Using Models to Inform Management: Sensitive and Rare Plant Distributions and Energy Development in the Colorado Plateau Region

Date and Time: July 19, 2016   10-11:30am Mountain / 9-10:30am Pacific
Hosts: USFWS R6 Science Applications and the Great Northern, Southern Rockies, Great Basin and Plains and Prairie Potholes Landscape Conservation Cooperatives
Speakers: Dr. Thomas Edwards, USGS Utah Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, Utah State University and Dr. Edd Hammill, Assistant Professor, Utah State University

This presentation will be delivered live at the USFWS Region 6 Office in Lakewood, CO and via webinar. The speakers will highlight results of a 4-year effort that organized extant data on 21 ESA listed, rare and sensitive plant species in the Colorado Plateau, collected new data on plant locations, and developed distribution models indicating likelihoods of plants being present in specified locations.

The plant species distribution models were analyzed in relation to existing and proposed renewable and non-renewable energy development in the Colorado Plateau. Optimization models were developed seeking to identify lands where management and conservation conflicts between sensitive and rare plant species could be minimized. Simulation results allow decision-makers to select variable risk strategies depending on desired management and energy development goals.