Landscape Assessment and Decision Support System Demonstration Project

Working Across Boundaries and Jurisdictions

To improve the use and dissemination of landscape assessment information for making natural resource management decisions across boundaries and jurisdictions, a team of state and federal agency leaders have implemented the Landscape Assessment and Decision Support System Demonstration Project. Facilitated by the Great Northern LCC, the Demonstration Project provides a collaborative framework to help:

1. Build capacity to help partners complete the decision support system and landscape assessment projects
2. Coordinate efforts among federal and state partners
3. Assist with data acquisition in the Greater Yellowstone area
4. Communicate with stakeholders, managers, and partners the utility and availability of the decision support systems and landscape assessments.

Geographic Scope

Within the Great Northern area (red outline) decision support project overlap occurs among WGA Idaho-Montana High Divide and Wyoming pilot projects, BLM Middel Rockies Rapid Ecoregional Assessment (REA), and US Forest Service Integrated Restoration and Protection Strategy (IRPS).

The scope of the Demonstration Project covers the geographic area where the four decision support projects overlap:

Middle Rockies Rapid Ecoregional Assessment (REA)

Developed by the BLM, this assessment will aid in developing broad-level management strategies and will identify priority areas for conservation and development, including focal areas for conserving wildlife habitats and migration corridors, and focal areas for potential energy development and urban growth.

Integrated Restoration and Protection Strategy (IRPS)

Implemented by the US Forest Service Northern Region, this strategy will assist local Forest Service units in developing and prioritizing integrated projects that address land and water restoration, community protection plans, and sustainable and desirable conditions.

Idaho-Montana High Divide and Wyoming Interagency Spatial Database

As part of the Western Governors’ Association (WGA) Wildlife Corridors and Crucial Habitat Initiative, these pilot projects will provide compatible decision support systems that allow states and the public to better understand potential impacts to crucial wildlife habitat and important corridors, and to identify opportunities to minimize impacts to wildlife while still pursuing necessary development.

Shared Information Needs

Project partners have identified five collaborative areas to develop (see Collaborative focus areas document in sidebar for details):

1. Regionally compatible wildlife distribution and crucial area data
2. Connectivity
3. Climate change and Vulnerability Assessments
4. Assessing habitat data layers for best/consistency
5. Assessing data sharing and collaboration tools.