Missouri's Comprehensive Conservation Strategy: Integrated planning contributes to conservation design

Missouri is developing a Comprehensive Conservation Strategy that integrates the priorities of the Comprehensive Wildlife Strategy, Forest Action Plan, and Fisheries Watershed Priorities.  Key products from this conservation planning initiative are prioritized spatial layers for each habitat system within Missouri.  Each system may be prioritized separately, but we have found the integration of these layers provides the context necessary for a more complete landscape design.

We present one example where prioritization of wetlands and bottomland forests intersect.  We used stream catchments clipped to alluvial soils as our planning units.  Prioritization factors for wetlands and bottomland forests differed.  Catchments managed as wetlands within an existing conservation network, including Wetland Reserve Program (WRP) lands, are the highest priority.  Catchments dominated by crop agriculture are the lowest priority.  We relativized the rest of the catchments in the floodplain, primarily based on current land cover and WRP.  Wetland landscapes important to the North American Wetlands Conservation Act are fully represented. 

The opportunity for bottomland forest conservation is not clearly demonstrated by the wetland framework alone.  However, the current forest cover is readily detectable by the National Land Cover Database.  We integrated the current forest cover with the wetland framework to identify functioning forested floodplain habitat.

The floodplain forest opportunity will be linked further to upland forest opportunities.  The forested landscapes identified in this process, particularly those associated with the Missouri River, will be needed to sustain a habitat corridor for fish and wildlife in a changing future.