landscape-scale connectivity
TRANSCRIPT
John J. Donahue, Superintendent
Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area
Delaware River Watershed Conference
October 21, 2014
NPS Director’s Call to Action
1916-2016 A Second-Century National
Park Service:
Connecting People to the Parks
Advancing the NPS Education Mission
Preserving America’s Special Places
Enhancing Professional and Organizational Excellence
Preserving America’s Special Places Goals
Manage the natural and cultural resources of the National Park System to increase resilience in the face of climate change and other stressors.
Cultivate excellence in science and scholarship as a foundation for park planning, policy, decision making, and education
Achieve a standard of excellence in cultural and natural resource stewardship that serves as a model throughout the world.
Collaborate with other land managers and partners to create, restore, and maintain landscape-scale connectivity
Addressing conservation on the large-landscape scale is
necessary and timely. It’s no longer enough to preserve
isolated forests, valleys, and wilderness areas. Connection of
habitats is key to the long-term health of ecosystems and the
biological diversity that supports both wildlife and human
communities
•Baja 2 Bering
•2C1 Forest
(northern Appalachia
to Canada)
•Yellowstone to Yukon
•Spine of the Rockies
•Gulf of Main to Gulf
of Mexico
Delaware River Watershed
Large Scale Connectivity Initiatives
Decadal population dynamics between 1900 and 2000
-
50,000
100,000
150,000
200,000
250,000
300,000
350,000
1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000
To
tal
po
pu
lati
on
Census Year
Sussex County
W arren County
Broome County
D elaware County
Greene County
Orange County
Sullivan County
Ulster County
Lackawanna County
Monroe County
Northampton County
Pike County
W ayne County
Connectivity of Core Habitat
Areas around UPDE/DEWA
Connectivity and Patch habitat importance change as residential development expands..
Patch Connectivity
0.02 - 0.10
0.11 - 0.20
0.21 - 0.30
0.31 - 0.40
0.41 - 0.50
0.51 - 0.60
0.61 - 0.70
0.71 - 0.80
0.81 - 0.90
0.91 - 1.00
Delaware River parks
Landscape dynamics: Pattern of natural landscapes What: Measures the natural landscape context
Why: Movement of plants & animals and ecological processes connect to
adjacent landscapes beyond the park boundary
Stressors:Land use change, climate change
DEWA scores higher than its ecoregion, but is declining from 0.6811 in 1992 to
0.6631 in 2001 to 0.6123 in 2030.
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