Georgia Project: Accelerating Conservation of At-Risk Species in the Longleaf System

Georgia Project

Accelerating Conservation of At-Risk Species in the Longleaf System

August 2016 - June 2022

Personnel

Participating Agencies

US Fish and Wildlife Service
USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service
DOI Southeast Climate Science Center
Mississippi State University
NRCS
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

The Southeast Region of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is working actively with state wildlife agencies and other partners, through the Southeastern Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies to assess the status of >300 species awaiting reviews for listing decision and to implement conservation for these species on public and private lands. The longleaf pine ecological system supports a number of priority at-risk species, including the gopher tortoise, striped newt, gopher frog, southern hognose snake, and Florida pine snake. Major science needs are to analyze and integrate new information from status surveys for this group of species and to identify those conservation actions to improve the status of these species. By involving partner groups in this work, this project will synthesize data for these priority species and will develop models that predict population viability as a consequence of predicted exogenous threats (e.g., climate change and land use conversion) and conservation actions in space and time to mitigate those threats. These products will be delivered in form that facilitates a future formal decision analysis in which tradeoffs in alternative conservation actions may be explored.

Research Publications

Research Publications	Publication Date
Moore, C. T., and J. C. Maerz. 2020. Accelerating conservation of at-risk species in the longleaf system. Final project memorandum to Southeast Climate Adaptation Science Center. \| Download	August 2020
Crawford, B. A., M. Olds, J. C. Maerz, and C. T. Moore. 2020. Estimating population persistence for at-risk species using citizen science data. Biological Conservation 243:108489. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2020.108489 \| Download	March 2020
Crawford, B. A., J. C. Maerz, and C. T. Moore. 2020. Expert-informed habitat suitability analysis for at-risk species assessment and conservation planning. Journal of Fish and Wildlife Management 11:130-150. https://doi.org/10.3996/092019-JFWM-075 \| Abstract \| Download \| Publisher Website	June 2020	The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is responsible for reviewing the biological status of hundreds of species to determine federal status designations under the Endangered Species Act. The longleaf pine <i>Pinus palustris</i> ecological system supports many priority at-risk species designated for review, including five species of herpetofauna: gopher tortoise <i>Gopherus polyphemus</i>, southern hognose snake <i>Heterodon simus</i>, Florida pine snake <i>Pituophis melanoleucus mugitus</i>, gopher frog <i>Lithobates</i> [<i>Rana</i>] <i>capito</i>, and striped newt <i>Notophthalmus perstriatus</i>. To inform status decisions and conservation planning, we developed habitat suitability models to 1) identify habitat features that best predict species presence and 2) estimate the amount and distribution of suitable habitat across each species' range under current conditions. We incorporated expert judgment from Federal, State, and other partners to capture variation in ecological settings across species' ranges, prioritize predictor variables to test in models, mitigate data limitations by informing the selection of pseudo-absence points, qualitatively evaluate model estimates, and improve the likelihood that experts will trust and use model predictions for conservation. Habitat suitability for all species was strongly influenced by soil characteristics, land cover, and fire interval. Suitable habitat was distributed on known species strongholds, as well as private lands without known species records. Between 4.7% (gopher frog) and 14.6% (gopher tortoise) of the area in a species' range was classified as suitable habitat, and between 28.1% (southern hognose snake) and 47.5% (gopher frog) of suitable habitat was located in patches larger than 1 km2 (100 ha) on publicly-owned lands. By overlaying predictions for each species, we identified areas of suitable habitat for multiple species on protected and unprotected lands. These results have direct applications to management and conservation planning: partners can tailor site-level management based on attributes associated with high habitat suitability for species of concern; allocate survey effort in areas with suitable habitat but no known species records; and identify priority areas for management, land acquisitions, or other strategies based on the distribution of species records, suitable habitat, and land protection status. These results can aid regional partners in implementing effective conservation strategies and inform listing decisions of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Presentations

Presentations	Presentation Date
Crawford, B. A., C. T. Moore, J. C. Maerz, D. T. Jones-Farrand, and M. Harris. 2020. Using experts and models to accelerate conservation of at-risk species in the longleaf pine system. Southeast Regional Partnership for Planning and Sustainability Steering Committee Meeting, 4 March 2020, Atlanta, GA.	March 2020
Crawford, B. A., C. T. Moore, J. C. Maerz, D. T. Jones-Farrand, and M. Harris. 2019. Using experts and models to accelerate conservation of at-risk species in the longleaf pine system. Southeast Climate Adaptation Science Center Regional Science Symposium, 13-15 November 2019, New Orleans, LA.	November 2019

Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Units Program: Georgia Education, Research and Technical Assistance for Managing Our Natural Resources

Georgia Project

Accelerating Conservation of At-Risk Species in the Longleaf System

August 2016 - June 2022

Personnel

Participating Agencies

Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Units Program: Georgia
Education, Research and Technical Assistance for Managing Our Natural Resources