Delineating Focus Areas for Bird Conservation in the Central Hardwoods Bird Conservation Region

This paper reports on a process used to identify landscape-scale focus areas for the conservation of priority grassland, grass-shrubland, wetland and forest-woodland birds in the Central Hardwoods Bird Conservation Region (CHBCR). The areas were delineated by biologists and other technical staff of partner agencies and organizations in the CHBCR with the use of geospatial data layers that included land cover, maps of areas with large percentages of grass and forest cover, public lands, roads, state and county lines, surface water features, ecological land types, and The Nature Conservancy?s ecoregional plan?s portfolio sites. There are other areas within the BCR that do or could provide high quality bird habitat. However, focus areas have the highest conservation, restoration and management potential at a landscape scale because they have (1) significant blocks of public lands that can provide a core for conservation efforts, (2) good potential for public-private partnerships, and/or (3) have been identified by The Nature Conservancy or state Natural Heritage Programs as areas with noteworthy levels of biodiversity. We believe the ability to concentrate relatively scant resources for conservation in discrete landscapes will accomplish greater habitat gains at scales relevant to bird populations than will more isolated efforts. The use of both current land use data and ecological classification systems also allowed us to target specific areas for specific suites of priority birds based upon a landscape?s ecological and socio-economic potential.