Conserving connectivity is fundamental to species persistence, yet rarely is made actionable into spatial planning for imperiled species climate change and habitat degradation have added urgency to…

Conserving connectivity is fundamental to species persistence, yet rarely is made actionable into spatial planning for imperiled species climate change and habitat degradation have added urgency to incorporate connectivity into conservation planning, particularly into networks of protected areas identifying landscapes with the greatest contribution to connectivity, and therefore of the greatest priority for conservation is paramount to actionable management we will incorporate both connectivity among core sagebrush areas and wildfire threat to core sagebrush areas into the wafwa sagebrush conservation design crosswinds ecological consulting LLC will create spatial action maps that identify areas of greatest functional connectivity between conservation landscapes e g , sagebrush core areas and or priority areas for conservation based on a prioritized connectivity map empirically derived from foundational models of functional and network connectivity these highest priority connectivity landscapes may serve to identify a strongholds within conservation areas to defend against threats and b growth opportunity areas that serve to connect the sagebrush biome within the highest priority connectivity landscapes, we will create spatial action maps that identify where threats e g , conifer encroachment and agricultural conversion exceed empirical thresholds to connectivity for targeted threat mitigation with maximized conservation return these areas will be used to identify conservation opportunity areas within which to prioritize riparian restoration and protection, as well as to focus invasive annual grass and conifer treatments