Thesis: Connecting National Wildlife Refuges with Green Infrastructure

Master's Thesis by Jared Turcsanyi Bowman, University of Minnesota - St. Paul, 2008.

Abstract:

Increasing human populations and widespread land use changes are reducing once large natural landscapes and healthy ecological systems into fragmented remnants and degraded habitats. There is a growing consciousness that we must preserve what remains of our natural heritage and restore the structure and function of our environmental systems. Traditional approaches to land conservation are often piecemeal, site specific, and narrowly focused, limiting their overall ability to provide effective habitat and essential ecological services. Furthermore, if planning for long-term sustainability is to be successful, it requires the consideration of both human demands and wildlife needs. Green infrastructure, a new and evolving framework for landscape-level planning, seeks to incorporate and integrate both natural resource conservation and the needs of increasing human populations. Strategic conservation design, the core of green infrastructure planning, is used to define and implement interconnected networks of green and open spaces. This project develops a case study in collaboration with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Sherburne and Crane Meadows National Wildlife Refuges; two refuges close in proximity and under joint management. Basic suitability models are used to understand the opportunities and challenges of establishing green infrastructure networks between these two refuges and in a contemporary Minnesota landscape. First current trends in land conservation planning and the mapping components of green infrastructure initiatives are reviewed. Two GIS models are then developed to assess the biophysical and social suitability green infrastructure development in the area between and surrounding these refuges. Biophysical suitability is a common product of green infrastructure analyses, but geographic modeling of social data is new to this field of planning. Finally, a map of existing protected lands is then used to put the results of these models into a context for future conservation work. The models are intentionally simple, straightforward, utilize available data sources, and emphasize a ‘rapid-prototyping’ approach. An iterative and adaptive process, modeling provides support for land conservation planning while acknowledging limits in current knowledge and available resources. Besides providing a greater understanding of green infrastructure’s potential in central Minnesota, these models serve as a base for future augmentation, adaptation, and re-use based on the needs of local planning offices and land managing agencies.