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HABITAT GROUP PRIORITIZATION

In the West, vegetation associations are mostly uniform within specific habitats and, as most things in nature, do not end at state boundaries. Many of the states within the Western Working Group (WWG) region of Partners In Flight have habitats in common, with the exception of Alaska and California. To coordinate bird conservation planning across boundaries and strive for similar biological objectives for shared species, WY-PIF participants developed a common, general nomenclature for habitat types. Each state in the WWG defined habitat types with the specific differences in their state, but based their hierarchies on the WWG habitat group headings (riparian, grassland, forest, and shrubland) (Table 11).

During the draft planning phase, we determined the highest priority habitats on which to focus initial efforts based on the needs of the highest priority avian species and the number of species that occur in each habitat type. (This initial prioritization of habitat types was based on primary habitats used for breeding, but when determining biological objectives—both population and habitat objectives—habitats used during migration and winter were also considered.) When converted to graph form, it becomes clear that the highest priority habitat types for breeding birds in Wyoming are Montane Riparian, Plains/Basin Riparian, Wetlands, Shortgrass Prairie, High Elevation Conifer, Mid Elevation Conifer, Juniper Woodland, Shrub-steppe, and Mountain-foothills Shrub based on both the number and percent of priority breeding bird species that require that habitat type (Figure 4). The habitat types that Version 2.0 of this Plan addresses include: Montane Riparian, Plains/Basin Riparian, Wetlands, Aquatic, Meadows, Shortgrass Prairie, Alpine Tundra/Grassland, High Elevation Conifer, Mid Elevation Conifer, Low Elevation Conifer, Aspen, Juniper Woodland, Shrub-steppe, Mountain-foothills Shrub, and Specialized Habitats (Cliffs, Rock Outcrops, and Canyons) (Table 11).

Table 11. Wyoming Partners In Flight habitat groups, habitat types, and descriptions. (The five highest priority habitat types for Wyoming are in italics.)

Habitat Group Habitat Type	General Habitat Type Description
Riparian
Montane Riparian	Dominated by willows, alder, dogwood, Rocky Mountain maple, and water birch; can include narrowleaf cottonwood, spruce, and sedges/rushes; occurs in a mountain setting.
Plains/Basin Riparian	Dominated by cottonwoods, elderberry, buffaloberry, introduced Russian olive, boxelder, willows, green ash, American elm, snowberry, chokecherry, Virginia creeper, and/or grasses/ rushes/sedges; occurs in a lower elevation setting.
Wetlands	Areas where water is present most of the time; includes marshes, shallow water, and areas with water-saturated soil; vegetation includes cattails, rushes, sedges, bulrushes, and willows.
Aquatic	Dominated by open, deep water; includes lakes, ponds, and reservoirs.
Meadows	Includes wet-moist meadows and wet-moist meadow grasslands. Dominated by forbs and non-wetland grasses.
Grassland
Shortgrass Prairie	Includes but may not be limited to blue grama, buffalo grass, wheatgrass, bluestem, and needle-and-thread grass; includes mixed grass species in localized areas.
Alpine Tundra/Grassland	Tundra, alpine meadows, boulder fields, above 11,000 feet.
Forest
High Elevation Conifer	Dominated by Engelmann spruce/subalpine fir; can include lodgepole pine, whitebark pine, limber pine, and aspen.
Mid Elevation Conifer	Mixed conifer; pure or mixed stands that can include limber pine, Douglas-fir, lodgepole pine, blue spruce, and/or ponderosa pine; can include aspen.
Low Elevation Conifer	Dominated by ponderosa pine and Douglas-fir.
Aspen	Dominated by aspen; can include meadows or conifers.
Shrubland
Juniper Woodland	Dominated by juniper, but may include other species.
Shrub-steppe	Dominated by sagebrush, greasewood, saltbush, and rabbitbrush; can include a grass component.
Mountain-foothills Shrub	Pure or mixed shrub stands that can include but are not limited to mountain mahogany, serviceberry, Gambel oak, bitterbrush, skunkbush sumac, snowberry, hawthorn, wild plum, chokecherry, and boxelder.
Other Habitat Groups
Agricultural Lands	Includes pasture, croplands, irrigated native meadows, shelterbelts, and Conservation Reserve Program lands.
Urban	Human settlement.
Specialized Habitats	Areas having unique characteristics such as rock outcrops, cliffs, caves, shorelines, banks, burns, buildings, mines, roadsides, logging, etc.
Generalist	Species that breed in any habitat type.

Priority Habitat Types: MR Montane Riparian LEC Low Elevation Conifer

P/BR Plains/Basin Riparian ASP Aspen

WET Wetlands JW Juniper Woodland

AQU Aquatic SS Shrub-steppe

MEA Meadows MFS Mountain-foothills Shrub

SGP Shortgrass Prairie AL Agricultural Lands

AT/G Alpine Tundra/Grassland URB Urban

HEC High Elevation Conifer SH Specialized Habitats

MEC Mid Elevation Conifer GEN Generalist

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