Many recent conservation efforts have applied GIS tools to the analysis and planning of potential wildlife corridors. Although several studies have documented animal movement through short corridors, few have tested whether longer corridors through human-dominated landscapes provide any long-term benefit for wildlife. Now, researchers at Northern Arizona University are trying to determine how effective existing corridors are at preventing the loss and fragmentation of habitat. They have launched a website, Do Corridors Work? to solicit help in identifying potential corridor study sites. As described on the website,
“The ideal study site will contain habitats linked by corridors, and will also contain two types of reference conditions: (1) habitat patches that are separated by approximately the same Euclidean distance as the patches linked by the corridor, and (2) a continuous expanse of habitat large enough to contain sampling locations as large and as widely separated as the patches connected by the corridor.”
The objectives of this research project are to determine if conservation corridors work and to catalog the characteristics of corridors that do work. To learn more, you can download their full paper, Desperately seeking stable 50-year-old landscapes with patches and long, wide corridors.