Natural resource assessment and decision support tools for bird conservation planning

We have used a place-based decision support system for several years to identify bird conservation issues relating to the management and planning needs of resource managers. Public and private land managers are constantly seeking better ways to incorporate landscape, species, and habitat relationships into the conservation planning process. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is engaged in long-term planning for federal lands under their jurisdiction as part of the Congressionally-mandated Comprehensive Conservation Planning process. The National Park Service is undertaking an inventory and monitoring program for a wide range of species. In addition, the North American Bird Conservation Initiative (NABCI) is a new international bird conservation effort seeking to “deliver the full spectrum of bird conservation through regionallybased, biologically-driven, landscape-oriented partnerships.” These initiatives are driving efforts to plan and implement bird conservation at all spatial scales. Our system, developed in a geographic information system (GIS) framework, allows managers and planners to rapidly assess landscape attributes and link these attributes with species/habitat information. Users can pose questions about a species and obtain habitat information within a defined area, or pose questions about habitats within a defined area and receive information about the species that may use those habitats. Our decision support tool is not a ‘black box’; it doesn’t make decisions for managers, but it can facilitate the efficient use of historical and existing resource information. We describe examples of how these tools are being used on the Upper Mississippi River and in the Midwest to illustrate and define the spatial distribution, amount, and potential relative values of habitats. Once base layers that depict present conditions are added to the system, it is much easier for the managers to develop alternative management plans that consider type, size, and arrangement of habitat patches.