Geodatabase containing opportunity areas for expanding Kirtland’s Warbler nesting habitat in Wisconsin and Upper Peninsula of Michigan

The Kirtland’s Warbler (Setophaga kirtlandii) was federally delisted under the U.S. Endangered Species Preservation Act of 1966 in October 2019 after more than 50 years of conservation and management activities. Expanding their nesting habitat is a key element in continuing conservation actions identified by the Kirtland’s Warbler Conservation Team. To this end, we used known characteristics of jack pine ecosystems suitable for nesting Kirtland’s Warblers to identify potential breeding habitat expansion opportunities across Wisconsin and Michigan's Upper Peninsula. These data are provided as a geodatabase and also via maps of Upper Michigan and Wisconsin, both of which display the LANDFIRE Environmental Site Potential (ESP) groups with and without excessively-drained dominant soil components and federal/state/local government lands with management potential. Source data were accessed in 2018.
The purpose of this study was to find opportunity areas for potential expansion of Kirtland’s Warbler nesting habitat in Upper Peninsula Michigan and Wisconsin.
A research map for these data is also available (Adams and Donner 2021; https://doi.org/10.2737/NRS-RMAP-12).