Ranking land for interim protection

CSS and some associated non-CSS natural lands need to be evaluated and ranked for interim protection. Interim protection should be afforded to lands that are likely to be important to long-term conservation planning options due to CSS patch size and density, location, and biologic components.

  1. Higher potential value: To determine areas of potential long-term conservation value, large, relatively dense areas of CSS must be identified. These are termed Higher Value Districts and are possible core areas for a reserve system. They need to be identified early in the planning process and protected from habitat loss and fragmentation while planning is under way. The methodology described below places 50% of the CSS in a subregion in the higher potential value category.

  2. Intermediate potential value: Lands that probably can not be managed as independent reserves, but which by virtue of high quality, or proximity or linkage to the Higher Value Districts should be treated as potentially significant for subregional conservation planning.

  3. Lower potential value: Land considered to have lower potential long-term conservation value will be that remaining after the higher potential value districts and the intermediate value areas have been identified. Small, isolated CSS patches (especially those surrounded by urban lands) with relatively small populations should be considered of low long-term potential value. Development of these lands could result in a take of small numbers of individuals of target species and would probably not affect the long-term viability of target species or other species of concern.

    Overall, an estimated 10% to 25% of the CSS in a subregion would fall into the lower potential value category. For the ranking approach to interim habitat loss to function, it is important that a significant amount of land be classed as lower value. The criteria for identifying higher and intermediate value land should be adapted to local conditions.

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