Landscape Blocks

LANDSCAPE BLOCKS

BioMap2 Components Last updated 10/02

Core Habitat: NA Critical Natural Landscape: Landscape Blocks

LANDSCAPES: THE BIGGER PICTURE Large intact landscapes provide diverse habitats at a scale necessary to sustain healthy populations of wide-ranging species like Moose, Black Bear, and Bobcat. These animals travel great distances and have large home ranges (the area where an animal lives and travels over the course of a year). The integrated patchwork of wetlands, uplands, and rivers that are found in unfragmented landscapes allows animals to move freely among habitats, supporting daily movements, migration, dispersal, and colonization of new habitats. Intact landscapes also facilitate shifts in the geographic distribution of species, a process that is likely to accelerate in Figure 1: Example of BioMap2 Landscape Block response to climate change in the coming decades.

In contrast to intact landscapes, landscapes landscapes as a result of species interactions, fragmented by roads and development result in natural disturbances, and climate change. The smaller and more isolated habitat patches, with dynamic nature of landscapes, which can only barriers and resistance to movement. Species that occur in large intact areas, results in a mosaic of are dependent on intact landscapes avoid developed habitat types and patches that in turn support a wide areas. Direct mortality on roads, combined with array of species. For example, disturbances such as indirect impacts of development such as noise, blowdowns, ice storms, tornados, and other weather light, pollutants, and invasive species, provide events result in patches of young forest embedded additional hurdles for vulnerable species. within larger patches of older forest. Many species depend on these younger forests for breeding and Landscapes also support ecosystem processes and foraging habitat. Another example of a dynamic interactions among different habitats, making the natural process is the flooding of low-lying forests whole greater than the sum of the parts. For resulting from Beaver dams, converting former example, large forested watersheds capture, filter, closed canopy forests into open canopy wetlands. and gradually supply clean, cool water and nutrients to our river networks, supporting a wide The Massachusetts Natural Heritage & Endangered array of fish, mussels, insects, reptiles, amphibians, Species Program and The Nature Conservancy’s and mammals. Intact landscapes also buffer Massachusetts Program developed BioMap2 in smaller and more sensitive species and natural 2010 as a conservation plan to protect the state’s communities—such as wetlands, vernal pool biodiversity. BioMap2 is designed to guide species, freshwater habitats, and rare ridgetop strategic biodiversity conservation in Massachusetts inhabitants such as Timber Rattlesnakes—from the over the next decade by focusing land protection impacts of roads and development. Landscapes are and stewardship on the areas that are most critical naturally dynamic, described by some as shifting for ensuring the long-term persistence of rare and mosaics. Over time, habitats and ecosystems other native species and their habitats, exemplary expand, contract, and shift location across larger natural communities, and a diversity of ecosystems.

Please allow the Natural Heritage & Endangered Species Program to continue to conserve the biodiversity of Massachusetts with a contribution for ‘endangered wildlife conservation’ on your state income tax form as these donations comprise a significant portion of our operating budget. COMPONENTS OF BIOMAP2: BioMap2 Core topography, geology, and predominant vegetation, Habitat identifies specific areas necessary to and therefore represent areas of relatively promote the long-term persistence of rare species, homogeneous ecological setting. In order to other Species of Conservation Concern, exemplary identify critical Landscape Blocks in each natural communities, and intact ecosystems. ecoregion, different Ecological Integrity thresholds BioMap2 Critical Natural Landscape was created were used to select the largest intact landscape to identify and prioritize intact landscapes in patches in each ecoregion while avoiding altered Massachusetts that are better able to support habitat as much as possible. This ecoregional ecological processes and disturbance regimes, and representation accomplishes a key goal of a wide array of species and habitats over long time BioMap2 to protect the ecological stage that frames. BioMap2 uses specific data and supports a broad suite of biodiversity in the context sophisticated mapping and analysis tools to of climate change. Blocks were defined by major spatially define each of these components, calling roads, and minimum size thresholds differed on the latest research and understanding of species among ecoregions to ensure that BioMap2 includes biology, conservation biology, and landscape the best of the best in each ecoregion. ecology. ACHIEVING STRATEGIC CONSERVATION LANDSCAPE BLOCKS: Landscape Blocks, the WITH BioMap2: In BioMap2, the Core Habitat primary component of Critical Natural Landscape, and Critical Natural Landscape are complementary are large areas of intact predominantly natural and overlapping, and were delineated based on vegetation, consisting of contiguous forests, separate criteria. Each represents a different scale wetlands, rivers, lakes, and ponds, as well as of biodiversity in Massachusetts, yet the protection coastal habitats such as barrier beaches and salt of both is important to conserve the full suite of marshes. Pastures and power-line right-of-way, biodiversity in the state. which are less intensively altered than most developed areas, were also included since they BioMap2 is designed to prioritize Species Habitats, provide habitat and connectivity for many species. Natural Communities, and intact ecosystems to guide land protection and stewardship for Collectively, these natural cover types total 3.6 biodiversity. Biodiversity conservation also million acres across the state. A GIS-based requires maintaining intact landscapes at larger computer model (the Ecological Integrity scales. Landscapes are defined as mosaics of assessment) was used to identify the most intact forests, wetlands, rivers, shrublands, and other and least fragmented areas. These large Landscape habitats, from valley bottoms to ridgetops. Intact Blocks are most likely to maintain dynamic landscapes provide an aggregation of contiguous ecological processes such as buffering, habitats and connectivity among them, to support connectivity, natural disturbance, and hydrological the long-term viability of wildlife populations and regimes, all of which help support wide-ranging to help maintain natural ecosystem processes. And wildlife species and many other elements of while strict land protection is a crucial tool used to biodiversity. This analysis directly applied climate protect biodiversity at the scale of BioMap2 Core change adaptation strategies of selecting large, Habitats, thoughtful land use can be employed to well-connected landscape patches with intact protect biodiversity within these larger Landscape ecological processes, which are minimally Blocks. For example, timber harvests in working impacted by other stressors. Additional habitat forests and certain agricultural practices can still blocks were included in the Landscape Block allow for the large-scale ecological processes delineations to support viable populations of the Landscape Blocks provide, but also support human Special Concern Eastern Box Turtle to protect this communities that rely on our state’s natural wide-ranging, but vulnerable, habitat generalist. resources. Land management may also be necessary in some areas to maintain the diversity Landscape Blocks were selected across eight of habitats within Landscape Blocks that have different ecoregions in Massachusetts in order to become limited over time, as human development include a diversity of ecological settings. has encroached on natural areas. Ecoregions are geographic areas with similar

2010