Resources

The goal of this work was to map habitat and connectivity for jaguars (Panthera onca) in southern Arizona and the Northwestern Recovery Unit (NRU) study area. To do this, we followed the general approach outlined by Sanderson and Fisher (2011; 2013) but updated it using finer-grained spatial data and a gradient-based (rather than binary habitat/non-habitat) model using the same observational data on jaguars.

These comments were written in response to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s jaguar draft recovery plan, for which the notice of availability and request for comments was published in the Federal Register on December 20, 2016. As a continental conservation organization, Wildlands Network has an interest in the recovery of jaguars and the protection of jaguar habitat in both the United States and Mexico.

In recent years, Mexican agencies, non-profit groups, and academia have all made efforts to better address connectivity needs in the borderlands region of Sonora and northeastern Chihuahua. Some actions have focused on identifying impacts of U.S. border infrastructure, others have advanced protected area regulations, while still others seek to reduce habitat fragmentation generated by roads with a focus on Highway 2.

This report is our first effort to put some of the information resulting from regulatory actions, wildlife-friendly infrastructure, and research activities, into a series of maps that allows us to identify areas of the highest immediate concern for connectivity along the U.S. border with Sonora and northwestern Chihuahua. Geographically explicit data are not as readily available as literature, so this effort cannot contain all existing research, nor does it cover all fauna impacted by the border wall. Rather, the report focuses on a few wide-ranging species for which data could be readily collected.

To complement Wildlands Network’s Public Lands Planning Atlas, this spreadsheet provides further detail on active connectivity land use planning opportunities with the U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

This interactive map identifies public lands planning areas with opportunities for advancing the protection of wildlife corridors along the U.S. portion of the 6,000-mile Western Wildway.

The Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 (FLPMA) directs BLM to “give priority to the designation and protection of areas of critical environmental concern (ACECs)” that require “special management attention…to protect and prevent irreparable damage to important historic, cultural, or scenic values, fish and wildlife resources or other natural systems or processes,” or to protect people from natural hazards.