GNLCC Strategic Science Support Program
Heart of the Rockies Initiative Proposal February 2013
Project Title: Science Support for land conservation in the Rocky Mountain corridor.
Project Coordinator (contact information):
Michael Whitfield, Coordinator
Heart of the Rockies Initiative
1790 E 2000 S
Driggs, ID 83422
208-354-2075; Michael@heart-of-rockies.org
Project PI(s) (who is doing the work; contact information):
To be named
Partners (name, affiliation, location):
Non-governmental Organizations:
Bitterroot Land Trust, Hamilton, MT 59840
The Conservation Fund, Sun Valley, ID 83353
Kaniksu Land Trust, Sandpoint, ID 83864
Five Valleys Land Trust, Missoula, MT 59801
Flathead Land Trust, Kalispell, MT 59903
Gallatin Valley Land Trust, Bozeman, MT 59771
Inland NW Land Trust, Spokane, WA 99201
Jackson Hole Land Trust, Jackson, WY 83001
Lemhi Regional Land Trust, Salmon, ID 83467
Palouse Land Trust, Moscow, ID 83843
Prickly Pear Land Trust, Helena, MT 59624
Peaks and Prairies Land Trust, Red Lodge, MT 59068
Sagebrush Steppe Land Trust, Pocatello, ID 83201 Teton Regional Land Trust, Driggs, ID 83422
The Trust for Public Land, Bozeman, MT 59715 Vital Ground Foundation, Missoula, MT 59804
Wood River Land Trust, Hailey, ID 83333
Wyoming Land Trust, Pinedale, WY 82941
Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, Missoula, MT 59808
Wyoming Stock Growers Land Trust, Cheyenne, WY 82003
The Nature Conservancy of Montana, Helena, MT 59624; Missoula, MT 59801
The Nature Conservancy of Idaho, Hailey, ID 83333; Coeur d’Alene, ID 83816
The Nature Conservancy of Wyoming, Lander, WY 82520; Cody, WY 82414
Nature Conservancy of Canada, Invermere, B.C.VOA 1K0; Calgary, Alberta T2G 1A1
Heart of the Rockies Initiative, Driggs, ID 83422; Hamilton, MT 59840
Federal and State Partners:
U.S. Forest Service, Region 4 Lands, Ogden, UT 84401; Caribou-Targhee NF, Idaho Falls, ID
83401; Salmon-Challis National Forest, Salmon, ID 83467
U.S. Forest Service, Region 1, Lands, Missoula, MT 59807; Beaverhead-Deer Lodge National
Forest, Dillon, MT 59725
Bureau of Land Management, Idaho Falls, ID; Dillon, MT
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Division of Realty, Great Falls, MT 59404
Idaho Department of Fish and Game, Boise, ID 83712; Idaho Falls, ID 83401
Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks, Helena, MT 59620; Bozeman, MT 59718
Project Summary: The Heart of the Rockies Initiative (HOTR), on behalf of its 24 land
conservation non-governmental partners, and its federal and state agency partners, seeks a
second year of science support to incorporate emerging data on landscape integrity and
connectivity, crucial habitats, and climate change response into downscaled data layers that can
help the partners identify and validate their immediate and longer term conservation targets.
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GNLCC Strategic Science Support Program
Heart of the Rockies Initiative Proposal February 2013
Need: In 2010, the GNLCC Steering Committee (SC) approved the High Divide Demonstration
Project to encourage five landscape scaled planning projects along the Rocky Mountain corridor
in Wyoming, Idaho and Montana to work closely together and, to the extent feasible, to compile
data in a standard manner. The desired outcome was assurance that the data, models, and
analyses created would be available at scales useful to analyze conservation and management
projects at the level of on-site impacts, to provide regional context, and to suggest responses to a
changing climate. At the conclusion of the Demonstration Project in 2012, team members
desired a broader and longer-term collaboration in the service of conservation. Several follow-up
projects were initiated: 1) to build upon conservation work across jurisdictions and boundaries
and 2) to improve the use and dissemination of landscape assessment information for on-the
ground decision making.
In later 2012 the GNLCC made a science support grant of $25,000 to the Heart of the Rockies
Initiative (HOTR) to assist in incorporation of emerging data to inform conservation planning for
private lands. The need is for compilation of emerging data on cross-boundary wildlife
connectivity habitats and crucial areas, climate change response, and other landscape scale
stressors into data layers at scales useful for on-the-ground conservation practitioners. The longterm goal here is to identify and validate those lands we need to protect and/or restore to ensure
landscape integrity and connectivity. In year one HOTR has established a partner led
Conservation Planning Committee to direct these activities and begun the hiring/contracting
process to deploy a science coordinator for a two-year appointment. Further funding is needed to
fully meet HOTR goals for this new level of science driven conservation planning in the Rocky
Mountain corridor.
