug Hill Linkage
• Greens - Adirondacks Linkage
• Greens - Taconics Linkage
• Northeast Kingdom - Northern NH - Western ME Mountains
• Northern Appalachians Ecoregion
• Northern Greens Linkage
• Northern Maine - Gaspe Linkage
• Worcester Range - Northeast Kingdom Linkage

Goals and Targets

Primary Motivations:

• Conservation Mission
  Most of the partners involved in the Staying Connected initiative have habitat conservation and/or wildlife conservation as a core part of their organizational/agency missions.
• Climate Change Adaptation
  Protecting and restoring landscape connections across the Northern Appalachians is a key element of allowing species to adapt to changing climate.

Primary Goals:

• Staying Connected is helping individuals and communities to choose actions that will sustain wildlife and local community values such as hunting, fishing, and other outdoor recreation in a rapidly changing world. The initiative focuses on seven priority areas across the Northern Appalachians where landscape connections for wildlife movement are at risk due to development and roads: 1) Tug Hill Plateau - Adirondack Mountains (NY) 2) Adirondack Mountains - Green Mountains (NY-VT) 3) Taconic Mountains - Southern Green Mountains (NY-VT) 4) Northern Green Mountains (VT-Canada) 5) Worcester Range - Northeast Kingdom (VT) 6) Northeast Kingdom - Northern NH - Western Maine Mountains (VT-NH-ME) 7) Maine’s North Woods - Quebec’s Gaspe Peninsula (ME-Canada) Within these landscapes, project partners and communities are identifying the key areas of local connectivity – or linkages - that allow wildlife to successfully move through intact and fragmented landscapes. We are engaging landowners, organizations and municipalities to protect, restore, maintain, and enhance habitat blocks and the connections among them. And we are working with state transportation agencies and local communities to reduce the dangers to wildlife seeking to cross well-traveled roads.
  

Consistent With Plans:

• Nature Conservancy Ecoregional Plan
  Northern Appalachians Ecoregional Assessment.
  
• State Wildlife Action Plan
  NY, VT, NH, and ME SWAPS all identify connectivity as a key issues for many species of greatest conservation need.
  
• Conservation Plan
  Connectivity is identified as a conservation need in many conservation plans within the Northern Appalachians ecoregion.
  
• Climate Change Strategy
  Protecting and restoring landscape connections is seen as an important strategy for building more resilient conservation areas and to allow wildlife to adapt to changing climate.
  

Targeted Habitats:

• Forests and Woodlands
• Conifer Forests
• Deciduous Forests and Woodlands
• Mixed Hardwoods and Conifer
• Wetlands and Riparian Habitats
• Forested or Shrub Wetlands and Swamps
• Lowland Riparian Forests and Shrublands
• Marshes, Bogs and Emergent Wetlands

Targeted Species:

• American Black Bear Ursus americanus
• American Marten Martes americana
• Bobcat Lynx rufus
• Canadian Lynx Lynx canadensis

Conservation Actions

Action	Status	Start Year	End Year
Conservation easement	In Progress	2010	2012
Land acquisition for conservation (fee simple, etc.)	In Progress	2010	2012
Research	In Progress	2010	2011
Other - Monitoring: Monitoring status of landscape connectivity	Proposed	2010	2012
Other - Conservation plans and agreements: Developing spatially explicit connectivity models and plans	In Progress	2010	2011
Other - Terrestrial habitat restoration and management: Strategies to mitigate the effects of transportation infrastructure on connectivity	Proposed	2010	2012

Outcomes

Is the success of this project's actions being monitored? Yes

Monitoring Activities
Staying Connected has established a Monitoring and Evaluation Workgroup to develop an efficient and meaningful set of measures through which the status of landscape connectivity in the Northern Appalachians region can be readily evaluated now and into the future, and that can be reported in a manner that is understandable to partners, key stakeholders, and the broader public. This work has just gotten underway in winter 2010.