Kai Foster, Tosha Comendant, Michael Lundin & James Strittholt Conservation Biology Institute

April 1, 2015

Conservation Easements and Their Contribution to Natural Vegetation Protection

Research Question

To what extent do different land protection mechanism contribute to the protection of natural vegetation in the conterminous US?

• restricted use lands – permanently protected lands managed to maintain a natural or nearly natural state

• multiple use lands – permanently protected lands managed to conservation of predominately natural land cover with multiple use (including extractive uses)

• conservation easements – land with voluntary restrictions for conservation purposes

Funding from USDA Forest Service Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA)

Why is this important?

• Detailed characterization of current condition – what is currently protection • Potential ability crosswalk data with Dynamic Vegetation Model (DVM) data and investigate potential future vegetation

Methods

Protected Areas Database of the United States (PAD-US CBI Edition) Version 2

National Conservation Easement Database (NCED) Phase 4

LANDFIRE Existing Vegetation Type (EVT) 110 & 210

National Conservation Easement Database

• Began in 2009 • Current Database

22,204,790 acres (105,883 easements) • Released June 2014 (revised October 2014)

NCED – NGO Completeness

NCED – Public Completeness

Total Extent and Protection

Protected by Conservation Easement

% Protected by Conservation

Easement

Total Acres of Natural Vegetation Protected by Conservation Easements

# of Natural Vegetation Types

<1% 4.2 Million 48

1.1 to 2% 2.7 Million 25

2.1 to 3% 2.8 Million 7

3.1 to 4% 200 Thousand 1

4.1 to 5% 290 Thousand 4

>5% 3.8 Million 5

Total 14 Million

Analysis Results and Application

• Characterization of protection of natural vegetation Restricted-use Lands 128,163,195 acres

Multiple-use Lands 297,860,912 acres Conservation Easements 14,013,612 acres Protected Lands Network 440,037,719 acres

• Conservation Easement provide measureable protection to natural vegetation • Enable future research on climate impacts and protection mechanism adaptation

Example – Delaware River Easements

Sea Level Rise

Conclusion

• Plan for future management of current conservation easement • Evaluate of conservation purpose under different climate scenarios • Prioritize acquisitions of future easements

Resources

Protecting Natural Vegetation: Compartive Analysis of Land Protection Mechanisms http://consbio.org/products/reports/protecting-vegetation

Protected Areas Database, PAD-US (CBI Edition) v2 http://consbio.org/newsroom/news/release-pad-us-cbi-edition-v2

Protected Areas Database, PAD-US (CBI Edition) v2.1 http://consbio.org/products/projects/PAD-US-CBI-establishment-dates

National Conservation Easement Database (NCED) http://conservationeasement.us/