Abstract
In 2021, the Biden administration signed an executive order to protect 30% of American lands by 2030. Accomplishing this ambitious goal in the U.S. requires understanding the relative contribution of public and private lands toward supporting biodiversity. New approaches are needed because existing approaches focus on quantity of habitat without incorporating quality. To fill this need, we developed a 30 m resolution national habitat condition index (HCI) that integrates quality and quantity measures of habitat. We hypothesized that including an evaluation of the quality of habitat at landscape scales, both in conservation-focused preserves and working lands would provide a better assessment of the value of geographies for conservation. We divided the conterminous U.S. by major land cover type and into natural and cultivated lands and then spatially mapped multiple anthropogenic stressors, proximity to aquatic habitat, and vegetation departure from expected natural disturbance regimes. Each map layer was then scored for site impact and distance decay and combined into a final national index. Field observations providing scored relative ecological conditions were used for HCI calibration and validation at both CONUS and regional scales. Finally, we evaluate lands by management (conservation versus working lands) and ownership (public versus private) testing the value of these lands for conservation. While we found regional differences across CONUS, functional habitat was largely independent of protection status: working lands provide clear habitat and other values. These results are relevant for guiding strategies to achieve the U.S. 30 by 30 goals. Where similar data exist in other countries, analogous modeling could be used to meet their national conservation commitments.
Highlights
In 2021, the Biden administration signed an executive order to protect 30% of American lands by 2030
While each land cover class we tested had areas of high and low habitat condition index (HCI) values, the relative distribution of HCI values within each class was markedly different, indicating that some land cover types are in much better condition than others at the landscape scale
By ecoregion and by major vegetation category, and do not directly correspond to management designations as described by Gap Analysis Project (GAP) protection status; (3) working lands contribute significantly to functional habitat across the U.S.; (4) while private lands are providing functional habitat hectares, improving habitat quality on private working lands would have significant impacts on the overall numbers of functional habitat area across CONUS and within regions; and (5) the “30 by 30” objective for U.S lands could feasibly be attained with additional conservation attention on GAP 3–5 lands scoring as high for the HCI
Summary
In 2021, the Biden administration signed an executive order to protect 30% of American lands by 2030 Accomplishing this ambitious goal in the U.S requires understanding the relative contribution of public and private lands toward supporting biodiversity. While we found regional differences across CONUS, functional habitat was largely independent of protection status: working lands provide clear habitat and other values. These results are relevant for guiding strategies to achieve the. A recent Executive Order [1] by U.S President Biden is an acknowledgement of this global need This Order prescribes conserving at least 30% of U.S lands and freshwater and
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