Does a Safe Harbor Program enhance connectivity?

The Safe Harbor Program (SHP) is an incentive based conservation program adopted by the US Fish and Wildlife Service to encourage private property owners to manage their lands in a way that supports federally protected species.  Implemented in 1995, its use has steadily grown to include over 35 endangered species, but there is still uncertainty in how the SHP impacts population connectivity of target species.  Using the inaugural species for the SHP, Red-cockaded Woodpecker (Picoides borealis: RCW), Anne Trainor and colleagues recently evaluated the program’s effectiveness in whether breeding territories on SHP properties contributed positively to overall population connectivity.  They also examined how encroaching urbanization might influence future enrollment potential in the SHP.  The study focused on RCW’s in mature longleaf pine forest of the Sandhills ecoregion of central North Carolina, which supports a large population, has extensive long-term data available, and a majority of land is privately owned.

By using a large movement dataset and connectivity analysis, the authors found that SHP agreements increase connectivity beyond the managed properties and can create a bridge for populations between private and government-managed lands.  Private properties enrolled in the SHP promote dispersal between territories and can act as stepping-stone corridors to support greater movement of individuals.  In addition, the authors were successfully able to identify which type of management action would be most appropriate for each breeding territory to increase individual movement and enhance overall population connectivity.  Unfortunately, encroaching urban growth has the potential to not only eliminate additional breeding habitat, but to indirectly negatively impact populations on protected lands by limiting dispersal opportunities.  Overall, the SHP seems to be a highly effective way to manage RCW populations and promote connectivity between private and non-private lands, and potentially provides the same connectivity benefits for other species under its protection.