Connectivity strategy mapping in California

Protecting or restoring habitat connectivity in landscapes undergoing rapid environmental change requires multiple conservation and restoration strategies. These strategies have different risk profiles, costs, and require various types of technical expertise to conduct. This diversity in landscape context and strategic approach requires more nuance and flexibility than traditional connectivity conservation plans have supported. We present a novel, spatially-explicit framework for developing connectivity conservation priorities and strategies based on Omniscape, an adaptation of Circuitscape, a common tool for mapping habitat connectivity. Using California (USA) as a case study, we mapped structural connectivity and developed a classification of connectivity conservation and restoration categories across the gradient of land use intensities, as well as by land ownership. The most constrained areas with highly concentrated flow (movement potential) make up 3% of the state and occur primarily on private lands. Conversely, intact areas with diffuse flow that indicate multiple connectivity options cover 55% of the state, including the majority of the desert and mountain ecoregions. This "strategy mapping" approach can be used to identify priority areas for conservation investment and suites of potential implementation mechanisms and partners, which in turn may improve the efficiency and effectiveness of connectivity conservation in this era of global change.Data are available in a layer package format with symbology (esri) or as a tiff with world file (*.tfw) for referencing. No usage constraints. Funding provided by: The Nature Conservancy Science Catalyst Fund*Crossref Funder Registry ID: Award Number:These are the rasters used to create Figures 2, 3, and 5 in the paper: Cameron, D. R., Schloss, C. A., Theobald, D. M., & Morrison, S. A. (2022). A framework to select strategies for conserving and restoring habitat connectivity in complex landscapes. Conservation Science and Practice, e12698. https://doi.org/10.1111/csp2.12698 The current flow raster is an index, 0-100. The Connectivity Categories data used in Figure 3 has the following values associated with categories. Categories and grid values: Diffuse: 25, 29 Intensified: 31, 35, 39 Channelized: 41, 45, 49 Limited movement potential: 3 Permeable lands for local movement: 4 Impeded: 19 The Strategy types raster has values that correspond to the Strategy numbers shown in Figure 5. Please contact Dick Cameron dcameron@tnc.org or Carrie Schloss cschloss@tnc.org for more information