August 2012 Pima County Wildlife Connectivity Assessment: Detailed Linkages Kitt Peak Linkage Design Towards Kitt Peak Photo courtesy George Andrejko, AGFD Arizona Game and Fish Department Regional Transportation Authority of Pima County Kitt Peak Linkage Design Recommended Citation Arizona Game and Fish Department. 2012. Pima County Wildlife Connectivity Assessment: Detailed Linkages. Kitt Peak Linkage Design. Report to the Regional Transportation Authority of Pima County. ii Pima County Wildlife Connectivity Assessment: Detailed Linkages Kitt Peak Linkage Design Acknowledgments This project would not have been possible without the help of many individuals. We would like to thank the following: CorridorDesign Team at Northern Arizona University: Paul Beier, Emily Garding, Jeff Jenness, and Dan Majka (CorridorDesign Team) for authoring the Arizona Missing Linkages. Content from the Arizona Missing Linkages (Beier et al 2006a, Beier et al 2006b), is used directly throughout this report with permission. Models in this report were created using methods developed by Majka et al. (2007). Arizona Wildlife Linkages Workgroup: Arizona Department of Transportation, Arizona Game and Fish Department, AZTEC Engineering, Bureau of Land Management, Defenders of Wildlife, Northern Arizona University, Sky Island Alliance, U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Forest Service Pima County Wildlife Connectivity Workgroup: Arizona Game and Fish Department, Coalition for Sonoran Desert Protection, Defenders of Wildlife, Pima County, Sky Island Alliance, Town of Marana, Tucson Audubon Society, University of Arizona, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Regional Transportation Authority of Pima County: The Regional Transportation Authority of Pima County for funding the Pima County Wildlife Connectivity Assessment project, which this report is part of. Tohono O’odham Nation: Karen Howe with the Tohono O’odham Nation Department of Natural Resources, Wildlife and Vegetation Management Program, for providing initial input of wildlife linkages in this area. Arizona Game and Fish Department (AGFD): Dean Pokrajac, primary author, GIS analyst, and field investigator for this project. Julie Mikolajczyk and Ray Schweinsburg for providing project development and administration. Dennis Abbate, Scott Blackman, Jeff Gagnon, David Grandmaison, Shawn Lowery, and Scott Sprague for wildlife connectivity and road mitigation expertise from AGFD’s Wildlife Contracts Branch. Kirby Bristow for species information from AGFD’s Research Branch. AGFD wildlife managers Brad Fulk, Mark Frieberg, and Karen Klima, for providing on the ground support. Jim Heffelfinger, Kristin Terpening, and John Windes for additional species information and project support from AGFD’s Region V. Jessica Gist, Bill Knowles, Shea Meyer, Mark Ogonowski, Dana Warnecke, and Kelly Wolff-Krauter for providing technical support and report review. Cristina Jones, Angela McIntire, Amber Munig, and Johnathan O’Dell for reviewing and updating species background information authored by the CorridorDesign Team at Northern Arizona University. George Andrejko, Randy Babb, and Audrey Owens for providing many of the photographs used throughout this report. iii Pima County Wildlife Connectivity Assessment: Detailed Linkages Kitt Peak Linkage Design Table of Contents LINKAGE DESIGN .................................................................................................................................................... II ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ........................................................................................................................................... III LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES ............................................................................................................................... VI TERMINOLOGY ................................................................................................................................................... VIII EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ........................................................................................................................................... X INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................................................... 1 NATURE NEEDS ROOM TO MOVE ...................................................................................................................................... 1 BENEFITS OF WILDLIFE LINKAGE PLANNING ......................................................................................................................... 2 OVERVIEW OF REGIONAL PLANNING EFFORTS THAT ACKNOWLEDGE THE IMPORTANCE OF CONSERVING WILDLIFE LINKAGES .............. 3 LINKAGE PLANNING IN ARIZONA: A STATEWIDE-TO-LOCAL APPROACH ..................................................................................... 5 OVERVIEW OF THE PIMA COUNTY WILDLIFE CONNECTIVITY ASSESSMENT ................................................................................. 6 ECOLOGICAL SIGNIFICANCE AND EXISTING CONSERVATION INVESTMENTS OF THE KITT PEAK LINKAGE PLANNING AREA ...................................................................................................................................................................... 7 ECOLOGICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF THE KITT PEAK LINKAGE PLANNING AREA ................................................................................... 7 CONSERVATION INVESTMENTS IN THE KITT PEAK LINKAGE PLANNING AREA ............................................................................... 8 THE KITT PEAK LINKAGE DESIGN .......................................................................................................................... 11 ONE LINKAGE PROVIDES CONNECTIVITY ACROSS A DIVERSE LANDSCAPE ................................................................................. 11 REMOVING AND MITIGATING BARRIERS TO MOVEMENT .................................................................................... 14 IMPACTS OF ROADS ON WILDLIFE .................................................................................................................................... 17 APPENDIX A: LINKAGE DESIGN METHODS ........................................................................................................... 26 FOCAL SPECIES SELECTION ............................................................................................................................................. 26 HABITAT SUITABILITY MODELS ........................................................................................................................................ 27 IDENTIFYING POTENTIAL BREEDING PATCHES AND POTENTIAL POPULATION CORES ................................................................... 28 IDENTIFYING BIOLOGICALLY BEST CORRIDORS .................................................................................................................... 29 PATCH CONFIGURATION ANALYSIS ................................................................................................................................... 30 MINIMUM LINKAGE WIDTH ........................................................................................................................................... 31 FIELD INVESTIGATIONS .................................................................................................................................................. 31 APPENDIX B: INDIVIDUAL SPECIES MODELING PARAMETERS .............................................................................. 32 APPENDIX C: INDIVIDUAL SPECIES ANALYSIS ....................................................................................................... 38 BADGER, TAXIDEA TAXUS ............................................................................................................................................... 38 BLACK-TAILED JACKRABBIT, LEPUS CALIFORNIUS ................................................................................................................. 42 BLACK-TAILED RATTLESNAKE, CROTALUS MOLOSSUS ........................................................................................................... 45 DESERT BIGHORN SHEEP, OVIS CANADENSIS NELSONI .......................................................................................................... 48 GIANT SPOTTED WHIPTAIL, ASPIDOSCELIS BURTI STICTOGRAMMUS ........................................................................................ 52 GILA MONSTER, HELODERMA SUSPECTUM ........................................................................................................................ 55 JAGUAR, PANTHERA ONCA ............................................................................................................................................. 58 JAVELINA, TAYASSU TAJACU ............................................................................................................................................ 61 KIT FOX, VULPES MACROTIS ........................................................................................................................................... 64 MOUNTAIN LION, PUMA CONCOLOR ................................................................................................................................ 67 MULE DEER, ODOCOILEUS HEMIONUS .............................................................................................................................