Optimal Locations for Plant Reintroductions in a Changing World

Of all conservation strategies currently practiced throughout the world, reintroductions require the most sophisticated understanding of species biology and ecology (Falk et al. 1996). Whether augmenting existing populations, reintroducing within a species’ known range, or introducing to a location outside the known range, finding optimal sites for long-term survival, growth, reproduction, and establishment of new populations is often “not as self-evident as it might otherwise seem” (Fiedler and Laven 1996, p. 157). Identifying appropriate habitat is essential to establish sustainable populations in existing or new locations, and yet for many species of conservation concern habitat needs are unknown. This uncertainty takes on even more importance in the context of contemporary and projected near-term changes in landscape and regional climate (Giorgi and Francisco 2000; Millar et al. 2007).