Evaluation

Once management areas with appropriate management activities were designated, there was a need to develop measures for evaluating the effectiveness of the proposed conservation plan. Specifically, it was important to answer the following questions: Are Core/Wildlife Corridor Protection Areas large, contiguous blocks of habitat that reduce existing fragmentation and establish forest interior habitat linkages within and outside of the watershed? How effective is the proposed conservation plan, relative to currently protected areas, in protecting forest interior habitat and element occurrences of sensitive species?

The GIS facilitated the modeling of different Plan alternatives, and was particularly useful to visually determine if the proposed conservation plan included contiguous blocks of forest interior habitat which connected existing forest interior fragments, and in calculating protection effectiveness. A GIS analysis was used to compare the effectiveness of protection under current management area designations, and under the designations proposed in the Chattooga Conservation Plan. Success was measured by comparing the percentage of critical habitat within the Core/Wildlife Corridor Protection Areas of the proposed conservation plan, relative to the currently protected areas. A significant percentage increase in the protection of existing and potential old growth forest and Natural Heritage Element Occurrence Record (EOR) sites in conjunction with large blocks of unfragmented forest habitat were considered essential in the approval of a final proposed conservation plan for the Chattooga River watershed. Results of the comparison are described in the "Evaluation" section below.

To assess the quality of the conservation plan, the percentage of (1) existing old growth, (2) CISC stands greater than 100 years old, and (3) threatened and endangered species sightings encompassed by currently protected areas was compared to the percentage encompassed by the proposed core areas. Table 1 summarizes the results of this evaluation.

Comparison of Currently Protected Areas Versus Proposed Core Areas