Appendix 3
Reference Document 3-1
(a) < 100 km 2 (< about 40 mi 2 ) (b) 100 - 250 km 2 (c) 250-1,000 km 2
(d) 1,000-5,000 km 2 (e) 5,000-20,000 km 2 (f) 20,000-200,000 km 2 (g) 200,000-2,500,000 km 2 (h) >2,500,000 km 2
[North Carolina has 125,920 km 2 ]
[The US has about 6.8 million km 2 ]
(i) Unknown
Metric 4. Distribution Trend (long-term) . A species may be more vulnerable to extinction when its range becomes fragmented or too small to support its population. The persistence of rare species may be more limited when habitat impacts are long-term and the fragmentation leads to increased local competition between species for reduced resources (Hanski 2008, Wahlberg et al. 1996, Millsap et al. 1990) . This evaluation considers changes to distribution because of habitat loss or change that may have occurred from European settlement up to recent historical periods more than 20 years ago. For example, the fragmentation and reduction of longleaf pine acreage that began with European settlers using the forests as a resource for military naval stores (Frost 1993) has resulted in significant impacts to distribution of wildlife species adapted to this community type, especially red-cockaded woodpecker and gopher frog. Conversely, some species have adapted and thrive in urban/suburban settings (e.g., raccoon, gray squirrel) and are expanding. Another example is the frequent availability of early successional habitat associated with harvest rotations on timber plantations. This land use practice may allow larger populations of prairie warblers to occur in these areas than would have occurred historically with natural landscapes. The answer scale is adopted from the NatureServe evaluation tool (NatureServe 2012a) . Scores are assigned based on the estimated % change in area occupied by the species.
What is the estimated % change in area occupied by the species?
(a) Decrease of >90% (b) Decrease of 80 - 90% (c) Decrease of 70 - 80% (d) Decrease of 50 - 70% (e) Decrease of 30 - 50% (f) Decrease of 10 - 30% (g) Relatively Stable (≤ 10% increase or decrease) (h) Increasing (≥ 10% increase)
2015 NC Wildlife Action Plan
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