Conservation planning for species recovery under the Endangered Species Act: A case study with the Northern Spotted Owl.

ABSTRACT: The northern spotted owl (Strix occidentalis caurina) was listed as threatened under the U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA) in 1990. We applied modern spatial conservation theory and models to evaluate several candidate critical habitat networks, and sought an efficient conservation solution that encompassed the highest value lands for spotted owl recovery rather than maximizing the total area of potential critical habitat. We created a map of relative habitat suitability, which served as input to the spatial conservation prioritization program Zonation. We used the spatially-explicit individual-based population model HexSim to estimate and compare simulated spotted owl population outcomes among a suite of candidate critical habitat networks that varied in size and spatial arrangement under

SUBMITTER: Dunk JR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6331132 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature