Southern Great Plains Crucial Habitat Assessment Tool

The Western Governors Association Southern Great Plains Crucial Habitat Assessment Tool (SGP CHAT) is the result of phase one of a three-year WGA Wildlife Council project, led by the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation and the Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism. The purpose of the project is to model crucial habitat for the lesser prairie-chicken (LEPC) throughout its historical range create an online tool usable by conservation managers, industry, and the public that identifies priority habitat, including connecting corridors that can be used in the early stages of development or conservation planning. The crucial habitat layer displayed in SGP CHAT classifies land by its relative value as LEPC habitat, according to WGA-defined categories as described below.

The SGP CHAT classifies crucial habitats and important wildlife corridors into five “actionable” categories, following guidelines of the WGA:

• Category 1 (Irreplaceable): Habitat that is rare or fragile and is essential to achieving and/or maintaining LEPC population viability.


• Category 2 (Limiting): Habitat which is limiting to LEPC populations or metapopulations. Loss of any of this habitat could result in a significant local or population-level decline in species distribution, abundance, or productivity.


• Category 3 (Significant): Habitat, including wildlife corridors, that contributes significantly to the maintenance of LEPC populations or metapopulations. Loss of a significant portion of the habitat or corridor could result in local or population-level declines in species distribution, abundance, or productivity.


• Category 4 (Unknown): Lands likely to have significant value to the LEPC, but for which there is insufficient data or a lack of information about the importance of the habitat in meeting conservation objectives.


• Category 5 (Common): Habitat which is relatively common, generally less limiting to LEPC populations or metapopulations, and generally better suited for land use conversion.

In addition to the crucial habitat index, the SGP CHAT also includes a suite of other data layers including: current and historical LEPC range, land cover, oil/gas well density, vertical structures, and a 1-square mile hexagon summary to provide users contextual information about the surrounding landscape.

Future phases of this project will include additional species of greatest conservation need, with the SGP CHAT being updated annually beginning in January 2012. Users should consult the website to ensure that the most recent crucial habitat layer is being employed.

For additional information, please refer to the SGP CHAT project summary.

For project review or questions about the SGP CHAT please contact:

Please cite references to the SGP CHAT as:

Southern Great Plains Crucial Habitat Assessment Tool. September, 2011. . kars.ku.edu/maps/sgpchat/

Development of SGP CHAT was made possible with coordination and cooperation from:

Colorado

Kansas

New Mexico

Oklahoma

Texas

Western Governors Association

U.S. Geological Survey

Playa Lakes Joint Venture

Lesser prairie-chicken picture by: Nicholas Richter