Landscape-scale Connectivity by John Donahue, Superintendent, Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area

1. John J. Donahue, Superintendent
Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area
Delaware River Watershed Conference
October 21, 2014

2. NPS Director’s
Call to Action
1916-2016
 A Second-Century National
Park Service:
 Connecting People to the Parks
 Advancing the NPS Education
Mission
 Preserving America’s Special
Places
 Enhancing Professional and
Organizational Excellence

3. Preserving America’s Special Places Goals
 Manage the natural and cultural resources of the
National Park System to increase resilience in the face
of climate change and other stressors.
 Cultivate excellence in science and scholarship as a
foundation for park planning, policy, decision
making, and education
 Achieve a standard of excellence in cultural and
natural resource stewardship that serves as a model
throughout the world.
 Collaborate with other land managers and partners
to create, restore, and maintain landscape-scale
connectivity

4. Preserving America’s Special Places

5. Addressing conservation on the large-landscape scale is
necessary and timely. It’s no longer enough to preserve
isolated forests, valleys, and wilderness areas. Connection of
habitats is key to the long-term health of ecosystems and the
biological diversity that supports both wildlife and human
communities

6. •Baja 2 Bering
•2C1 Forest
(northern Appalachia
to Canada)
•Yellowstone to Yukon
•Spine of the Rockies
•Gulf of Main to Gulf
of Mexico
Delaware River Watershed
Large Scale Connectivity Initiatives

7. Think beyond the boundaries of
existing Public Lands Climate Change
Will not respect boundaries

9. Decadal population dynamics
between 1900 and 2000
-
50,000
100,000
150,000
200,000
250,000
300,000
350,000
1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000
Totalpopulation
Census Year
Sussex County
Warren County
Broome County
Delaware County
Greene County
Orange County
Sullivan County
Ulster County
Lackawanna County
Monroe County
Northampton County
Pike County
Wayne County

10. Changes in population density

11. Location of Remote Roadless Areas
(Core Habitat)

12. Connectivity of Core Habitat
Areas around UPDE/DEWA
Connectivity and Patch
habitat importance change as
residential development
expands..
Patch Connectivity
0.02 - 0.10
0.11 - 0.20
0.21 - 0.30
0.31 - 0.40
0.41 - 0.50
0.51 - 0.60
0.61 - 0.70
0.71 - 0.80
0.81 - 0.90
0.91 - 1.00
Delaware River parks

13. Patterns of Natural Landscapes

14. Landscape dynamics: Pattern of natural landscapes
What: Measures the natural landscape context
Why: Movement of plants & animals and ecological processes connect to
adjacent landscapes beyond the park boundary
Stressors:Land use change, climate change
DEWA scores higher than its ecoregion, but is declining from 0.6811 in 1992 to
0.6631 in 2001 to 0.6123 in 2030.
14

15. Proposed Connectivity Corridors between
NPS and Pennsylvania State Lands in Pike County