Data from: Prioritizing land management efforts at a landscape scale: a case study using prescribed fire in Wisconsin

One challenge in the effort to conserve biodiversity is identifying where to prioritize resources for active land management. Cost-benefit analyses have been used successfully as a conservation tool to identify sites that provide the greatest conservation benefit per unit cost. Our goal was to apply cost-benefit analysis to the question of how to prioritize land management efforts, in our case the application of prescribed fire to natural landscapes in Wisconsin, USA. We quantified and mapped frequently burned communities, and prioritized management units based on a suite of indices that captured ecological benefits, management effort, and the feasibility of successful long-term management actions. Data for these indices came from LANDFIRE, Wisconsin's Wildlife Action Plan, and a nationwide Wildland Urban Interface assessment. We found that the majority of frequently burned vegetation types occurred in the southern portion of the state. However, the highest-priority areas for applying prescribed fire occurred in the central, northwest, and northeast portion of the state where frequently burned vegetation patches were larger and where identified areas of high biological importance area occurred. Although our focus was on the use of prescribed fire in Wisconsin, our methods can be adapted to prioritize other land management activities. Such prioritization is necessary to achieve the greatest possible benefits from limited funding for land management actions, and our results show that it is feasible at scales that are relevant for land management decisions.生物多样性保护实践中的一项核心难题，在于如何明确主动土地管理的资源优先配置方向。成本效益分析已被成功用作保护工具，用以识别单位投入所能带来最大保护效益的区域。本研究旨在将成本效益分析应用于土地管理工作的优先排序问题，本次研究的具体应用场景为美国威斯康星州自然景观的计划烧除（prescribed fire）作业。本研究对高频火烧群落进行了量化与制图，并基于一系列涵盖生态效益、管理投入及长期管理行动成功可行性的综合指标，对管理单元进行了优先排序。上述指标的数据来源于LANDFIRE数据库、威斯康星州野生动物行动计划，以及一项全国性的荒野-城市交界区（Wildland Urban Interface）评估项目。研究发现，绝大多数高频火烧植被类型分布于该州南部区域。但计划烧除的最高优先区域则集中于该州中部、西北部与东北部——这些区域不仅高频火烧植被斑块规模更大，同时也分布着经识别的高生物重要性区域。尽管本研究聚焦于威斯康星州的计划烧除作业，但其研究方法可被适配用于其他土地管理活动的优先排序工作。鉴于土地管理资金有限，开展此类优先排序工作是实现最大化保护效益的必要前提，而本研究结果表明，该方法在与土地管理决策相匹配的尺度下具备可行性。