How to find - and fund - the lands that hold corridors together

Wildlife corridors are among the most important tools available for maintaining biodiversity in fragmented landscapes, yet protecting them requires making difficult decisions about where to focus limited resources.

As human development intensifies across the globe, the question of which lands to prioritize for conservation has become increasingly urgent. Identifying the right places demands not only ecological data, but an honest accounting of the human pressures threatening connectivity and the economic realities of land protection.

Bohnett, E., Hoctor, T., O’Brien, M., Thompson, E., Smith, D.J., Frank, K., Oetting, J. and Noss, R. 2026. Mapping human modification and conservation priorities across critical linkages of the Florida Wildlife Corridor. Discover Conservation, 3(1): 10. DOI: 10.1007/s44353-026-00078-y

Against that backdrop, new research from Florida reveals a statewide Human Modification Index (HMI) that goes well beyond traditional land cover classifications. By integrating over 40 geospatial data layers that span transportation networks, energy infrastructure, agriculture, pollution, and recreational use, the index captures the cumulative footprint of human activity at fine spatial resolution. This level of precision addresses a widely acknowledged gap in regional conservation planning: the tendency of broad-scale indices to miss the lower-intensity disturbances that erode habitat quality over time.

The research applied the HMI as a resistance surface within the Omniscape connectivity modeling framework, generating maps of cumulative and normalized current flow across the ten Priority 1 critical linkages of the Florida Wildlife Corridor. This revealed not only where connectivity exists, but where it’s being squeezed into “pinch points”, i.e. bottlenecks where wildlife movement is most concentrated and most vulnerable. These pinch points were then overlaid with biodiversity and natural community data to identify areas of simultaneous ecological value and connectivity stress.

The results underscore just how much ecological work a small fraction of the landscape is doing. Pinch points occupied roughly 1.6% of the total critical linkage area, yet accounted for 57% of top-tier connectivity flow. The proportion of flow concentrated in pinch points varied considerably across linkages, helping managers identify where intervention is most urgent. Corridors like Eglin–Apalachicola and Suwannee, where movement is heavily dependent on narrow bottlenecks, face the greatest risk of functional collapse if even small parcels are lost.

Critically, the ecological analysis was paired with economic reality. Using Florida’s tax parcel database, researchers estimated that protecting the highest-priority pinch points would require investments exceeding $948 million, giving planners a tool not just for identifying where to act but also how much those actions would cost.

For corridor practitioners nationwide, this study offers a transferable template. The combination of high-resolution human pressure mapping, connectivity modeling, biodiversity analysis, and parcel-level economic valuation can be adapted to other regions facing the same fundamental challenges: limited conservation dollars, accelerating land conversion, and the need to identify the small fraction of the landscape that holds disproportionate ecological value. The ability to pinpoint and protect these lands before they’re lost is critical to maintaining wildlife corridors as functional pathways into the future.

State	Year	Policy	Description
New Hampshire	2019	SB200	Requires the New Hampshire Department of Transportation to consider fish and wildlife crossings and mitigation measures in all future road and culvert projects
New Hampshire	2016	SB376	Requires the fish and game department to identify existing and needed wildlife corridors connecting wildlife habitats in the state and to make recommendations for legislative changes

State	Year	Policy	Description
Maine	2023	LD258	Appropriates $7.5 million to Department of Transportation to improve roadways with potential adaptations for wildlife
Maine	2023	LD1881	Establishes compensation fee program relating to fish and wildlife habitats and associated corridors, including compensation paid by solar energy development
Maine	2023	LD508	Requires Department of Environmental Protection to review its permitting laws concerning climate change, habitat connectivity, ecological resilience, and coastal environments

State	Year	Policy	Description
New Jersey	2025	S3618	Directs state agencies to develop a Wildlife Corridor Action Plan
New Jersey	2024	S3916/A5486	Expands eligibility for existing wildlife fencing programs by including farmers leasing farmland
New Jersey	2007	NJAC7:13	Requires the state to incorporate wildlife crossings or a natural bank for terrestrial threatened and endangered species and/or species of concern when a new bridge or culvert project would cause habitat fragmentation

State	Year	Policy	Description
New Mexico	2023	SB72	Appropriates money to new Wildlife Corridors Fund for implementation of wildlife crossing projects under New Mexico Wildlife Corridor Action Plan
New Mexico	2022	HB 2	Allocates funding for projects to reduce wildlife-vehicle collisions and allows the Department of Transportation and Department of Game to implement their Wildlife Corridors Action Plan
New Mexico	2019	SB 228	Requires the creation of a Wildlife Corridor Action Plan that includes comprehensive guidance to agencies for identifying, prioritizing and maintaining important areas for wildlife movement

State	Year	Policy	Description
Washington	2023	HB1216/SB5196	Requires Department of Ecology to prepare environmental impact statements for clean energy projects that consider impacts to habitat connectivity and wildlife migration corridors
Washington	2022	SB5689	Provides funding for US 97 Wildlife Crossing Improvements project
Washington	2019	SEO 1031.02	Recognizes the effect of roadways in creating barriers to wildlife movement, breeding, and migrations; the Washington State Department of Transportation will promote and support Practical Solutions and Planning and Environmental Linkages to integrate habitat connectivity and biodiversity plans; will make use of the highway prioritization map known as Habitat Connectivity Investment Priorities; and will corporate and coordinate with other agencies involved in wildlife habitat protection, specifically along highways

Connecting Science to Conservation

How to find – and fund – the lands that hold corridors together

Bohnett, E., Hoctor, T., O’Brien, M., Thompson, E., Smith, D.J., Frank, K., Oetting, J. and Noss, R. 2026. Mapping human modification and conservation priorities across critical linkages of the Florida Wildlife Corridor. Discover Conservation, 3(1): 10. DOI: 10.1007/s44353-026-00078-y

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About the Author: Heather Cayton