Project Timeline: August 2015. This project has now been completed.
Principal Investigator: Stephanie S. Romañach, USGS Southeast Ecological Science Center
Implements Science Theme: 2: Land use and land cover change projections, 4: Ecological research and modeling

Key Points

• Supports USFWS in making strategies to efficiently design reserves
• Informs land acquisition by incorporating factors such as urbanization and climate change into decisions
• Used structured decision making for refuge configuration decisions

Overview

Wildlife reserve designs must address many ecological, social, and political factors. The goal is to find parcels of land in need of protection to support wildlife and other natural resources. It’s hard to make land acquisition choices for a large protected area. The process takes a long time, and has to consider future conditions such as climate and urbanization changes. Decision makers have to also consider budget and the risk of uncertainty in long-term value of investments.

In central Florida, two new refuges and the expansion of a third refuge are in various planning stages with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS). The Everglades Headwaters National Wildlife Refuge (EHNWR) is one of the new refuges. The new refuges are located where species could more easily adapt to projected climate change impacts. They are also already habitats for many threatened and endangered species. 

We provided guidance for the design of EHNWR. We talked with stakeholders to decide on common goals for the reserve. We also used urbanization models to project population growth expected due to climate change. We then used a structured decision making framework to suggest ideal configurations for the refuge. This work will help USFWS land acquisition efforts be more efficient.