The three tracks of Wildlands Network Design

Focal species planning is one of the best approaches to help define and design an effective wildlands network. Focal species are organisms used in planning and managing wildlands networks because their requirements for survival represent factors important to maintaining healthy ecological conditions. Focal species also warrant special management attention because they are: "umbrella" species that require particularly large expanses of habitat, important "keystone" species, particularly vulnerable or human-threatened species, ecological indicator species, or a charismatic "flagship" species. If a wildlands network can meet the needs of a suite of these important focal species, the design will also tend to protect a myriad of other species normally associated with the focal species, as well as maintaining important ecological and evolutionary processes. This is achieved by planning a wildlands network around these species that can define the approaches necessary to restore and maintain healthy ecosystems.

In addition to a focal species approach to wildlands network design, there are a couple other effective methods that conservation planners also employ. One is representation of all regional habitats within the wildlands network design. Also referred to as the "coarse filter approach," the idea is that if you "catch" large representative pieces of habitat in your "filter" of conserved lands, you will also "catch" many of those individual species that rely on these same habitats. Identification and conservation of special elements in a region is yet a third track we can use to help delineate core areas and linkages, and is an example of a "fine filter" approach to conservation planning. In our case, rare species occurrences are mapped and used to help delineate core areas. The fine filter approach complements the coarse filter approach; species that "fall through the cracks" of the coarse filter - such as unique endemic species - can be protected through the fine filter of special element mapping.

A wildlands network is a proactive approach that applies the science of conservation biology to land management. This approach offers a science-based process to help address a seemingly endless list of short-term threats. With the help of both activists and land managers, a wildlands network can have a significant influence on what happens on the ground. Such a network provides a framework against which proposed actions can be judged. Timber sales, off-road vehicle routes, water projects, and other land uses can be weighed against ecosystem needs. If the current trend continues, federal land managers are unlikely to produce an equivalent conservation framework. This makes a wildlands network and associated "conservation plan" even more important and necessary.