Landscape prioritization for longleaf pine conservation

We used NLCD 2011, SSURGO, and SEGAP data to map the density of desired resources for open pine ecosystems and six focal species of birds and 2 reptiles within the historic range of longleaf pine east of the Mississippi River. Binary rasters were created of sites with desired characteristics such as land form, hydrology, land use and land cover, soils, potential habitat for focal species, and putative source populations of focal species. Each raster was smoothed using a kernel density estimator. Rasters were combined and scaled to map priority locations for the management of each focal species. Species rasters were combined and scaled to provide maps of overall priority for birds and for birds and reptiles. For a complete description of the processing steps using in developing this data see: Grand, J.B. and K.J. Kleiner. 2016. Prioritizing landscapes for longleaf conservation. Cooperator Science Series. 48 pp. Available at: https://digitalmedia.fws.gov/cdm/singleitem/collection/document/id/2131/rec/1; Accessed 13 March 2017.