{ "culture": "en-US", "name": "", "guid": "", "catalogPath": "", "snippet": "The 2025 Connecticut State Wildlife Action Plan conservation opportunity areas (COAs) represent locations partners can conduct actions to benefit wildlife populations and habitats and achieve State Wildlife Action Plan Goals. There are 7 total COAs that represent broad actions: protect, connect, restore, manage, partner, inform, and research and monitor. This effort combined ecological and social data in a spatial prioritization software called Zonation to identify priority areas that reflect the 7 actions. Each COA has different ecological and/or social data included to reflect its unique goal.", "description": "

Protect COA<\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/P>

Data included:<\/SPAN><\/SPAN> The goal of the Protect COA is to move land into a legal status, permanently protecting it from development or other transformation that would alter the major ecological characteristics. The ecological data used habitat suitability maps based on the best available data for 14 species of greatest conservation need (SGCN). The 14 species modeled were American oystercatcher (<\/SPAN><\/SPAN>Haematopus palliatus<\/SPAN><\/SPAN>), eastern whip-poor-will (<\/SPAN><\/SPAN>Antrostomus vociferus<\/SPAN><\/SPAN>), bridle shiner (<\/SPAN><\/SPAN>Notropis bifrenatus<\/SPAN><\/SPAN>), brook trout (<\/SPAN><\/SPAN>Salvelinus fontinalis<\/SPAN><\/SPAN>), eastern hog-nosed snake (<\/SPAN><\/SPAN>Heterodon platirhinos<\/SPAN><\/SPAN>), ribbonsnake (<\/SPAN><\/SPAN>Thamnophis saurita saurita<\/SPAN><\/SPAN>), spotted turtle (<\/SPAN><\/SPAN>Clemmys guttata<\/SPAN><\/SPAN>), wood turtle (<\/SPAN><\/SPAN>Glyptemys insculpta<\/SPAN><\/SPAN>), eastern pondmussel (<\/SPAN><\/SPAN>Ligumia nasuta<\/SPAN><\/SPAN>), frosted elfin (<\/SPAN><\/SPAN>Callophrys irus<\/SPAN><\/SPAN>), tiger spiketail (<\/SPAN><\/SPAN>Cordulegaster erronea<\/SPAN><\/SPAN>), yellow-banded bumble bee (<\/SPAN><\/SPAN>Bombus terricola<\/SPAN><\/SPAN>), New England cottontail (<\/SPAN><\/SPAN>Sylvilagus transitionalis<\/SPAN><\/SPAN>), and tricolored bat (<\/SPAN><\/SPAN>Perimyotis subflavus<\/SPAN><\/SPAN>). These 14 species represent one or more key habitats and/or a taxonomic group. The key habitats included open upland, forested upland, estuarine, palustrine, land water interface, lacustrine, and riverine. The key habitat maps were compiled from existing geospatial data including the <\/SPAN><\/SPAN>NOAA 1 m Coastal Change Analysis Program Landcover Data<\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/A>, <\/SPAN><\/SPAN>Connecticut Young Forest and Shrubland Habitat Map<\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/A>, <\/SPAN><\/SPAN>USGS National Hydrography Dataset Plus<\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/A>, <\/SPAN><\/SPAN>Connecticut Hydrography Set<\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/A>, and <\/SPAN><\/SPAN>Connecticut and Vicinity Town Boundary Set<\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/A>.<\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/P>

View the full methods for all COAs in Appendix 4.6 in the <\/SPAN><\/SPAN>2025 CT State Wildlife Action Plan<\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/A>. <\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/P>

Spatial Prioritization:<\/SPAN><\/SPAN> Zonation software iteratively ranks each pixel in a 10.0 m resolution grid of Connecticut for its conservation value and gives each cell a score based on that ranking, prioritizing areas with a high density of layers, balance between layers, and minimizing conservation loss. Rank values range from 0-1, with 1 having the highest conservation value and 0 having the lowest. Each layer is given a relative weight based on its importance compared to the other layers used, where a positive higher weight makes that layer a higher conservation priority compared to the other layers. All 14 SGCN habitat suitability models and the 7 key habitat maps were input into Zonation with equally positive weights of 1.0. The rank values above 0.80 or top 20% of values were extracted to create the Protect COA. To reflect the goal of the Protect COA to create new protected areas, areas currently under local, state, or federal protection were excluded from the final Protect COA. Existing protected areas were compiled from <\/SPAN><\/SPAN>Connecticut Protected Open Space Mapping Set<\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/A>, <\/SPAN><\/SPAN>Federal Open Space Data<\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/A>, <\/SPAN><\/SPAN>USGS Protected Areas Database<\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/A>, <\/SPAN><\/SPAN>Aquifer Protection Areas<\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/A>, <\/SPAN><\/SPAN>Connecticut DEEP property<\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/A>, <\/SPAN><\/SPAN>Connecticut Fisheries Management Areas Set<\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/A>, and <\/SPAN><\/SPAN>Connecticut Surface Water Quality (class AA)<\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/A>.<\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/P>

Intended uses:<\/SPAN><\/SPAN> Partners interested in purchasing land or changing the land protection status may use this COA. This map identifies areas of overlap of multiple SGCN and key habitats and protecting these areas would provide benefits to multiple species. This map does not indicate lands that are available for purchase, zoning, or land cost. This map may also be used to support grant applications or review of properties for potential development. Partners interested in protecting specific habitats or identifying the location of key habitats can refer to the key habitat maps.<\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/P>

Recommended actions (example actions):<\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/P>