Context

The North American Waterfowl Management Plan and the Upper Mississippi River/Great Lakes Joint Venture waterfowl habitat conservation strategy provide continental and regional guidance, respectively, for waterfowl habitat conservation planning. They were not designed to guide watershed- scale waterfowl habitat delivery.

Objective

Our goal was to develop a waterfowl habitat decision support framework for the state of Wisconsin using biological and social criteria to guide state and local-scale practitioners with an explicit link to larger scale objectives.

Methods

We engaged a core group of wetland and waterfowl experts to decide upon decision support layers relevant to biological and social objectives, evaluate variables, establish weights, and review model outputs for reasonableness and accuracy. We used spatial analyst tools, kernel density estimators, and weighted sums to create spatially explicit models to identify landscapes and watersheds important for waterfowl. We identified habitat resources that exist currently (Conservation Capital) and considered potential resources (Conservation Opportunities) which could enhance wetland restoration efforts.

Results

We developed a transparent framework to identify and prioritize landscapes for conserving waterfowl habitat at the Hydrologic Unit Code 12 watershed scale in Wisconsin, by maintaining continental and regional priorities, and including local landscape characteristics, biological criteria, and researcher, manager, and biologist expertise.

Conclusions

Local detail is critical for implementing waterfowl habitat delivery and making efficient use of limited funds for conservation but can be more abstract in larger regional or continental conservation planning. Our models are science-based, transparent, defensible, and can be modified as social, political, biological, and environmental forces change.

中文翻译：

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美国威斯康星州多尺度水禽栖息地保护规划

语境

北美水禽管理计划和密西西比河上游/五大湖合资企业水禽栖息地保护战略分别为水禽栖息地保护规划提供大陆和区域指导。它们并非旨在指导流域规模的水禽栖息地交付。

客观的

我们的目标是使用生物学和社会标准为威斯康星州开发一个水禽栖息地决策支持框架，以指导州和地方规模的从业者与更大规模目标的明确联系。

方法

我们聘请了湿地和水禽专家的核心小组来决定与生物和社会目标相关的决策支持层，评估变量，建立权重，并审查模型输出的合理性和准确性。我们使用空间分析工具、核密度估计器和加权总和来创建空间显式模型，以识别对水禽很重要的景观和流域。我们确定了当前存在的栖息地资源（保护资本），并考虑了可以加强湿地恢复工作的潜在资源（保护机会）。

结果

我们开发了一个透明的框架，通过维护大陆和区域优先级，包括当地景观特征、生物标准以及研究人员、经理和生物学家的专业知识，确定和优先考虑保护威斯康星州水文单位法规 12 流域规模的水禽栖息地的景观。

结论

局部细节对于实施水禽栖息地交付和有效利用有限的保护资金至关重要，但在更大的区域或大陆保护规划中可能更加抽象。我们的模型是基于科学的、透明的、可辩护的，并且可以随着社会、政治、生物和环境力量的变化而修改。