AUTHOR: Evan Frost, MSc, Ecologist, Wildwood Consulting
A Review and Synthesis of Ecological Connectivity Assessments Relevant to the Cascade-Siskiyou Landscape in Southwest Oregon and Adjacent California
The Cascade-Siskiyou landscape in southwest Oregon and adjacent California is widely recognized for supporting outstanding levels of biodiversity, and ecological connectivity has been frequently identified as a key attribute associated with creating and sustaining this diversity.
However, to date, no systematic attempt has been made to compile existing evidence demonstrating the area’s connectivity values or identify the location of specific areas that most contribute to maintaining this important ecological function across the landscape.
The primary goal of this report is to synthesize all readily available, spatially-explicit evidence concerning ecological connectivity in and adjacent to a 4,500 mi2 (~11,700 km2) focus area, loosely centered around the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument.
A thorough search of published and unpublished literature identified 22 relevant studies from 1999-2018 that analyzed ecological connectivity in some way across all or portions of southwest Oregon and adjacent California. Short summaries are presented for each of these 22 papers, covering:
- primary study goals,
- geographic extent,
- focus or overall approach to connectivity assessment,
- essential aspects of analytical methods, and
- map-based results relevant to the Cascade-Siskiyou focus area.
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