The Sierra Streams Institute (SSI) is a nonprofit based in the Bear River Watershed of California, northeast of Sacramento. SSI focuses on habitat conservation and restoration. For this project, SSI was interested in locating and prioritizing areas in the Bear River Watershed for habitat restoration projects.
In addition, this project also included habitat suitability modeling and species distribution modeling for ten top priority species present in the Bear River Watershed. Using R scripting, MaxEnt modeling, and ArcMap cartographic tools, Dale built flexible and adaptable habitat suitability models and species distribution models. These results will help Sierra Streams protect those 10 species within the Bear River Watershed.
Finally, Dale built a prioritization model in close collaboration with SSI scientists. This prioritization model successfully located and ranked dozens of land parcels across the watershed ideally suited for restoration projects, varying in scale, ecosystem, and state of degradation. SSI will use these results to target their future habitat restoration efforts and build a more sustainable, natural Bear River Watershed.
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