PARENT SESSION
Oral Session #13: Success Criteria and Monitoring Restoration.
Presiding: D. Gluesenkamp
Monday, August 5. 1:00 PM to 3:45 PM. Mohave Meeting Room, TCC.
Comparing reserve effectiveness in achieving species conservation goals using SITES as an analytical tool.
Turek, Shannon*,1, Laing, Christina1, Smith, Leslie1, Fromer, Paul1, Woods, Lori2, 1 RECON Environmental, Inc., San Diego, CA2 RECON Consultants, Inc., Tucson`, AZ
ABSTRACT- The process of designing large-scale, multiple species conservation plans involves determining goals for species included in the plan. Ideally, the conservation goals would include emphasis on the rarity, endemism, population viability, and connectivity of each species. However, available information is usually quite limited. The challenge is to identify species goals with this limited amount of information, and design a reserve that achieves them. The Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan (SDCP) is a multi-species conservation plan in Pima County, Arizona. Species conservation goals were determined based on the rarity and endemism of each species, and focused on recorded location data and potential habitat modeled in GIS. A reserve was developed by the Scientific Technical Advisory Team (STAT), and the process was evaluated by a peer review committee. One recommendation by the peer review committee was to evaluate the effectiveness of the reserve design in relation to the stated species goals using the SITES program. SITES software, developed by researchers at the University of California Santa Barbara for The Nature Conservancy, uses a simulated annealing approach to develop a set of sites that achieves stated goals in the smallest overall area and in the most compact design. This presentation uses SITES to evaluate how effective the actual reserve design is at achieving the stated species conservation goals by comparing it to simulated reserves that may achieve the stated goals in a more efficient way.
KEY WORDS: Conservation, endangered species, SITES, GIS