Proposed Revised Team Name and Research Questions

1
Proposed Revised Team Name and Research Questions

• Land and Water Habitat Conservation Team
• What are the critical land and water areas
  necessary to maintain water quality,
  biodiversity, outdoor recreation, and the quality
  of Minnesota habitats?
• What policies need to be modified or implemented
  to maintain or restore these critical land and
  water areas?

2
Strategy to identify critical land water
habitat areas

• Identify current critical habitat
• To identify the location of important habitat
  areas - Use DNRs Tomorrows Habitat for the Wild
  and Rare data identify the number of Species of
  Greatest Concern (SGCN) by township by subsection
• To identify most critical habitat areas select
  townships in the upper nth percentiles (10-20th)
  of SGCN richness for each subsection
• End product critical habitats dispersed across
  the state

3
Strategy to identify critical land water
habitat areas

• With NLDC, GAP and other layers, characterize
• Land cover for critical habitats to extend to
  unmapped areas
• Ownership proportions in public (reserves,
  working landscapes) and private ownership (latter
  at higher risk)
• Rates of recent land use change (forest or ag to
  developed, using NLCD96-2001)
• End product map of critical lands (for SGCNs),
  each with associated estimates of risk based on
  trends in land use change land ownership

4
Strategy to identify critical land water
habitat areas

• Water
• Lake trophic status
• Impaired waters
• Groundwater?

5
General considerations for mapping component

• Scale
• Propose to use the ECS Sections
• Consider using the township (6 mi x 6 mi or
  23,040 acres) as unit of resolution possibly
  quarter townships?

6
General considerations for mapping component

• Priority areas
• Identify areas that are
• currently preserved (no resource extraction
  e.g., BWCAW)
• or conserved (protected but resource extraction
  allowed e.g., National Forests)
• Identify large, intact ecosystems throughout the
  state

7
GIS data layers for mapping(not in order of
priority)

• Land use and trends (change detection)
• Ownership
• Climate
• Topography
• Biodiversity distribution of MN species of
  greatest conservation need
• Current and desirable outdoor recreation areas
  (e.g., hunting, fishing, and wildlife watching)
• Population density (also sewage lines)
• Water quality lake trophic status and impaired
  waters
• Road networks
• Others??

8
Hierarchical Data Layers

• Allow mapping at fine resolution for selected
  sections where GIS data exists at suitable
  resolution
• Coarse level mapping in areas where GIS data is
  missing and/or only exists at a coarse level