71st SWCS International Annual Conference July 24-27, 2016 Louisville, KY

1. Mississippi River Basin – Gulf Hypoxia Initiative
Integrating Basin‐Wide Challenges from
Grassland Birds to Gulf Shrimp
SWCS 2016
Michael Schwartz
The Conservation Fund

2. Precision Conservation Blueprint v.1
Next Step: Where? > Targeting conservation delivery
Bottomland Forest in
Upper Basin Floodplains

3. Precision Conservation Blueprint
 GOALS
 Benefit Species Conservation
 Benefit Water Quality
 Benefit Agricultural Production
 OBJECTIVES
 Leverage Investments
 Where are the interests?
 First Step – Identify Landscapes
 Where are the opportunities?
 Second Step – Identify Site Scale Opportunities
 Where can these opportunities benefit habitat?
 Third Step – Evaluate Landscape Context

4. Landscape
 Opportunity Landscapes ‐ Where Are The Interests?
 Where are investments occurring?
 Conservation
 Water Quality
 Where are agricultural nutrient loads focused?
 Where are the production systems focused?
 Data Used to Identify Opportunity Landscapes
 Nutrient Loads
 Conservation Interests
 Water Quality Interests
 Distribution of agricultural production systems

5. Landscape
 Opportunity Landscapes
 Water Quality Priority Zone
 Highest potential for nutrient loads from agriculture =
Water Quality Opportunities
 Conservation and Watershed Interest Focal Areas
 Leveraging Opportunities
 Species Opportunities
 Water Quality Opportunities
 Production Systems
 System Specific Opportunities
 Corn & Soybeans
 Cotton
 Rice
 Grazing

6. Landscape
 Water Quality Priority Zone
 Highest loads from Ag sources – USGS SPARROW (2002)
 Highest proportion of cropland – Current Era

7. Conservation Interests

8. Watershed Interests

9. Production Systems

10. Landscape
 Pilot Basins
 Maximum Alignment
 Water Quality
Priority Zone
 Conservation
Interests
 Watershed Interests
 Production Systems
 Multi‐Benefit Landscapes
 Tier 1: Have the highest
nutrient load potential
and the highest amount
of implementation
interest
 Tier 2: Have either lower
load potential or lower
implementation interest
than Tier 1 pilot basins

11. Site
 Where Are the Site‐Scale Opportunities?
 Where are the least profitable agricultural lands?
 Gridded SSURGO – National Commodity Crop Productivity Index
 Marginal Crop Field = Mean NCCPI below threshold for most productive
lands
 Which sites are most conducive to wetland restoration?
 Gridded SSURGO – Potential Wetland Soil Landscapes
 Site Context
 Which sites can provide highest benefit for water quality?
 Cropland in riparian zone
 Forest/Wetland/Prairie restoration opportunities
 Tile drainage areas
 Where Are the Opportunities to Enhance Habitat?
 Which of these sites are contiguous to existing habitat or along a habitat
corridor?

12. Site

13. Site
Outputs
 Marginal Cropland
 Contiguous to existing habitat
 Contiguous to aquatic, forest, or grassland corridor
 Wet Cropland
 Within tile drainage area
 Contiguous to aquatic or wetland corridor
 Cropland in Riparian Zone
 Marginal
 Wet
 Contiguous to existing habitat
 Mainstem Bottomlands – Large River Floodplains
 Identify lands suitable for reforestation
 Identify opportunities to expand existing forest patches
 Identify potential large forest blocks (> 500 acres)

14. Corn/Soybean
Opportunities

15. Benefits
 Agricultural Benefits
 Focus on least productive lands – Marginal Cropland
 Wildlife Benefits
 Enhance Existing Habitat
 Enhance Connectivity
 Create New Habitat
 Leverage Aligned Conservation Interests
 Aquatic Benefits (Species/Water Quality/Hypoxia)
 Enhance Existing Habitat
 Enhance Connectivity (Riparian)
 Create New Habitat
 Drainage Water Management
 Leverage Aligned Watershed Interests
 Focus on Water Quality Priority Zone

16. Data Delivery
 Data Basin
 Hosted by Conservation Biology Institute
 Data Discovery
 Online Mapping
 ScienceBase
 Hosted by USGS
 Data Storage
 Metadata
 Data Access
 Map Services
 Direct Download

17. QUESTIONS?
MichaelSchwartz@conservationfund.org
Gwen_White@fws.gov
Jorgen_Rose@fws.gov
 Gulf Hypoxia Initiative Site: www.tallgrassprairielcc.org/issue/gulf‐hypoxia
 Con. Blueprint Resources: tallgrassprairielcc.org/gulf‐hypoxia/where
 Data Basin GHI Site: tinyurl.com/MRB‐GHI‐DataBasin
 ScienceBase GHI Site: tinyurl.com/MRB‐GHI‐ScienceBase