Wildlife Habitat Management

Abstract

Wildlife biologists have been designing habitat models for over 50 years; however, the use of the Ecosystem Management Decision Support system (EMDS) in association with modeling is a relatively recent addition to the field. EMDS has proven its usefulness to habitat modeling and evaluation through successful application to a number of large landscape (>5000 km2) studies. While EMDS cannot be used to model wildlife populations directly, past efforts have incorporated population data, along with a variety of other indicators. Here, we provide an overview of previous modeling efforts, with an emphasis on the northern spotted owl (Strix occidentalis caurina). We then review applications of EMDS to wildlife modeling, before delving into a case study. In that study, the Washington State Department of Natural Resources (DNR) used EMDS to assess the impacts of alternative forest management strategies on dispersal habitat for spotted owls. We discuss how expert workshops were used to define three separate EMDS models to assess and score patches of foraging, roosting, and movement habitat across a large landscape. We used the habitat scores to develop a dispersal habitat model outside of EMDS, which incorporated graph theory concepts and a variable resistance landscape surface to assess the connectivity of owl dispersal habitat.