Habitat Connectivity
The Pacific Northwest, and in particular, the region between the Cascades to the Coast, supports working private and public lands as well as habitats and open spaces for native fish and wildlife.
Wildlife need different types of habitat to meet all of their life cycle needs, and like humans that require transportation corridors to safely and efficiently move from one place to another, wildlife need the places where they feed, reproduce, raise their young, and migrate to connect. Healthy habitat connections reduce stress on wildlife and better allow animals to adapt to changing conditions on the landscape.
Understanding habitat connectivity requires science and information about species and their life history needs as well as the current status and projections for land use and changing conditions throughout the region.
To obtain this information, Oregon and Washington have developed Wildlife Habitat Connectivity Work Groups.
Oregon
The Oregon Conservation Strategy identifies “Barriers to Fish and Wildlife Passage” as one of the key conservation issues for the state of Oregon.
Oregon's goal is to provide conditions suitable for natural movement of animals across the landscape.
Tools:
ODOT Wildlife Collision Hot Spots Map
Pacific Northwest Wildlife Connections Workshop presentations
Statewide Wildlife Linkage Workshops: Final Report (pdf)
Central Oregon mule deer migration pathways and density of deer-vehicle collisions map
The contact for Oregon's connectivity effort is Rachel Wheat.
Washington
The Washington Wildlife Habitat Connectivity Working Group is an open collaborative science-based effort to produce tools and analyses that identify opportunities and priorities to provide habitat connectivity in Washington and surrounding habitats.
The goal of the Washington Connected Landscapes Project is to provide a series of scientific analyses and tools that use the best available science to identify important wildlife habitat linkage areas in Washington State and neighboring habitats.
Their scientific analyses and products can be found here.
Local Workshops on Habitat Connectivity
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Connectivity Through Collaboration (Tom Miewald)
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Habitat Connectivity and Forest Planning (Bill Gaines)
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Washington Habitat Connectivity Working Group Connectivity Analyses (Andrew Shirk)
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Columbian White-tailed Deer Habitat Connectivity Model (Kelly McAllister)
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Washington Connected Landscapes Project: Identifying Priority Areas for Climate-connectivity Conservation (Meade Krosby)
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Wildlife Habitat Connectivity: An Overview (Peter Singleton and Brad McRae)