The Edwards to Gulf Conservation Blueprint represents a participatory effort to develop a suite of decision support tools that facilitate cooperation between conservation partners in the region. The blueprint was created in a transparent and iterative process, building upon a previously existing coarse filter blueprint to generate a fine filter by increasing the spatial resolution, and number and variety of indicators used. This iteration of the blueprint focused on a subset of habitats within the region (floodplain forests, freshwater wetlands, major rivers, rice agriculture, tallgrass prairie, and tidal wetlands), with an emphasis on rpomoting conservation of focal species identified by the Gulf Coast Prairie Landscape Conservation Cooperative. A core team of partner representatives, led by a team of researchers at Texas State University, followed the Open Standards for the Practice of Conservation to coordinate the participatory process of developing the blueprint with these habitats as conservation targets. This process included outreach to subject matter experts, numerous in-person meetings with individual stakeholders, a multi-day stakeholder workshop, release of draft spatial products for stakeholder review, and a series of stakeholder webinars and questionnaires. The first major output of this process was a viability assessment, where the ecological condition of each conservation target was evaluated based on a suite of key ecological attributes. The next step consisted of identifying, modeling and rating direct threats to the conservation targets, as well as their contributing factors. Then, a list of relevant conservation strategies was generated, and stakeholders worked together to articulate the activities needed to achieve highlighted strategies (i.e., strategies that were both important and underdeveloped in the region). The core team synthesized the preceding outputs with stakeholder feedback to develop spatially-explicit decision support tools that rate ecological integrity, prioritize habitat management (e.g., maintenance and restoration), and prioritize habitat protection. After completion of the blueprint, the spatial products were uploaded to DataBasin, where they are now publicly available, and all supporting documentation and materials were made available on the Edwards to Gulf Conservation Blueprint website. In the end, the process and tools will serve as a blueprint for conservation in the Lower Colorado, Guadalupe, and San Antonio River watersheds that will shape a future for conservation across the many working lands and ranches that the landscape supports.
