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The purpose of the Oregon PAC dataset is to provide a broad-scale filter to assist planners, county, state, and federal agencies to identify areas of likely high- and low-resource conflict. This layer provides names to easily identify specific PACs and to combine some smaller polygons of core habitat into single units. The data will be used in conjunction with the pending Supplement to the Greater Sage-grouse Conservation Assessment and Strategy (2011) and will align with the ODFW "Oregon Conservation Strategy" for all species that was completed in 2005 and is currently under revision with a planned completion date in 2015. ODFW, SageCon, and BLM Oregon have grouped Core Areas into biologically meaningful units for future management and monitoring that represent key habitat areas as determined by breeding bird densities, winter habitat use, and connective habitat use. These units are called "Priority Areas for Conservation" or PACs and represent approximately 90% of the breeding population within 38% of the species range in Oregon. [new paragraph] Oregon PACs were created by examining the geography of core habitat areas and past greater sage-grouse male lek attendance counts ("lek counts"). Some grouping decisions were made on the basis of (1) the geographic isolation of an area (due to the presence of biological or physical barriers); (2) the need for sufficient past lek count data to develop trend statistics for monitoring under new policies under development in anticipation of the 2015 listing decision for greater sage-grouse; and (3) location relative to population and WAFWA Sage-grouse Management Zone boundaries. For example, core habitats currently identified as Folly Farm and the Saddle Butte were combined because there are no geophsyical barriers between the core habitat areas and the core area occurring in the Saddle Butte Action Area has only 8 lek-count associated records . In addition, preliminary assessments of habitat connectivity using circuit theory suggest that the areas are connected. The boundary between the Northern Great Basin population and Western Great Basin population was a major consideration in deciding where to divide the Trout Creeks PAC and Louse Canyon PAC. Except for the Folly Farm/Saddle Butte PAC, which crosses two populations, all Oregon PACs fall into one of Oregon's four recognized WAFWA populations. Thus, Oregon PACs can be "rolled up" to the WAFWA population scale. In Oregon, population boundaries have been modified to coincide with the WAFWA Sage-grouse Management Zones IV and V boundaries allowing for roll up to the management zones as well as the population level. |