Chapter 1: Ecoregional Planning in the Interior Low Plateau

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Chapter 1: Ecoregional Planning in the Interior Low Plateau 1 CHAPTER 1: ECOREGIONAL PLANNING IN THE INTERIOR LOW PLATEAU 1.1. INTRODUCTION 1.2. OVERVIEW OF PLANNING 1.2.1. Developing a Plan to Plan 1.2.2. Budget and Workplan 1.3. DESCRIPTION OF THE INTERIOR LOW PLATEAU 1.3.1. Ecological Overview 1.3.2. Ecological Systems 1.3.3. Present Land Use CHAPTER 2: PLANNING TEAMS 2.1. INTRODUCTION 2.2. THE STEERING COMMITTEE 2.3. THE CORE TEAM 2.4. TECHNICAL TEAMS 2.5. DESIGN TEAM CHAPTER 3: GATHERING THE PIECES 3.1. INTRODUCTION 3.2. DATA SOURCES AND DATA MANAGEMENT 3.2.1. Conservation Target Data 3.2.2. Geographic Information Systems 3.3. IDENTIFICATION OF CONSERVATION TARGETS, SETTING CONSERVATION GOALS, AND SELECTING TARGET ELEMENT OCCURRENCES 3.3.1. General Guidelines 3.3.2. Terrestrial Natural Communities 3.3.3. Plant Species 3.3.4. Terrestrial Invertebrates 3.3.5. Terrestrial Vertebrates (other than birds) Birds 3.3.6. Aquatic Species 3.3.7. Aquatic Communities 3.3.8. The Conservation Targets CHAPTER 4: ASSEMBLING THE PORTFOLIO 4.1. INTRODUCTION 4.2. DEVELOPING A PRELIMINARY PORTFOLIO 4.3. DESIGNING AND REFINING THE PORTFOLIO 4.3.1. Assessing Preliminary Sites 4.3.2. Representing Matrix Communities CHAPTER 5: ASSESSING THE PORTFOLIO AND SETTING PRIORITES 5.1. DESCRIPTION OF THE PORTFOLIO 5.2. IDENTIFYING ACTION SITES 5.2.1. Action Sites 5.2.2. Landscape-Scale Action Sites 5.3. MEETING CONSERVATION GOALS 5.4. PATTERNS OF THREATS AND STRATEGIES IN THE PORTFOLIO 5.4.1. Stresses and Sources of Stress 5.4.2. Strategies CHAPTER 6: IMPLEMENTING THE CONSERVATION PLAN 6.1. IMPLEMENTING STRATEGIES 6.1.1. Multi-Site and Ecoregional Strategies 2 6.1.2. Filling Data Gaps 6.2. ENGAGING PARTNERS 6.3. COMMUNICATIONS STRATEGY 6.4. FUTURE PLAN ITERATIONS 6.4.1. The Role of the Core Team 6.4.2. Managing the Ecoregional Database 6.5. Summary and Lessons Learned 3 CHAPTER 1: ECOREGIONAL PLANNING IN THE INTERIOR LOW PLATEAU 1.1. INTRODUCTION The conservation goal of The Nature Conservancy, as stated in Conservation by Design: A Framework for Mission Success (The Nature Conservancy 1996a) is “the long-term survival of all viable native species and community types through the design and conservation of portfolios of sites within ecoregions.” This statement represents the first time the Conservancy made explicit the geographic framework—ecoregions—which would enable the overall mission of the organization to be implemented in ecologically meaningful units of the earth’s surface. Within each ecoregion, the specific species and natural communities that would become the focus of conservation planning and implementation—the conservation targets—could be considered in the context of the ecological patterns and processes that helped to shape their distribution, abundance, composition, structure, and life history. To support this approach to conservation, the Conservancy developed guidelines that laid out the initial framework of ecoregions, adopted from the work of Robert G. Bailey of the U.S. Forest Service for the continental US (Bailey 1994), and the process to be followed in planning for ecoregional conservation (Designing a Geography of Hope, The Nature Conservancy 1996b). In the Continental US, 64 ecoregions have been identified. For strategic purposes, The Conservancy has made the development of plans for these ecoregions a high priority. Planning for the Interior Low Plateau was initiated in mid-1998 and was completed over a period of roughly two and a half years, simultaneously with several other ecoregional plans in the Midwest region. Many of the partners involved in this planning process were also involved in planning for other ecoregions. Involvement in several plans enhanced the familiarity of participants with the concepts and approaches being used and in all probability increased the efficiency of the process. At the same time, some partners were perhaps asked to do too much and may have experienced some burnout from early plans that carried over into later plans. Overall, the overlap among planning processes probably resulted in a net benefit and improvement of plans, especially in learning ways to streamline the process. 1.2. OVERVIEW OF PLANNING 1.2.1. Developing an Initial Planning Framework Initial leadership of the planning process was established in late 1997, with the Indiana Chapter taking lead responsibility. At the Kickoff Meeting, representatives from all state all state programs and heritage scientists outlined a general strategy, timeline and budget for the process. In addition to a Core Team composed of representatives from all state field offices and MRO support staff, it was decided that five technical teams would be established to develop conservation targets and set conservation. The five technical teams were organized around plant communities, plant species, aquatic species, subterranean species, and residual animal species (mostly composed of terrestrial animals and bats). In keeping with the Mission of The Conservancy, a general, fairly simple, conservation goal was agreed upon: “The goal of the Interior Low Plateau is to conserve all native, viable species." 