Project description (English)
The Adirondack-to-Laurentians (A2L) transboundary wildlife linkage connects wilderness areas in the northeastern United States with southeastern Canada. However, land conversion is putting wolf habitat amount and functional connectivity at risk. With the exception of protected areas, hunting and trapping of wolves and coyotes are permitted within the Québec and Ontario portions, while hunting and trapping coyotes are permitted within the New York portion where wolves have been extirpated. Thus, the fear of humans strongly influences wolf habitat selection in this region. We assessed the impact of land conversion on wolf habitat amount, habitat fragmentation, and functional connectivity in the A2L between 2000 and 2015 and identified potential suitable habitat patches and corridors for protection. Suitable habitat patch area decreased by 18,245 km2 (27%), with losses of 28% in the Québec portion, 95% in the Ontario portion, but only 0.3% in the New York portion. Habitat fragmentation, as measured by the effective mesh size, substantially increased in the Québec and Ontario portions, but only slightly in the New York portion. Functional connectivity significantly decreased, with mean distances and the cost of traveling these distances more than doubling. We propose nine recommendations centered on extensive habitat restoration and protected area expansion in the Québec and Ontario portions of the study area. Wolf recovery within the A2L will require collaborative and coordinated transboundary conservation and the protection of suitable habitat patches and corridors, or the legal protection of both wolves and coyotes within the suitable habitat patches and corridors, to ensure that wolves are not harvested as they disperse and colonize new locations.
Project description (French)
Main contact organization for the project
Concordia University
Partner organization(s)
The Nature Conservancy of Canada
Part of larger network(s)
Ecological Corridors
Project status
Ended
Start year of project
2022
Date of completion
2024-08-30
Primary ecosystem focus
Forested
Connectivity action
Corridors network design
Core priority area designation
Restoration
Research (Modelling)
Research (Evaluation of functional connectivity)
Policy and governance
Land protection
Land use planning
Standard keywords
Corridors
Stepping stone
Wildlife species with a special status
Keywords
Eastern wolf Gray wolf Habitat loss Effective mesh size Linkage mapper Circuitscape
Taxonomic Coverage
Mammals
Geographical coverage
Jurisdiction(s)
Quebec
Laurentides, Laval, Montréal
Location name
Quebec, Ontario, New York A2L