This indicator identifies areas within the historic longleaf pine range east of the Mississippi River where creating or maintaining open pine habitat would most benefit six focal species of birds (Bachman’s sparrow, red-cockaded woodpecker, Henslow’s sparrow, red-headed woodpecker, Northern bobwhite, brown-headed nuthatch). It prioritizes areas for open pine conservation based on suitability for longleaf pine, feasibility of prescribed burning, proximity to protected lands, habitat suitability for focal bird species, and proximity to source bird populations. It originates from the East Gulf Coastal Plain Joint Venture’s prioritization of areas for open pine ecosystem restoration.
Reason for Selection
Open longleaf pine forests once spanned nearly 90 million acres across the Southeast, supporting a rich community of wildlife and plants. Fire suppression, deforestation, and conversion to ecosystems dominated by loblolly and slash pine have dramatically reduced the extent of longleaf and caused the decline of many associated species. In addition, pine and prairie birds are experiencing significant declines and are currently off-track for meeting the SECAS 10% goal, so it is important that the Blueprint capture opportunities to conserve, restore, and manage open pine habitat. This indicator also promotes consistency with the longleaf and open pine ecosystem priorities of the East Gulf Coastal Plain Joint Venture (EGCPJV).
Input Data
Mapping Steps
- Reproject the EGCPJV bird priority data to NAD 1983 Contiguous USA Albers (EPSG 5070).
- If an area intersects an EPA Estimated Floodplain, change the value to NoData.
- If an area is something besides Evergreen Forest or Mixed Forest in the 2019 NLCD, change the value to NoData. Because the bird priority layer was made with older landcover data, this step helps remove areas that do not currently have pine trees.
- The EGCPJV bird data provides a raster with scores of 0-100 representing the relative potential for open pine bird response to conservation action. Reclassify this raster as shown in in the legend below.
- Change 0 values to NoData.
- Clip to the subregions where this indicator was used in Zonation (‘Atlantic Coastal Plain’, ‘Central Gulf Coastal Plain’, ‘East Gulf Coastal Plain’, ‘Florida Peninsula’, ‘Mid East Gulf Coastal Plain’). The source data also covers part of the Piedmont and South Appalachians subregions. We didn’t include data in those two subregions due to an oversight in which indicators were used for the Blueprint priorities in those subregions.
- As a final step, clip to the spatial extent of Base Blueprint 2022.
Note: For more details on the mapping steps, code used to create this layer is available in the Southeast Blueprint 2022 Data Download under BlueprintInputs > BaseBlueprint2022 > 6_Code.
Final Indicator Values
Indicator values are assigned as follows:
- 5 = High priority for open pine conservation for focal bird species (Bachman’s sparrow, red-cockaded woodpecker, Henslow’s sparrow, red-headed woodpecker, Northern bobwhite, and brown-headed nuthatch) (score >80-100)
- 4 = Medium-high priority (score >60-80)
- 3 = Medium priority (score >40-60)
- 2 = Medium-low priority (score >20-40)
- 1 = Low priority for open pine conservation for focal bird species (score 0-20)
Known Issues
- The EGCPJV’s open pine bird model includes frequently inundated floodplain areas. These areas are unlikely to be potential open pine habitat. To address this in the indicator, we removed areas within the EPA estimated floodplain.
- This indicator prioritizes some areas outside of the floodplain that were not historically open pine habitat.
- The 2019 NLCD classes used to exclude non-pine areas of the open pine bird model (evergreen forest and mixed forests) do not exclusively target pine trees. For example, the evergreen class can include other evergreen tree species like Eastern red cedar or southern magnolia. In addition, the NLCD likely misclassifies other types of land cover as evergreen or mixed forests. As a result, this indicator may leave in some areas prioritized in the bird model that are not actually pine. Conversely, the NLCD also likely misclassifies some areas of pine as other land cover classes, which could cause pine areas prioritized in the model to be inadvertently excluded from the indicator.
- This indicator does not capture areas where planting new pine stands in existing agricultural areas would benefit open pine birds.
- While the indicator source data extends into parts of the Piedmont and South Appalachians subregions, those areas are not included in the indicator because they were not used in the Blueprint priorities for those subregions. We didn’t include data in those two subregions due to an oversight in which indicators were used for the Blueprint priorities in those subregions.
Disclaimer: Comparing with Older Indicator Versions
There are numerous problems with using Southeast Blueprint indicators for change analysis. Please consult Blueprint staff if you would like to do this (email hilary_morris@fws.gov).
Literature Cited
Grand, J.B., and Kleiner, K.J., 2017, Prioritization of areas for open pine ecosystem restoration in the Southeastern United States: U.S. Geological Survey data release, [https://doi.org/10.5066/F7P26WN2].
Grand, James B. and Kevin J. Kleiner. 2016. Prioritizing Landscapes for Longleaf Pine Conservation. Report provided by the Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit Program under agreement with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. U.S. Department of Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service, Cooperator Science Series FWS/CSS-119-2016, National Conservation Training Center. [https://digitalmedia.fws.gov/digital/collection/document/id/2131].
Open Pine Decision Support Tool. [https://scagulf.shinyapps.io/opdst/].
U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). Published June 2021. National Land Cover Database (NLCD) 2019 Land Cover Conterminous United States. Sioux Falls, SD. [https://doi.org/10.5066/P9KZCM54].
Yang, L., Jin, S., Danielson, P., Homer, C., Gass, L., Case, A., Costello, C., Dewitz, J., Fry, J., Funk, M., Grannemann, B., Rigge, M. and G. Xian. 2018. A New Generation of the United States National Land Cover Database: Requirements, Research Priorities, Design, and Implementation Strategies, ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, 146, pp.108-123. [https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isprsjprs.2018.09.006].
