The Hub Conservation Area - Montanans 4 Safe Wildlife Passage

may not provide functional connectivity for agrizzly bear.Measuring connectivityWhen incorporating landscape connectivityinto land management planning, existing andpotential connectivity for an area must bemeasured. To measure existing connectivity,Tischendorf and Fahrig (2000) suggestmeasuring a species’ movements across thelandscape. Although landscape structure,species abundance and distribution are relatedto connectivity, they are not direct measuresof it. The actual movement of a species in alandscape is the only true indicator of existinglandscape connectivity.Though it is not a measure of existingconnectivity, landscape structure is animportant indicator of potential connectivity.To predict whether an animal will use a habitat,it is important to understand the complexitiesinherent in the relationship between theanimal and the landscape (With and Crist,1995). Understanding the habitat an animalrequires and the spatial and habitat qualityconsiderations that form an animal’s habitatchoice are critical when creating functionalconnectivity. Belisle (2005) suggests that anintegration of animal behavior into the study oflandscape ecology would enhance understandingof the choices an animal makes in this habitatselection process.Corridors as a managementapproach to connectivityCorridors are a means by which landscapeconnectivity is incorporated into landmanagement plans. A corridor is a linearhabitat, embedded in a dissimilar matrix, thatconnects two or more larger blocks of habitatand that is proposed for conservation on thegrounds that it will enhance or maintain theviability of specific wildlife populations in thehabitat blocks (Beier and Noss, 1998). Theterm corridor was originally coined in 1975 byWilson and Willis and is based on the equilibriumtheory of island biogeography (MacArthur andWilson, 1967), which states that a dynamicequilibrium exists between the extinction ofspecies in a defined location and the randomimmigration of new species. Inherent in thestudy of corridor conservation is the theory ofmetapopulation (Perrow and Davy, 2002) whichstates that a metapopulation within a definedarea consists of multiple subpopulations. Whena subpopulation ceases to exist in one section ofthe defined area, the metapopulation persistsbecause of the continuation or emergence of asubpopulation within the same defined area.Functional connectivity of corridorsMore recently, a corridor has been defined as aspace, usually linear in shape that improves theability of organisms to move among patches ofEast side of Bridger Range,photo by Grace Hammond37