SRLCC Grant: Assessing and Projecting Habitat Connectivity on Navajo Nation Lands

Provide oversight of the project – this will involve interacting with local stakeholders at all stages of the work, including but not limited to iterative dissemination and discussion of deliverables with tribal end-users.

Quantitatively assess the potential for movement of different species along multiple pathways; depicting spatially and temporally explicit scenarios of environmental change (graphical conceptual models, results chains, and accompanying narratives).

Develop conceptual models and results chains for locations or ecosystems that provide graphical representations of major management targets, direct human or natural drivers (also called stressors or threats) of the status and trend of those targets, and indirect drivers (also called root or underlying causes) that affect the direct drivers.

Collaborate with tribal staff and other stakeholders to develop alternative scenarios of energy development, expansion of transportation infrastructure and recreation, and other changes in land use and climate on Navajo Nation and adjacent lands. Project how these scenarios may affect future connectivity for the focal wildlife species and their habitats. Scenarios and model inputs and outputs will be spatially and temporally explicit and, where applicable, confidence intervals (uncertainties) will be quantified.