HOTR partners are now working actively with federal and state partners to develop a large
landscape collaborative project for the protection of connectivity and headwaters habitats in the
High Divide of Montana and Idaho between the Greater Yellowstone and Central Idaho
Wilderness areas. This emerging effort requires science driven targeting of the most important
conservation lands. The concept is for an All Lands approach to secure and enhance connectivity
and landscape integrity as well as community sustainability across the High Divide region.
What is the need within the Great Northern landscape? The highest priority ecosystem
resources/processes within the GNLCC landscape are landscape integrity, habitat connectivity,
and aquatic integrity. Protection of these processes requires development of conservation
planning data at scales that inform and provide direction for on-the-ground conservation action.
HOTR specifically seeks science support to ensure that the conservation investments its partners
make are informed by the most current science available to efficiently contribute to landscape
integrity. The goal is to sustain large, intact landscapes of naturally functioning terrestrial and
aquatic community assemblages. Our primary target is landscape connectivity. Most of this work
will occur within the GNLCC’s Rocky Mountain Ecotypic Area.
What landscape-level issue is this work related to and how (e.g. climate, habitat
fragmentation)? Why is it important? This project seeks to identify and validate those lands
most critical to the prevention of habitat fragmentation and the securement of landscape
resilience to climate change.
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GNLCC Strategic Science Support Program
Heart of the Rockies Initiative Proposal February 2013
The Rocky Mountain corridor provides nationally significant habitat connectivity and
headwaters integrity. This project will develop data layers at scales needed to ensure protection
of linkage corridors that connect the region’s major protected core areas (Greater Yellowstone,
Crown of the Continent, Central Idaho and Canadian wildlands) to one another and to other
significant wildlife habitats. Recent research has highlighted the importance of these corridors to
the long-term regional viability of wide ranging species such as grizzly bear and wolverine and
other large predators as well as large ungulates and many other mammals. Large water birds such
as trumpeter swans find important nesting, wintering, and migratory stopover areas within the
geography of interest here—for these species connectivity habitats are made up of discontinuous
wetlands and water bodies that are critical elements of traditional migratory routes. Protection of
aquatic integrity in the Rocky Mountain corridor headwaters are important for native fish such as
bull trout, several races of cutthroat trout, and anadromous populations of steelhead and salmon
in the Lemhi and Upper Salmon watersheds.
What science products will be provided, problem addressed, or what information or other
needs will your project provide? What is the science product or direct management
application? This project will produce a compilation of science products from numerous agency
and university led research and conservation planning efforts in landscape integrity, connectivity,
and climate change impacts and responses. This compilation will inform and direct conservation
action through development of properly scaled GIS data layers and discussion among science
informed conservation experts and practitioners. These data will be applied to management
action through the prioritization of conservation targets and actions in landscape-scaled
collaborative conservation projects on the ground in the Rocky Mountain corridor.
What is the geographic scope? This project is focused along the U.S. and Canadian Central
Rocky Mountain corridor from southwest Wyoming north to the Upper Columbia River in
British Columbia and the Bow River Valley in Alberta. Major landscapes within this geography
include: the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, the Crown of the Continent Ecosystem, the High
Divide areas of Montana and Idaho between these two regions, plus mountain valley buffer areas
around the Central Idaho Wilderness areas, the Idaho Panhandle, and lands that link the Crown
to more northerly Canadian wilderness.
Is the need identified in other conservation, management, or other plans? Federal land
management agencies and state wildlife agencies in the region are very actively planning to meet
these needs, but often planning products are not at scales required for conservation action on the
ground. In addition, private lands are not adequately addressed in most of these planning efforts.
HOTR has completed regional conservation plans for private lands in the GYE, Crown of the
Continent and High Divide that identify lands of high value for conservation derived with the
best data at the time of their preparation. These plans recognize habitat fragmentation as a
primary conservation threat, but need to dynamically respond to newly emerging agency and
academic planning updates. The High Divide Conservation Plan, the most current of these plans,
recognizes the need for better data on connectivity habitat priorities and conservation
prioritization that might be suggested from current planning for climate adaptation.
Objective: What will you accomplish? The primary goal of the HOTR science support project
is to deliver the latest science in climate adaptation and habitat connectivity conservation to
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GNLCC Strategic Science Support Program
Heart of the Rockies Initiative Proposal February 2013
conservation practitioners and their partners in the Central Rocky Mountain region. HOTR
conservation partners want assurance that their conservation planning and delivery leads to
enduring ecological function for the region’s most important fish and wildlife habitats. This
project will sharpen the focus and enhance the effectiveness and enduring benefit of
collaborative private land conservation and broader all lands connectivity.
