Wildlands Network Designs^©

Scientific planning tools essential for effective, efficient conservation results

Wildlands Network organizes its mapping and science work around each of the four Wildways. We develop partnerships with conservation organizations and agencies within each Wildway to conduct a scientific analysis and mapping process to identify priority conservation areas. Wildways are so large that they must be broken down into regions for detailed scientific analysis and conservation planning. Wherever possible, we or our partners develop a plan and maps for each region called a Wildlands Network Design (WND) which is then used as a planning tool for conservation actors – a blueprint for establishing core conservation habitats and achieving connectivity within a specific region.

In some cases Wildlands Network collaborates with partners to develop alternative, large-scale, conservation plans that incorporate the key elements of a WND. Each WND or other type of large-scale conservation plan is then connected to adjacent plans, like links in a chain thereby "reconstructing" the Wildway. The WNDs therefore represent a consistent and robust approach that crosses political and jurisdictional boundaries and collectively provides a high-resolution, continental and connectivity master plan for each Wildway.

Though WNDs are disseminated to other organizations, their purpose is not public communications. Wildlands Network also supports partners with ongoing scientific collaboration, and has been investing in analyzing the relationship of large landscape connectivity with climate change, with a particular focus on conservation area designs that ensure ecosystem resilience.

Each WND is built around three primary units: cores, linkages, and compatible use or stewardship lands. Cores are generally large intact habitats, such as Wilderness Areas, roadless areas or National Parks, which then must be connected to each other by landscape linkages, which can be described as the spokes radiating from a protected, core hub. Compatible use/stewardship lands and other lands adjacent to cores and linkages must then be managed in a manner that is complementary with the protection cores. Just as an electrical current cannot flow if there is a short circuit anywhere in the system, this system of cores, linkages, and stewardship areas provide a contiguous network of lands throughout a planning region so there can be a flow of animals and plants between habitats instead of blocks of habitat separated by "shorts" in the connectivity circuitry.

WND methodology integrates three general approaches to conservation planning that, in the past, usually have been applied separately: 1.Protection of special elements -- identifying, mapping, and protecting rare species occurrences (and particularly where occurrences are concentrated), watersheds with high biological values, imperiled natural communities , and other sites of biodiversity value; 2. Representation of habitats -- inclusion of a full spectrum of habitat types (e.g. vegetation, abiotic habitats, aquatic habitats) in protected areas or other areas managed for natural values. 3.  Conservation of focal species -- identifying and protecting key habitats of wide-ranging species and others of high ecological importance or sensitivity to disturbance by humans.

The most unusual feature of the three-track approach, and which distinguishes it from most of the ecoregional plans developed by other organizations, such as TheNature Conservancy, is the rigorous modeling of habitat requirements and population viability of wildlands-associated focal species, such as large carnivores and forest mesocarnivores. Focal species analysis complements the special elements and representation tracks by addressing questions concerning the size and configuration of habitats necessary to maintain populations of strongly interactive species over time.

A variety of characteristics can result in a species being considered a useful focal species for conservation planning including that they are: (1) functionally important to an extent out of proportion to their numerical abundance (keystone or strongly interactive species such as foundation species); (2) wide-ranging, thus potentially acting as surrogates for other species that have similar habitat requirements (umbrella species); (3) sensitive to habitat quality (indicator species); and (4) charismatic (flagship species), thus encouraging public support for conservation initiatives. If sufficient habitat is maintained to support viable populations of a carefully selected suite of focal species over time, many other species might also be conserved.

The WND's completed to date are:

Sky Islands Wildlands Network Design

New Mexico Highlands Wildlands Network Design

Grand Canyon Wildlands Network Design

Southern Rockies Wildlands Network Design

Heart of the West Wildlands Network Design

Greater Northern Appalachian Wildlands Network Design

More can be learned about the Wildlands Network WND Methodology by downloading the attached file below.