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The
mission of
the Institute is to increase humankind's understanding, appreciation,
and protection of our natural environment; particularly wildlife
populations and wild landscapes. Our goal is to enable
human beings to live in harmony with other species.
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Madison
Valley Projects
Madison River
Valley
In the Madison Valley we have
collaborated with the Wildlife Conservation Society to model habitat
for 14 wildlife species and connectivity for grizzly bear, elk, and
pronghorn antelope.
The
ability to define habitat quality at both a coarse scale across
large areas and a fine scale requires a modeling framework that is
robust to working at different scales.
We have improved a 2-scale method utilizing a broad-scale
model and fine-scale models for analyzing habitat quality and
connectivity. We first
use our broad-scale model to rate habitat quality across the entire
study area and identify important linkage zones. We then use
fine-scale models to rate habitat quality and identify connectivity
between core areas. We now have a habitat modeling approach that can be adapted
to any landscape in the US and Canada for almost any wildlife
species.
The Madison Valley connectivity
analysis consisted of applying our refined habitat suitability
models for grizzly bears and elk to the entire Madison River
watershed. We also modeled
pronghorn antelope connectivity in the upper Madison/upper Henry's
Fork drainages. A poster assessing the effects of different
development scenarios on pronghorn habitat was produced by Andra
Toivola of WCS and Tom Olenicki of CERI and it was nominated the
'Best Poster' at the Idaho-Montana GIS Conference in 2005.
In 2003 we completed a
coarse-scale analysis of the upper Madison Valley using basic CERI
habitat models. These basic models for both species were then
refined, and put into an ESRI ArcGIS Modelbuilder format which makes
it more efficient, easier to use and modify, and amenable to
sensitivity analysis. CERI
scientists compiled a landcover dataset that uses existing landcover
classifications at a finer 30m2 resolution.
This refined model approach was then used to map the lower
Madison River Valley in late 2004 at a fine scale.
The Madison Valley study area was
used to evaluate
our grizzly bear model results in 2003 using GPS locations from
the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team with support from the Y2Y
Science Grant Program. To
maintain the security of grizzly location information, no location
data was released by the IGBST. CERI scientists provided
standardized model results to Mark Haroldson of the IGBST.
Mark evaluated each of the models at each GPS location (each
animal location was overlaid with landcover data to determine the
landcover class occupied by the grizzly bear at that time and the
ranking that each model gave to that location).
These
comprised 4,855 total locations, accurate to within about 30m.
The composite home ranges of the six bears totaled 4,300 km2
considered “available habitat”.
The CERI model performed as well, or better than 3 other
habitat models currently in use including the interagency Cumulative
Effects Model (USDA Forest Service 1990).
These results help to validate the corridor model results,
which are based upon the habitat model.
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Model
results and maps were used to provide information to the Madison
Valley Conservation Plan Committee to help prioritize decisions
about conservation easements, land use planning, and zoning.
Areas mapped as probable movement corridors across the
Madison Valley, and areas identified as known movement routes
from field observations have been selected as priority areas for
conservation easements.
A conservation easement has been established for the
entire 30,000 acre Sun Ranch which includes most of a movement
corridor along Papoose Creek containing high quality wildlife
habitat on private lands connecting the Madison Range to the
Gravelly Range.
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CERI
personnel took part in meetings with landowners and agencies
concerning the Madison Valley project during in 2003 and 2004. In addition, CERI has taken part in subsequent meetings of
the Madison Valley Conservation Plan Committee, which includes
landowners, agency officials of the USFS and MT Fish Wildlife
and Parks, and Conservation NGOs.
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Craighead
Environmental Research Institute