Prepared by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Alaska Region Inventory and Monitoring Initiative
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Identification of Priority Resources of Concern For Tetlin NWR: Methods & Results March 2017 Prepared by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Alaska Region Inventory and Monitoring Initiative Identification of Priority Resources of Concern for Tetlin National Wildlife Refuge: Methods and Results Prepared by: Carol J. Damberg, Kristin DuBour, and Michael Cunanan U. S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Alaska Region Inventory and Monitoring Initiative 1101 E. Tudor Rd Anchorage, AK 99503 March 2017 1 Identification of Priority Resources of Concern For Tetlin NWR: Methods & Results March 2017 Suggested Citation: U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service. 2017. Identification of Priority Resources of Concern for Tetlin National Wildlife Refuge: Methods and Results. National Wildlife Refuge System, Inventory and Monitoring Initiative, Anchorage, Alaska. 215 pp. ServCat Record: 70577 2 Identification of Priority Resources of Concern For Tetlin NWR: Methods & Results March 2017 Contents List of Figures ............................................................................................................................................. 4 List of Tables .............................................................................................................................................. 4 Abbreviations .............................................................................................................................................. 5 Abstract ....................................................................................................................................................... 6 Chapter 1 - Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 7 Refuge Description ..................................................................................................................................... 9 Refuge Conservation Planning: Past and Present ..................................................................................... 10 Chapter 2 – Methods ................................................................................................................................. 11 Project Team ............................................................................................................................................. 11 Step 1: Identify Refuge Purposes .............................................................................................................. 12 Step 2: Identify Refuge System Resources of Concern ............................................................................ 30 Step 3: Address Biological Integrity, Diversity, and Environmental Health ............................................ 31 Step 4: Compile Comprehensive List of Refuge Resources of Concern .................................................. 32 Step 5: Identify Priority Refuge Resources of Concern............................................................................ 34 Step 5.1: Define filters, criteria, and weights for ROC ranking ........................................................... 35 Step 5.2: Select the final subset of priority ROCs ................................................................................ 42 Chapter 3 - Results and Discussion .......................................................................................................... 44 Rational for Final Selection of priority ROCs .......................................................................................... 44 Next Steps For Tetlin NWR ...................................................................................................................... 51 Discussion of Overall Process .................................................................................................................. 52 References ................................................................................................................................................. 55 Appendix A. List of conservation and invasive species lists and plans used and/or evaluated to identify Resources of Concern (ROCs) for Tetlin National Wildlife Refuge, Tok, Alaska (2016). ...................... 59 Appendix B. Comprehensive list of Resources of Concern (ROCs) for Tetlin National Wildlife Refuge with conservation plan scores. .................................................................................................................. 70 Appendix C. Comprehensive list of Resources of Concern (ROCs) for Tetlin NWR with assigned criteria scores and final overall total ranking scores. ................................................................................ 80 Appendix D. Project team and other experts identified for assistance to inform selection of priority resources of concern for Tetlin National Wildlife Refuge, 2016. Shaded boxes indicate core team. ... 209 3 Identification of Priority Resources of Concern For Tetlin NWR: Methods & Results March 2017 List of Figures Figure 1 Tetlin National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) is identified by green shaded region and is located near the U.S. - Canada border. Figure taken from Tetlin NWR Comprehensive Conservation Plan (2008). ....................................................................................................................................................... 10 Figure 2. Initial Resources of Concern (ROC) considered as potential priorities for Tetlin NWR after applying criteria and scores to calculate final rankings. Numbers indicate scores for each ROC relative to the others. Green boxes are ecological communities and ovals represent individual species. ............. 46 Figure 3 Initial priority Resources of Concern selected by Tetlin NWR staff after considering all potential ROCs and their relative ranking values. Green boxes represent ecological communities and ovals indicate specific species or species groups with possible nested ROCs. ........................................ 47 Figure 4. Final selection of priority ROCs selected by Tetlin NWR. Green boxes represent the priority ecological communities that resulted from lumping nested ecological communities. Ovals indicate specific species or species groups with possible nested ROCs................................................................. 48 List of Tables Table 1. Core planning team to identify Priority Resources of Concern for the Tetlin National Wildlife Refuge, Tok, Alaska. ................................................................................................................................ 11 Table 2. Summary of the establishment legislation for Tetlin National Wildlife Refuge, Tok, Alaska. 14 Table 3 Summary of species and supporting ecosystems identified in Tetlin National Wildlife Refuge’s purpose or establishing legislation. ........................................................................................................... 19 Table 4. Summary of biological integrity, diversity and environmental health (BIDEH) for Tetlin National Wildlife Refuge. The following ecological communities were added to the Tetlin ROC list for evaluation to be considered as potential priority ROCs: Forest Conifer, Forest Deciduous, Mixed Forest, Needleleaf Woodland, Lakes, Rivers, Riparian, Shrubland, Wetland, Tundra, Barren Ground, Steppe Bluff Community, and Glacial Dunes. ..................................................................................................... 23 Table 5. Criteria and filters for ranking Resources of Concern (ROCs) for Tetlin National Wildlife Refuge, Tok, Alaska (2016). ..................................................................................................................... 36 Table 6. Priority Resources of Concern identified for Tetlin National Wildlife Refuge, Tok, Alaska, that will be the focus for future management and monitoring actions. Priorities were identified by Tetlin NWR staff and Alaska Region I&M staff in 2016. .................................................................................. 45 Table 7. Products created during the process of identifying Tetlin NWR priority resources of concern, October 2016. ............................................................................................................................................ 53 Table 8. List of conservation and invasive species lists and plans used and/or evaluated to identify Resources of Concern (ROCs) for Tetlin National Wildlife Refuge, Tok, Alaska (2016). The below plans were used to provide rankings for the ‘Best science and professional judgment’ criteria and determine invasive species that should be filtered from consideration as a priority ROC. ...................... 59 Table 9. List of sources of species occurrence data used to populate the Tetlin National Wildlife Refuge, Tok, Alaska, comprehensive Resource of Concern (ROC) table. ............................................................ 68 4 Identification of Priority Resources of Concern For Tetlin NWR: Methods & Results March 2017 Table 10. List of Resources of Concern (ROCs) for Tetlin NWR that were identified in conservation plans as high priority. Table indicates sum total of plans for each ROC. The sum total was used to determine Score values for the ‘best science and professional judgment’ criteria in the overall ROC prioritization process. Only ROCs identified in one or more plans are included in this table. ............... 70 Abbreviations ANILCA Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation