Software for Evaluating the Impact of Forest Management Plans on Wildlife

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase II project will develop a software tool for evaluating the impact of forest management practices on the viability of endangered and threatened species. The objective of such a tool is to provide a generic, flexible and user-friendly platform for developing species-specific models that allow planners and managers to explore the viability of an endangered species under alternative forest management and conservation options. The proposed software tool will combine a landscape model that predicts changes in the structure of a species' habitat, with a spatially structured, stochastic metapopulation model that estimates the extinction risk of the species. Such a tool will enable more realistic evaluation of the conservation practices and management options, such as schedule and type of timber harvest, design of nature reserves, reintroductions and translocations. It will also enable more accurate assessment of the impact of human activities (such as forestry practices, road building, agricultural expansion, and dam construction) on the fate of endangered and threatened species. The research will involve developing, integrating and testing algorithms for producing, exporting and interpreting habitat maps and for building models for species which live in multiple patches that change through time, such as in fragmented habitats.