Assessment of Connectivity and Enhancement of Adaptive Management Capacity on Navajo Nation Lands

The spatial data developed on wildlife distributions and habitat to model connectivity and, ultimately, viability of multiple species given alternative environmental-change scenarios will inform adaptive planning and management actions. Land uses that are changing land cover and affecting wildlife on Navajo lands include new home construction, agricultural expansion, energy development, and mineral extraction. Sustainable wildlife harvest remains critical in wildlife planning on Navajo lands. These changes and priorities, in addition to concerns about climate change, have led wildlife planning to shift from allocation of hunting tags to planning for persistence of many species.

The project enhances the adaptive-management capacity and meets the information needs of the SRLCC and Navajo Nation, addresses focal issues identified by the Western Governors’ Association (WGA), and advances collaborative decision-support methods across the southern Rocky Mountains. Project work will support assessment of objective, quantitative, and realistic scenarios of environmental change against which the tribe can conserve wildlife while promoting development of natural resources. The project will support the WGA’s Wildlife Corridors Initiative and complement rather than duplicate the Western Governors’ Wildlife Council’s pilot decision support system for wildlife resources in the southwest.  The Department of the Interior (DOI) is a signatory, along with U.S. Department of Agriculture, U.S. Department of Energy, and the WGA to a Memorandum of Agreement, Regarding coordination among federal agencies and states in identification and uniform mapping of wildlife corridors and crucial habitat. The project will assist the WGA and DOI in their ongoing efforts to create decision support systems that develop, coordinate, make consistent, and integrate quality data about wildlife, corridors, and crucial habitat across landscapes.