Define how this project will support LCC objectives and functions: The HOTR team and
partners intend to benefit from developing agency and academic ddecision support tools/systems
to inform and focus private land conservation efforts. The task at hand is to discover scalable
data within these systems and apply it to HOTR partner conservation planning. HOTR will track
the effectiveness of this planning by compiling annual partner conservation accomplishments
through an analysis platform such as the Conservation Registry or Data Basin and comparing
these results with dynamic updates of system derived GIS data layers to test results for landscape
integrity.
Methods: How will the objectives be attained? What work activities or tasks will be
done? HOTR will deploy a science coordinator in a two-year appointment to lead engagement in
data discovery through interaction with agency and academic conservation planners and
scientists and help to interpret those data into formats that are useful in fine-scale conservation
planning and project prioritization. The science coordinator will work with the HOTR
Coordinator, HOTR Conservation Planning Committee, and external partners to define data
needs and analysis scales useful to partners, assist with the interpretation of data, and provide
guidance on conservation prioritization and application. The science coordinator will engage in
the following planning initiatives and others to generate the needed scalable data:
 Western Governors’ Association (WGA) landscape scale Decision Support Systems (DSS)
efforts to access information on fish and wildlife crucial habitats and connectivity habitats,
including terrestrial and aquatic linkages and corridors.
o Investigate collaborative ways to apply Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks Crucial Areas
Planning System (CAPS), Montana State Wildlife Action Plan (SWAP) updates and
ongoing system improvements to on the ground conservation planning.
o Work with Idaho Department of Fish and Game to apply Department advances in
identification of species and habitat information included in development of Idaho’s DSS.
o Collaborate with Wyoming Game and Fish Department to fully engage the Wyoming
Interagency Spatial Database (WISDOM) and its evolving subparts in private land
conservation planning.
o Monitor development of the West wide DSS to determine if there are data that can assist.
o Generally engage with the state agencies to enable field level agency biologists to
interpret state planning to field applications.
 Engage with the Bureau of Land Managements’ relevant Rapid Eco-regional Assessments
(REA)s, most particularly the Middle Rockies REA, to access data of relevance to landscape
conservation and associated private land conservation planning.
 Engage with U.S. Forest Service climate change adaptation planning strategies and learn
from partnerships sponsored by the Forest Service.
 Access climate adaptation models and data being developed through agency/university
partnerships to inform conservation practitioners and private landowners on their utility for
long term conservation planning.
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GNLCC Strategic Science Support Program

Heart of the Rockies Initiative Proposal February 2013
o Help the HOTR Initiative partners learn from broad regional assessments, downscale
species and habitat modeling, vulnerability analysis, climate gradient analysis, and other
efforts to inform conservation investments.
Create linkage among broad-scale modeling exercises and fine-scaled application of data in
resource prioritization, and address uncertainty at finer scales of resolution.
The Science Coordinator and HOTR Conservation Planning Committee, led by HOTR
Coordinator Michael Whitfield, will select and deploy an online mapping and analysis platform
such as Data Basin or Conservation Registry or some combination of such tools to make data
accessible to conservation partners. This platform will also assist in multi-media presentation of
the large landscape conservation story.
Data collected will inform development of a Collaborative Large Landscape Conservation
Project Proposal for the High Divide to connect Rocky Mountain landscapes. Federal partners
will lead this proposal submission with assistance from partner NGOs and state agencies.
Deliverables: This project will develop dynamic conservation planning tools for use of HOTR
member organizations and external partners. The primary deliverables will be GIS data layers of
conservation resources and accomplishments entered into an online mapping and analysis
platform that meets the planning and security needs of HOTR partners. HOTR will provide a
final narrative report on the success on ongoing utility of this effort by June 1, 2015.
Statement of compliance: HOTR Coordinator Michael Whitfield has read the Great Northern
Landscape Conservation Cooperative Information Management, Delivery, and Sharing Standards
and agrees to comply with those standards if the proposal is selected. Michael Whitfield will
direct HOTR employees and/or contractors that are involved in this project to meet these
standards.
Schedule/Project Time Line
Key activities/tasks
Target date
Milestone
Engage science coordinator (SC) May 1, 2013
Work with DB, CR and HOTR
June 1, 2013
Analysis platform
committee to select platform
identified.
HOTR Coordinator works with
Ongoing
Meet agency
agencies to develop collab. large
budget target
landscape project proposal
submission dates
SC engages with agency and
May 2013 to
institutional planning systems
Dec. 2014
SC and partners develop data,
May 2013 to
compile cons. accomplishments
March. 2015
SC and partners develop HOTR
Sept. 2013 to
GYE Plan, Crown
cons. plan updates
March 2015
Plan, HD Plan
Final Narrative report to GNLCC June 1, 2015
SC = Science Coordinator; DB = Data Basin; CR = Conservation Registry
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Comments
Iterative process
informed by cons.
planning
Ongoing engagement
with HOTR committee
Ongoing engagement
with HOTR committee
Updates as dictated by
new data
Project completion