Protecting Wildlife and Significant Habitat in Coastal New Hampshire

The Great Bay Resource Protection Partnership (“Partnership”) consists of organizations and agencies that are committed to protecting the important habitats of the Great Bay area. The Nature Conservancy has contracted with Dea Brickner-Wood of Blue Sky Associates to serve as the Coordinator of the Great Bay Partnership. The Great Bay Coordinator provided services to the overall operations of the Partnership, as outlined in this report

Assessment of Road Crossings for Improving Migratory Fish Passage in the Winnicut River Watershed

This report summarizes the results of a river continuity assessment focused on roadstream crossings. The Winnicut River is the site of a restoration project that removed a head-of-tide dam and resulted in the only free-flowing major tributary to the Great Bay Estuary. The river system currently supports a small annual run of river herring, and with the removal of the dam and ladder system, migratory fish will now have access to a total of 37 miles of potential upstream habitat. In anticipation of improved access, The Nature Conservancy conducted a fish passage assessment for all stream crossings above the head-of-tide dam. We used an assessment methodology based on the Massachusetts Riverways Program, with adjustments following a similar crossing study in the Ashuelot River system (NH). We assessed a total of 42 road crossings in the Winnicut watershed, and classified them as severe, moderate, minor, or passable for fish passage. One crossing was identified as severe, thirty-five were moderate, six were minor, and no crossings were determined to be fully passable for all fish. To develop a priority list of crossings for improvements, we focused on culverts with moderate or severe barrier rankings and screened out crossings associated with major highway infrastructure. We then used GIS analysis to determine the habitat potential upstream of each crossing, and prioritized crossings with greater than 0.5 miles of upstream habitat. We ordered priority crossings from nearest to furthest from the dam site at the river mouth. Our analysis produced a final list of 11 crossings that, if all were improved, would reestablish 19.5 miles of unfragmented habitat for migratory fish. We are sharing results of this study with local and state officials in hopes of securing funds and making structural enhancements to priority road crossings. Going forward, we hope that this information will lead to increases in migratory fish populations in the Winnicut River and throughout the entire Great Bay Estuary

Assessment of Proposed Wetland Mitigation Areas in West Eugene

2 p. Review produced for HC 441: Science Colloquium: Willamette River Environmental Health, Robert D. Clark Honors College, University of Oregon, Spring term, 2004

Species prioritization for monitoring and management in regional multiple species conservation plans.

Successful conservation plans are not solely achieved by acquiring optimally designed reserves. Ongoing monitoring and management of the biodiversity in those reserves is an equally important, but often neglected or poorly executed, part of the conservation process. In this paper we address one of the first and most important steps in designing a monitoring program - deciding what to monitor. We present a strategy for prioritizing species for monitoring and management in multispecies conservation plans. We use existing assessments of threatened status, and the degree and spatial and temporal extent of known threats to link the prioritization of species to the overarching goals and objectives of the conservation plan. We consider both broad and localized spatial scales to capture the regional conservation context and the practicalities of local management and monitoring constraints. Spatial scales that are commensurate with available data are selected. We demonstrate the utility of this strategy through application to a set of 85 plants and animals in an established multispecies conservation plan in San Diego County, California, USA. We use the prioritization to identify the most prominent risk factors and the habitats associated with the most threats to species. The protocol highlighted priorities that had not previously been identified and were not necessarily intuitive without systematic application of the criteria; many high-priority species have received no monitoring attention to date, and lower-priority species have. We recommend that in the absence of clear focal species, monitoring threats in highly impacted habitats may be a way to circumvent the need to monitor all the targeted species

South America (Patagonia [Argentina and Chile])

An introduction to the Patagoninan Grasslands in South America. Stretching from the foothills of the Andes in Chile to the Atlantic coast of Argentina, the Patagonian grasslands are a reminder of untamed wilderness and wide-open plains. The region is home to the legendary gauchos, Argentine cowboys known for their skill with horses and their penchant for mate, a brew of stimulating South American herbs served in hollowed-out gourds

Africa (Kenya and Tanzinia)

An introduction to African grasslands and the importance to the people living there. Eastern and southern Africa’s grasslands and savannas have been shaped over millions of years by volcanoes, seasonal droughts and fires, millions of grazing animals, and human activities

Asia (Mongolia)

Mongolia is a country of vast landscapes and a small population. This article explains Mongolia’s grasslands, and the way of life of the nomadic peoples who sustain them, are threatened by mining, energy, and infrastructure development