Range-Wide Selection of Catchments for Pacific Salmon Conservation

Abstract:  Freshwater ecosystems are declining in quality globally, but a lack of data inhibits identification of areas valuable for conservation across national borders. We developed a biological measure of conservation value for six species of Pacific salmon ( Oncorhynchus spp.) in catchments of the northern Pacific across Canada, China, Japan, Russia, and the United States. We based the measure on abundance and life-history richness and a model-based method that filled data gaps. Catchments with high conservation value ranged from California to northern Russia and included catchments in regions that are strongly affected by human development (e.g., Puget Sound). Catchments with high conservation value were less affected by agriculture and dams than other catchments, although only 1% were within biodiversity reserves. Our set of high-value areas was largely insensitive to simulated error, although classification remained uncertain for 3% of catchments. Although salmon face many threats, we propose they will be most likely to exhibit resilience into the future if a complementary mosaic of conservation strategies can be proactively adopted in catchments with healthy salmon populations. Our analysis provides an initial map of where these catchments are likely to be located.     

Integrating Biological and Social Values When Prioritizing Places for Biodiversity Conservation

The consideration of information on social values in conjunction with biological data is critical for achieving both socially acceptable and scientifically defensible conservation planning outcomes. However, the influence of social values on spatial conservation priorities has received limited attention and is poorly understood. We present an approach that incorporates quantitative data on social values for conservation and social preferences for development into spatial conservation planning. We undertook a public participation GIS survey to spatially represent social values and development preferences and used species distribution models for 7 threatened fauna species to represent biological values. These spatially explicit data were simultaneously included in the conservation planning software Zonation to examine how conservation priorities changed with the inclusion of social data. Integrating spatially explicit information about social values and development preferences with biological data produced prioritizations that differed spatially from the solution based on only biological data. However, the integrated solutions protected a similar proportion of the species’ distributions, indicating that Zonation effectively combined the biological and social data to produce socially feasible conservation solutions of approximately equivalent biological value. We were able to identify areas of the landscape where synergies and conflicts between different value sets are likely to occur. Identification of these synergies and conflicts will allow decision makers to target communication strategies to specific areas and ensure effective community engagement and positive conservation outcomes. Integración de Valores Biológicos y Sociales al Priorizar Sitios para la Conservación de la Biodiversidad     

Economics and Land-Use Change in Prioritizing Private Land Conservation

Abstract:  Incentive-based strategies such as conservation easements and short-term management agreements are popular tools for conserving biodiversity on private lands. Billions of dollars are spent by government and private conservation organizations to support land conservation. Although much of conservation biology focuses on reserve design, these methods are often ineffective at optimizing the protection of biological benefits for conservation programs. Our review of the recent literature on protected-area planning identifies some of the reasons why. We analyzed the site-selection process according to three important components: biological benefits, land costs, and likelihood of land-use change. We compared our benefit-loss-cost targeting approach with more conventional strategies that omit or inadequately address either land costs or likelihood of land-use change. Our proposed strategy aims to minimize the expected loss in biological benefit due to future land-use conversion while considering the full or partial costs of land acquisition. The implicit positive correlation between the likelihood of land-use conversion and cost of land protection means high-vulnerability sites with suitable land quality are typically more expensive than low-vulnerability sites with poor land quality. Therefore, land-use change and land costs need to be addressed jointly to improve spatial targeting strategies for land conservation. This approach can be extended effectively to land trusts and other institutions implementing conservation programs.     

Assessing Suitability for Conservation Action: Prioritizing Interpond Linkages for the California Tiger Salamander

Abstract:  Conservation organizations and public agencies are interested in identifying and prioritizing areas for conservation action, often acquisition or easements. Typically, this requires the use of uncertain data and vaguely defined decision criteria. I developed a decision support system to address these uncertainty issues and assist in evaluating conservation opportunities for the endangered California tiger salamander ( Ambystoma californiense ) in Santa Barbara, California. Functionally defined planning units were used to aggregate data on land suitability, land cover change, salamander presence, and movement risk along potential linkages between breeding ponds. I used a fuzzy-logic-based inference engine to evaluate the planning units and rank the relative suitability of interpond linkages for conservation action. The sensitivity of the rankings was considered with respect to uncertainty in salamander occurrence data and the relationship between land-cover-change threats and site suitability. All linkages were substantially degraded, but five areas were consistently identified with high relative suitability for conservation action despite differences in assumptions and uncertainty in biological data. The combination of functionally defined planning units and a fuzzy-logic-based decision support system provides a general framework for considering the suitability of sites for conservation action.     

