Development of Conservation Targets for the Lower Hudson PRISM (LHP) Final Report: July 1 to September 15, 2014 John Mickelson Geospatial & Ecological Services 501 Stage Road Monroe NY, 10950-3217 (845) 893-4110, [email protected] Figure 1. Lower Hudson PRISM region Figure 2. Lower Hudson PRISM and adjacent counties Review of Completed Scope of Work: LHP Action Plan Items Addressed: all contracted project tasks have been completed for the LHP Goals and Objectives of the Lower Hudson 2014 Action Plan 2.1 and 2.2 and 3.1, as outlined within the Project Deliverables section (see Appendix A). While active participation and input of the Conservation Target Working Group has remained muted, the consultant has accomplished the following and will continue through with meetings with the LHP Partners Meeting (Oct 1, 2014) and the Conservation Targets working group meeting (November 5, 2014), to continue momentum into the 2015 project year. Specific project accomplishments include. : GOAL 2: CONSERVATION TARGETS STATUS Priority Strategies (ranked): 1. Coordinating Conservation Target Partners 2. Managing IS strategically 3. Assessment and Monitoring Network Objective 2.1 Engage Partners COMPLETED Since the projects inception, research has engaged important and valuable conservation efforts conducted by over 22 regional agencies and programs (see Table 1) that the LHP might benefit from considering when developing Conservation Targets. All of these have been engaged and valuable geospatial & thematic data have been acquired from many of these potential partners. Four agencies feature especially prominently within our region and form the core of the proposed Conservation Target overlay matrices (see Conservation Target section below): • New York State Natural Heritage Program • Hudson River Estuary Program • The Nature Conservancy • New York Audubon Society These groups (collectively referred to hereafter as CTLA) should be prioritized for partnership relationships over the coming years. New York State Natural Heritage Program The NYS-NHP exists to “facilitate conservation of New York's biodiversity by providing comprehensive information and scientific expertise on rare species and natural ecosystems to resource managers and other conservation partners.” The information acquired, developed, stewarded and employed helps to conserve all known SGCN species and their respective habitats and resources across the region, through SEQR processes as well as through local implementations. Our mission is to facilitate conservation of rare animals, rare plants, and natural ecosystems, which we commonly refer to as "natural communities." We accomplish this 1 mission by working collaboratively with partners inside and outside New York to support stewardship of New York's rare plants, rare animals, and significant natural communities, and to reduce the threat of invasive species to native ecosystems. We combine thorough field inventories, scientific analyses, expert interpretation, and comprehensive databases on New York's flora and fauna to deliver quality information to partners working in natural resource conservation. The end result of our actions will be more compatible management activities around our most imperiled species, ecosystems, and high-quality natural areas, in order to have significant and lasting effects on the preservation of New York's biodiversity. The NYS-NHP data forms the basis for establishing and developing virtually all the conservation programs and targets within New York State and serves at the heart of all fine-filter, species conservation programs. They have been very helpful and supportive with data requests and suggestions and Steve Young, the NYS-NHP botanist and LIISMA coordinator, in particular has been kind in his time and expertise in suggesting approaches such as for LHP conservation efforts and Invasive Species Prevention Zones (ISPZ). Heritage Program support and guidance will be invaluable in coming years. Hudson River Estuary Program As part of the NYS-DEC, the Hudson River Estuary Program seeks to protect and improve the natural and scenic Hudson River watershed for all its residents through: ensuring clean water, protecting and restoring fish, wildlife and their habitats, providing water recreation and river access, adapting to climate change and conserving world-famous scenery. In 2005, a convergence of some 60+ regional ecologists, wildlife biologists, resource managers and conservation planners met in a series of workshops, led by The Nature Conservancy, to collaboratively establish conservation priorities for the Hudson River Estuary. One important outcome was the detailed summary: “Advancing Biodiversity Conservation in the Hudson River Estuary Watershed: A Report on the Products of a Multi-Stakeholder Workshop Series” available via: http://www.dec.ny.gov/lands/5094.html#Target. This summary document outlines a considered conservation approach by the assembled group to seven broad systems as conservation targets: • The estuary ecosystem • Migratory fish • Tributaries and riparian zones • Non-tidal wetlands • Lakes and ponds • Large unfragmented forests • Non-forested upland communities • Connectivity features and corridor Within a matrix listing the range of threats to each of the targets, invasive species loomed as the single most uniform stress on all systems (Appendix B.). This 2 highlights the importance of our PRISMs efforts as well as the work we have cut out for us. A great many suggestions and recommendations were outlined within the report, including valuable details as to how best to approach invasive species management. Given the breadth, depth and extent of expert inputs to this plan, I’d suggest it form a core constituent in the formation of our conservation targets. A second valuable HREP assessment report, produced in partnership with the DEC, Cornell University and the NY Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research unit, is the 2006 “Wildlife and Habitat Conservation Framework: an Approach for Conserving Biodiversity in the Hudson River Estuary Corridor”. http://www.dec.ny.gov/docs/remediation_hudson_pdf/hrebcf.pdf. This extensive analysis includes detailed descriptions and maps of 23 of the important habitats and biodiversity areas within the Hudson River estuary; 17 of which fall within the LHP region (Figure 1.). Given that these features contain such a high concentration of known NYS Heritage element occurrences (rare, endangered, special concern species etc.) (Figure 2.), I would propose that this map form the backbone of a LHP regional coarse-filter conservation approach. The Nature Conservancy The Nature Conservancy specializes in the development of science and metric- based conservation approaches that aid disparate conservation agencies to collaboratively focus efforts for a common good. Detailed ecoregion plans have been developed for much of the United States and are distributed together with comprehensive geospatial information for each region. Such data includes matrices of species of conservation concern associated with their required habitats and (generalized) know locations and also undergoes extensive, occurrence-based assessments to consider population size and viability. Few other conservation programs in our area deliver such a robust approach. While the LHP falls predominantly with the Lower New England\Northern Piedmont (LNE) ecoregion, it also contains small, though important, areas within the North Atlantic Coast and High Allegheny Plateau ecoregions (Figure 3.). Baseline physical and biotic geospatial layers for all of these regions are provided representing variables such as: ecoregions (multiple levels), elevation and derivatives, soils, geography, ecological land units, hydrology, drainable basins, census blocks (multi-year), open space\park lands, EPA monitored pollution sites, cities, roads, dams, forest blocks, matrix ecosystems, and especially portfolio selections of priority areas (high biodiversity areas containing species occurrence locations of viable populations of important conservation species). (Figure 4.) See also: http://www.uspriorityareas.tnc.org/ Given the enormous effort, experience and historical involvement that TNC has and continues to invest in developing effective conservation approaches for our region, they should remain one of our most important potential project partners. 3 New York Audubon Society Audubon NY has long worked to research and document the needs of regional bird species and their habitats within the Hudson Valley region and since 1995 has been working to establish protection for bird “hot spot” area, or Important Bird Areas (IBA) (Figure 5., Table 2.). For the NY Audubon Society “Habitat is the key to conservation. To thrive, all species need the right kinds of places to carry out the business of living and reproducing. Without adequate and appropriate places to nest, forage, rest during migration, and over-winter, bird populations decline. The Important Bird Areas (IBA) program is an international bird conservation initiative with simple goals: to identify the most important places for birds, and to conserve them. IBAs are identified according to standardized, scientific criteria through a collaborative effort among state, national, and international non-governmental conservation organizations (NGOs), state and federal government agencies, local conservation groups, academics, grassroots environmentalists, and birders. As a result, IBAs link global and continental bird conservation priorities to local sites that