Coastal Services Center

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Selecting Conservation Areas

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The Goal:

Maintain biological diversity.

The Issue:

How can organizations and agencies decide which land to select for conservation areas?

The Answer:

A remotely-sensed landscape map that ranks critical habitats based on conservation information.

The Example:
New Jersey's Landscape Project for the Protection of Rare Species

The Endangered and Nongame Species Program (ENSP) of the New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife has adopted a proactive landscape-level approach to protecting rare wildlife and important habitats. Its goal is to identify and protect critical habitat for a variety of endangered, threatened, and rare species, including bald eagles, piping plovers, least terns, black rails, bog turtles, and tiger salamanders. Protecting and managing these critical habitats also benefits the citizens of New Jersey by reducing damage to natural ecological systems that recharge aquifers, protect water quality, break down contaminants, reduce flooding, and provide areas for outdoor recreation.

"The Landscape Project has been designed to provide users with peer reviewed, scientifically sound information that is easily accessible and can be integrated with planning, protection, and land management programs at every level of government, state, county, and municipal, as well as non-governmental organizations and private landowners," according to ENSP. "Landscape maps and overlays provide a basis for proactive planning, such as the development of local habitat protection ordinances, zoning to protect critical habitat, management guidelines for rare species protection on public and private lands, and land acquisition projects."

Using Land Cover Data:

The base data for the landscape project's critical area mapping are land use/land cover data, produced by the Rutgers University Center for Remote Sensing and Spatial Analysis (CRSSA) in the mid-1990s. Satellite-derived land cover data were developed from Landsat Thematic Mapper using the NOAA Coastal Change Analysis Program (C-CAP) protocol (Dobson and others 1995).

Subset of the Southern New Jersey land cover data that were created using the methodologies described in the C-CAP protocol. This data set was integrated with New Jersey land use data to create the comprehensive land use/land cover maps used by Endangered and Nongame Species Program (ENSP).

The land cover was integrated with updated versions of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection's land use maps to create the land use/land cover data set. Using Environmental Systems Research Institute's (ESRI®) ArcInfo® and ArcView® GIS software, ENSP developed a method to identify and prioritize critical wetland, grassland, and forested habitats using the resultant land cover/land use maps. The following example steps through a generalized and simplified version of the methodology used to prioritize critical wetland areas in New Jersey.

Identifying Critical Wetlands:

To identify critical wetlands, all of the land with a wetland classification was extracted from the land use/land cover data. The following data layers were overlaid with the wetland maps for use in the final conservation prioritization:

• conservation areas, which include a 46-meter (150-foot) buffer that is legislated by the state for any wetland that contains endangered and threatened species;
• a 300-meter (1000-foot) buffer around all wetlands that contain sensitive species that rely upon both the wetland habitat and the upland areas;
• a 15-meter (50-foot) buffer around all other wetland areas (i.e., those without known endangered, threatened, or sensitive species); and
• the location of priority species.

Each of the wetland areas was ranked to determine conservation priority. Each wetland parcel was ranked by several criteria, including the number of priority species found within the parcel, and its proximity to already-conserved areas. Grassland and forest habitats were also ranked for conservation priority using similar techniques.

New Jersey was divided into five regions and each region was analyzed. Below is the final conservation-landscape critical-areas map for the Delaware Bay region. (The other four landscape regions are Coastal, Pinelands, Skylands, and Piedmont/Plains.)

Delaware Bay landscape region critical areas map. Map provided by the New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife's Endangered and Nongame Species Program (ENSP.

Applying Land Cover Data:

Many counties in New Jersey are using the data and information from the landscape project for countywide assessments. Chester Township, in central New Jersey, is using the data to pinpoint land that has a potential for open space acquisition. The township is overlaying the landscape project maps with urban data (i.e., developed areas, roads) and open space data (public land that is currently protected). Using the priority information, officials have identified a parcel of relatively high-priority land that links together two other pieces of public land. Acquiring the parcel of high priority that also links existing open space results in more protected habitat.

The area within the red circle illustrates critical habitat that would, if acquired, tie together two areas of public open space (indicated by hatched lines) in Chester Township. Map provided by the New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife's Endangered and Nongame Species Program (ENSP).

The Result:

These maps take the guesswork out of managing wildlife habitat, prioritizing conservation areas, and planning open space acquisitions for many agencies, including state, county, municipal, and private organizations. The information provides a sound basis for proactive decision making as well as conflict resolution before proposed development, logging, or dredging occurs. The landscape maps also provide citizens with the tools to protect rare species habitat at the local level.

To learn more about New Jersey's Landscape Project for the Protection of Rare Species, visit www.state.nj.us/dep/fgw/ensp/pdf/landbro.pdf (Requires a plug-in such as Adobe® Reader® to view).

Works Cited:

Dobson and others, 1995. NOAA Coastal Change Analysis Program (C-CAP): Guidance for Regional Implementation. NOAA Technical Report NMFS 123. U.S. Department of Commerce.

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