Human Influence on the Spatial Structure of Threatened Pacific Salmon Metapopulations

Abstract: To remain viable, populations must be resilient to both natural and human‐caused environmental changes. We evaluated anthropogenic effects on spatial connections among populations of Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) and steelhead (O. mykiss) (designated as threatened under the U.S. Endangered Species Act) in the lower Columbia and Willamette rivers. For several anthropogenic‐effects scenarios, we used graph theory to characterize the spatial relation among populations. We plotted variance in population size against connectivity among populations. In our scenarios, reduced habitat quality decreased the size of populations and hydropower dams on rivers led to the extirpation of several populations, both of which decreased connectivity. Operation of fish hatcheries increased connectivity among populations and led to patchy or panmictic populations. On the basis of our results, we believe recolonization of the upper Cowlitz River by fall and spring Chinook and winter steelhead would best restore metapopulation structure to near‐historical conditions. Extant populations that would best conserve connectivity would be those inhabiting the Molalla (spring Chinook), lower Cowlitz, or Clackamas (fall Chinook) rivers and the south Santiam (winter steelhead) and north fork Lewis rivers (summer steelhead). Populations in these rivers were putative sources; however, they were not always the most abundant or centrally located populations. This result would not have been obvious if we had not considered relations among populations in a metapopulation context. Our results suggest that dispersal rate strongly controls interactions among the populations that comprise salmon metapopulations. Thus, monitoring efforts could lead to understanding of the true rates at which wild and hatchery fish disperse. Our application of graph theory allowed us to visualize how metapopulation structure might respond to human activity. The method could be easily extended to evaluations of anthropogenic effects on other stream‐dwelling populations and communities and could help prioritize among competing conservation measures.     

A Framework for Prioritizing Domestic Animal Breeds for Conservation Purposes at the National Level: a Norwegian Case Study

Abstract: Although encompassing only a handful of species, domestic animals have had profound effects on food production for humankind and on human societies. On a global basis, a large proportion of breeds are currently in danger of becoming extinct in the near future. At this critical time, resources are limited and only a selected number of breeds may be supported by concrete conservation programs. I present a framework to facilitate decision making on a national level as to which breeds to support for conservation. These decisions should be made by a national committee of experts experienced with the different breeds and species. First, they must define the species of interest. Second, they should collate as much data as possible and score each breed for key criteria: degree of endangerment, presence of traits of current economic value, presence of traits of current scientific value, agroecological value in a special landscape, cultural-historical value, and genetic uniqueness. The degree of endangerment is the most important criterion because great uncertainty about the future means that all breeds may have traits of future economic or scientific value, so the main aim should therefore be to minimize loss of breeds. To illustrate use of the framework, I considered breed prioritization in Norway. I compared and scored 45 breeds from 17 domestic animal species for these key criteria and thus identified Norwegian breeds of high priority for conservation.     

Prioritizing urban marine habitats for conservation

Urban coastal wetlands and adjoining coves and embayments can provide habitat for significant numbers of waterbirds, despite being subject to high levels of stressors from human activities. Yet to date little emphasis has been placed on identifying these areas and prioritizing them for conservation. In this study I outline a three-step process to identify and prioritize local sites for conservation using waterbird abundance and diversity and an index of the risk to a site from marine development, and apply it to a series of urban coastal sites in two North Atlantic estuaries located in the northeast US. By combining waterbird abundance and species richness with the risk from marine development I generated a ranked list of sites with the highest listed sites having high bird diversity and low risk from development. From this list individual sites can be prioritized for conservation, and various protection scenarios can be evaluated and compared. For example, 7 of the top 10 ranked sites in Boston Harbor, combined with sites already protected under local, state, or federal statutes, represented over half of the total bird diversity in the Harbor. Similarly, in Narragansett Bay 6 of the top 10 sites when combined with sites already protected represent 48.8% of the Bay’s bird diversity. Formally protecting these sites, all of which are at relatively low risk from marine development, could result in the conservation of considerable waterbird habitat at low economic cost (i.e., from loss of development potential). Other ranking scenarios (by bird diversity alone, or by risk from marine development) were also evaluated and compared to the combined ranking. Identification of sites with high bird diversity and low risk from development could provide important information for local land acquisition groups and planning boards when considering options for the conservation of urban coastal habitats.     

Techno-Arrogance and Halfway Technologies: Salmon Hatcheries on the Pacific Coast of North America

Humankind has adopted an arrogant and ultimately self-defeating attitude toward nature that places technological mastery over nature at the forefront of our approach to many environmental problems. This "techno-arrogance" fails to recognize limitations on, and ramifications of, attempted control of nature. An example of techno-arrogance is the flawed attempt to recover Pacific salmonid fisheries through technological application in the form of hatcheries. Countless salmon stocks have declined precipitously over the last century as a result of overfishing and widespread habitat destruction. A central feature of recovery efforts has been to build many hatcheries to produce large quantities of fish to restock streams. This approach addresses the symptoms but not the causes of the declines (an example of a halfway technology), because the habitats remain largely unsuitable for salmon. There are at least six reasons why the hatchery approach will ultimately fail: (1) data demonstrate that hatcheries are not solving the problem—salmon continue to decline despite decades of hatchery production; (2) hatcheries are costly to run, and divert resources from other efforts, such as habitat restoration; (3) hatcheries are not sustainable in the long term, requiring continual input of money and energy, (4) hatcheries are a genetically unsound approach to management that can adversely affect wild populations; (5) hatchery production leads to increased harvest of declining wild populations of salmon; and (6) hatcheries conceal from the public the truth of real salmon decline. I recommend that salmonid management turn from the symptoms to the causes of decline. Overharvest and habitat destruction must be directly addressed in a major, landscape-level effort, on a scale comparable to the hatchery program, if salmonid fisheries are to remain a part of the ecological recreational, commercial and asthetic arenas in the long term.