NH WILDLIFE CORRIDORS
Wildlife move to meet their needs such as finding food, reproducing, migrating between winter and summer habitats, and dispersing to a new territory. A wildlife corridor is a habitat linkage that joins two or more areas of wildlife habitat, allowing for fish passage or the movement of wildlife from one area to another (RSA 207:1 XXXVI).
Wildlife corridors are critical for the conservation of wildlife in New Hampshire. The loss of wildlife corridors may impact species and populations through direct mortality, habitat fragmentation, and creating barriers to dispersal. More specifically, mortality can affect the dispersal and viability of isolated populations, and eventually cause the loss of local populations. At greatest risk are slow-moving species (e.g., reptiles and amphibians), species that depend on high adult survivorship (e.g. turtle species), species that are long range dispersers (e.g. bobcats, American martens), and species with scarce populations (e.g. timber rattlesnakes). Large mammals crossing roadways (e.g., black bear, moose, and deer), although not likely to have population level impacts, cause safety concerns for motorists.
The NH Wildlife Corridors map shows corridors that connect core areas of wildlife habitat and can be used by conservation planners, landowners, land trusts, biologists, and others. The core areas of wildlife habitat are areas over 50 acres in size that are a priority in the New Hampshire Wildlife Action Plan (Highest Ranked Habitat in NH and/or Highest Ranked Habitat in Biological Regions). The statewide mapping was completed following a method used by The Nature Conservancy in the Connect-the-Coast project.
To create the map, first areas of wildlife movement and dispersal were identified using the NH Wildlife Connectivity Model (revised 2020). Then Linkage Mapper (a GIS tool for habitat connectivity analyses) was used to map connections between core wildlife habitats. Finally, the corridors where wildlife are predicted to most easily move, especially riparian corridors, were selected. This resulted in the 2021 NH Wildlife Corridors Map.
Two layers are provided: Wildlife corridors are the top-scoring linkages for all focal species combined (sum of scores) and may benefit multiple wildlife species with a variety of dispersal behaviors. Secondary corridors are the top-scoring linkages for each focal species considered individually.