Assisting the Michigan Wildlife Action Plan: Relevant Information and Tools for Incorporating Plants

Plants perform numerous critical ecosystem services and are essential to wildlife, yet despite their important role, they are poorly recognized in most state Wildlife Action Plans (WAPs). The creation and implementation of WAPs in 2005 signaled a new era in conservation, yet as developed and formally funded these plans can reference only free-ranging fauna and the definition of species of greatest conservation need (SGCN) specifically exclude plants. A recent study and analysis of state WAPs by NatureServe verified the currently limited role for plants, but recommended that plants could achieve a greater role by continuing to develop and add plant-specific components to existing wildlife plans. To that end, the purpose of this project was to take part in a multi-state effort through NatureServe to improve the incorporation of plant-specific components and plant conservation strategies into the Michigan WAP. The thrust of the Michigan project was to provide information on Michigan’s rare flora that would promote the role of plants by focusing on climate change and additional tools to assist the state WAP. This project was designed to complement similar efforts taking place in North Dakota, New Jersey, Montana, and Colorado. The first component of this project was comprised of determining climate change vulnerabilities for a set of priority rare plant taxa and additional species important to wildlife as suggested by DNR biologists. The second component of the project consisted of augmenting the landscape features crosswalk created by the state WAP by expanding the crosswalk to include the state’s 420 listed rare taxa. The third basic component of the project was a spatial analysis to aid in highlighting conservation gaps to assist in identifying potential future priority areas and to augment the information assembled in the expanded landscape features crosswalk. For the climate component, 76 species were assessed using the NatureServe Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment (CCVI) calculator. A majority of the species assessed was determined to be vulnerable to climate change, include more than half of the common species assessed. The landscape features crosswalk was incorporated into a database, and then joined to a rare plant species-natural community crosswalk embedded in the Michigan Natural Features Inventory (MNFI) Rare Species Explorer. This database was then augmented with information on each rare plant species, primarily with regard to describing habitat but also incorporated conservation and management considerations. Selected spatial analyses indicated that defined high quality areas contribute disproportionately to rare plant richness and diversity in Michigan and thus are worthy of strong consideration for contributing to WAP activities and goals. In concert with the currently proposed Biodiversity Stewardship Areas, these delineated landscapes can contribute significantly to the Michigan WAP. Table of