Conservation Easements and Their Contribution to Natural Vegetation … · 2015. 5. 8. · Total...
Transcript of Conservation Easements and Their Contribution to Natural Vegetation … · 2015. 5. 8. · Total...
Kai Foster, Tosha Comendant, Michael Lundin & James Strittholt Conservation Biology Institute
April 1, 2015
Conservation Easements and Their Contribution to Natural Vegetation Protection
Research Question
To what extent do different land protection mechanism contribute to the protection of natural vegetation in the conterminous US?
• restricted use lands – permanently protected lands managed to maintain a natural or nearly natural state
• multiple use lands – permanently protected lands managed to conservation of predominately natural land cover with multiple use (including extractive uses)
• conservation easements – land with voluntary restrictions for conservation purposes
Funding from USDA Forest Service Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA)
Why is this important?
• Detailed characterization of current condition – what is currently protection • Potential ability crosswalk data with Dynamic Vegetation Model (DVM) data and investigate potential future vegetation
Methods
Protected Areas Database of the United States (PAD-US CBI Edition) Version 2
National Conservation Easement Database (NCED) Phase 4
LANDFIRE Existing Vegetation Type (EVT) 110 & 210
National Conservation Easement Database
• Began in 2009 • Current Database
22,204,790 acres (105,883 easements) • Released June 2014 (revised October 2014)
NCED – NGO Completeness
NCED – Public Completeness
Total Extent and Protection
Protected by Conservation Easement
% Protected by Conservation
Easement
Total Acres of Natural Vegetation Protected by Conservation Easements
# of Natural Vegetation Types
<1% 4.2 Million 48
1.1 to 2% 2.7 Million 25
2.1 to 3% 2.8 Million 7
3.1 to 4% 200 Thousand 1
4.1 to 5% 290 Thousand 4
>5% 3.8 Million 5
Total 14 Million
Analysis Results and Application
• Characterization of protection of natural vegetation Restricted-use Lands 128,163,195 acres
Multiple-use Lands 297,860,912 acres Conservation Easements 14,013,612 acres Protected Lands Network 440,037,719 acres
• Conservation Easement provide measureable protection to natural vegetation • Enable future research on climate impacts and protection mechanism adaptation
Example – Delaware River Easements
Sea Level Rise
Conclusion
• Plan for future management of current conservation easement • Evaluate of conservation purpose under different climate scenarios • Prioritize acquisitions of future easements
Resources
Protecting Natural Vegetation: Compartive Analysis of Land Protection Mechanisms http://consbio.org/products/reports/protecting-vegetation
Protected Areas Database, PAD-US (CBI Edition) v2 http://consbio.org/newsroom/news/release-pad-us-cbi-edition-v2
Protected Areas Database, PAD-US (CBI Edition) v2.1 http://consbio.org/products/projects/PAD-US-CBI-establishment-dates
National Conservation Easement Database (NCED) http://conservationeasement.us/