Optimizing a Refuge Plan – a practical example on the Texas Gulf Coast

The Austin’s Woods program of the US Fish and Wildlife Service, along with other conservation organizations, works to conserve bottomland forest habitat in the counties south of Houston, TX,  to protect migratory birds.  The remaining forest in this area is highly fragmented and most of the land is privately owned.  The US Fish and Wildlife Service works with willing sellers, or receives land by donation.  In the current Land Protection Plan, the Service outlines the qualities that are desirable for inclusion in the Refuge system:  Old growth forest, large area, water corridors, canopy complexity, and other factors.  In this project, priorities in the Land Protection Plan will be modelled as factors in a habitat model.  Land ownership is also included in the model as a means of increasing the effectiveness of the refuge acquisition program.  Factor values and weights will be modelled spatially as data layers in ArcGIS.  In addition, habitat corridors between the existing refuge parcels will be identified using the CorridorDesign toolbox for ArcGIS.

Anticipated results include maps of the region that illustrate acquisition priorities as a suitability index.  Areas of high suitability for new refuge parcels will be used to identify ownership parcel groups for an effective approach for land acquisition.  Corridors between current refuges and potential refuge areas will be highlighted.  The result will be a step toward an optimum configuration of a refuge network, given the existing state of a fragmented habitat and ownership pattern.