Government, Industry & Land Conservations Groups Tout Use of New State Wildlife Mapping Tools

DENVER -- The Western Governors' Wildlife Council now has a number of state Crucial Habitat Assessment Tools (CHATs) available online in several of the Western states, and a West-wide CHAT will be developed by 2013. In addition to the state systems now available, three more fish and wildlife systems will be available online in the coming months in Arizona, California and Wyoming.

 

At a recent meeting in Seattle, the Wildlife Council demonstrated how the CHATs could assist a variety of potential customers. Among those participating in the meeting were the U.S. Department of the Interior; the U.S. Forest Service; Oklahoma Gas and Electric; Madison County, Montana; and the Nature Conservancy. Following are what several participants had to say about the value of the CHATs.

 

Michael Bean, Counselor to the Assistant Secretary for Fish, Wildlife and Parks in the Department of the Interior discussed the Department's priority of developing renewable energy in the West: "Achieving the goal of renewable energy development while conserving wildlife and its habitat requires the sort of high quality information that these new online planning tools are intended to provide."

 

Officials from the Bureau of Land Management announced at the meeting that the Wildlife Council's CHATs are included in BLM's Supplement to the Draft Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for Solar Energy Development in Six Southwestern States. The Draft EIS states that BLM should use landscape-scale assessments like the CHAT when identifying new solar energy zones on BLM land.

 

Joshua Greenberg, Environmental Analyst for Skagit County in Washington, described how public access to Washington's Priority Habitat and Species online system -- their foundation for a state CHAT -- has improved county planning efforts: "Our county is using wildlife data from Washington's system to help us make informed land use decisions now and to allow us to plan for future development, as Skagit County's population is projected to increase from 115,000 to 215,000 over the next 50 years."

 

Patricia Horn, Vice President for Governance, Environment, Health and Safety at Oklahoma Gas & Electric described the benefits of using Oklahoma's foundational CHAT: "We have utilized the Oklahoma Lesser Prairie Chicken Spatial Planning Tool for planning infrastructure projects in Oklahoma. A similar type multi-state CHAT that provides credible, scientific and consistent data would be helpful to use early in a planning process in areas of regional application as well."

 

A multi-state effort to identify crucial habitat for the Lesser Prairie Chicken across its range was completed this summer through the Wildlife Council's DOE pilot projects. This five-state CHAT will be expanded upon in the coming year to include crucial habitat for additional species.

 

Spencer Kimball, Government Relations Manager for the Western Energy Alliance, represents oil and gas industry interests on the Wildlife Council's Stakeholder Advisory Group. He spoke to the potential CHATs have for improving industry decisions early in the planning stage: "As long as they are based upon sound science and reliable data sets for habitat values, it is our hope that CHATs will provide oil and gas operators, pipeline companies and others a preliminary screening tool that can be used to inform project proponents about wildlife resources during the planning process."

 

Karen Anderson, Washington State Director of the Nature Conservancy, referenced the benefit CHATs will have to inform conservation actions: "Having a shared knowledge about priority areas for fish and wildlife will enable us to work with communities to ensure that habitat is preserved so nature and people can thrive."

 

The Council agreed to enlist its Stakeholder Advisory Group in developing more detailed policy options for implementation of the CHATs as they become available, and in advance of the public release of a West-wide CHAT in 2013.

 

During its meeting, the Council also approved a second phase of work for their technical staff focused on developing the West-wide CHAT. A grant from the U.S. Department of Energy will help support this collaborative effort through 2012 to develop crucial habitat data layers in every state.

 

For more information on the progress of the Western Governors' Wildlife Council, please visit http://www.westgov.org/initiatives/wildlife. A meeting summary and presentations from the meeting will be posted on the Web site. To receive periodic updates on CHATs, go to www.westgov.org, click on the "Join E-mail List" link at the top of the page, and select the Western Governors' Wildlife Council.

 

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