4 We agreed that best approach for conserving terrestrial species was to focus on using coarse community filters, with secondary emphasis on individual rare species. For selecting aquatic conservation sites, we decided to focus first on G1-G3 species, and then use broad guidelines to assess the representative quality of the aquatic sites selected. Similarly for caverniculus species, we decided to first select sites for G1-G3 species and then evaluate the preliminary portfolio for its representative qualities. 1.2.2. Budget and Workplan Two major outcomes of the Kickoff Meeting were the establishment of an initial workplan and a budget. While admittedly tentative and later to be modified, these items established some order to the planning process. Planning team memberships and responsibilities were laid out; benchmarks were set; and planning goals established. The original vision was to complete the plan in approximately 18 months and at an estimated cost of $40,000 (not including Field Office Staff Time). The process took roughly 28 months to reach the first draft, so the original timeline was not met. The primary reason for this was the availability of staff from Conservancy and Heritage programs to carry out major tasks, such as assessment of target viability and of site parameters. Insufficient time was budgeted for project management and data management as well. Conservancy chapters covered their own costs for travel and staff time, easing the task of budget management. The budget was used to cover data entry costs for Kentucky and Alabama Heritage Programs, GIS and data management support at the Midwest Resource Office, general heritage staff and MRO travel costs, and various meetings. Each state Field Office was asked to contribute towards this budget, and USDA, US Forest Service provided $15,000 in cost share towards this project. Additional funds would have allowed for better participation from Heritage programs, covering staff time and travel for meetings. 1.3. DESCRIPTION OF THE INTERIOR LOW PLATEAU 1.3.1. Ecological Overview The Interior Low Plateau ecoregion occupies portions of six states in the Midwest and South East regions of the United States, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee and Alabama (Map 1). Compared with other ecoregions, it is of average size, covering 47,769,500 acres; (74,639 square miles). Surficial geology is of two primary types: on the northern edges on the ecoregion in Ohio and Indiana, and over much of Illinois, Illinoian till dominates the landscape. To the south, the bulk of the ecoregion is characterized by unglaciated limestone and related geology. Elevation ranges from a high in Illinois of 1,060 at Williams Hill, to a low of 325 ft. along the Ohio River as it leaves the ecoregion in Illinois and Kentucky. Most of the ecoregion lies between 500 and 850 ft. in elevation. Much of the unglaciated portion of the ecoregion is characterized by rolling limestone plains punctuated with regions of fairly rugged topography, and 250 feet of relative topographic relief is common in many areas (maximum relative relief is over 500 ft). Topography is mostly hilly and rolling, with areas of swampy alluvial valleys, deeply entrenched rivers and streams, and expansive karst plains. Several large rivers traverse the ecoregion, including the Ohio, Tennessee, Cumberland Kentucky and Licking Rivers. Originally the unglaciated portion of the ecoregion was dominated by expansive forest systems, although extensive prairies and barrens and oak savanna dominated portions of karst plains. Interspersed throughout the unglaciated ecoregion were caves, glades, and swamps, which today remain as biologically diverse conservation targets. The Illinoinan Tillplain was characterized by rolling topography that was dominated by a prairie forest ecotone in Illinois and forested in the eastern portions. 5 1.3.2. Ecological Systems Terrestrial Systems - The ecological systems of the Interior Low Plateau have developed, for the most part, on landforms and substrates derived from either limestone bedrock substrates, or from Illinoian glacial till. The ecoregion is divided into four subsections, each with characteristic geology and ecological characteristics (Map 1). The Shawnee Hills Section is a geologically complex unit with towering sandstone cliffs over deeply dissected terrain. Other landforms include rolling topography, karst landforms, and bottomlands along major rivers. Soils are generally well to moderately
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