GIS rasters to identify sites for creating habitat for American Woodcock in Rhode Island

The University of Rhode Island has conducted several studies of habitat
use of Scolopax minor (American Woodcock) in Rhode Island, USA. In 2020 we
developed a new species distribution model (SDM) tool to identify
sites in the Rhode Island where forest clearcutting to create young forest
habitat would have the most positive effect for American woodcock. A
typical SDM predicts the probability of presence (POP) of a species at any
location based on an analysis of known occurrences and environmental
variables, but it cannot predict how much the POP of a species would
change after a new patch of young forest is created in any location. We
believe that our new tool is effective, and that it will help
landowners identify the best locations on their properties to
improve woodcock habitat. We also believe that similar tools can be
developed for other wildlife species of conservation concern. We created
the new tool by modifying the existing 2018 SDM raster for American
Woodcock in Rhode Island. Creating the tool involved creating four new
ArcGIS raster datasets. The existing 2018 SDM raster and the four new
rasters are now publicly available in a geodatabase in the Dryad
repository.