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ACJV Planning Process —
Flyway, Regional and Local Scales

Habitat Branch | ACJV Home | Planning Process | Future Endeavors
This link opens in a new windowDivison of Bird Habitat Conservation – Washington Office

In order to be effective in such a large and diverse area, planning and implementation of bird habitat conservation takes place at a variety of scales in the JV including flyway, regional, and local scales.

Flyway Scale and Coastwide Efforts

The ACJV area includes the entire U.S. Atlantic Coast lying completely within the U.S. portion of the Atlantic Flyway. In this large area, the JV partners work together to assess the status, trends, and needs of bird populations and their habitats. The partners then use this information to help guide the distribution of resources to the needs/issues of highest priority. For example, the USFWS Adaptive Management and Assessment Team is working with the JV to assess the status and trends of wetland habitats in the U.S. portion of the Atlantic Flyway.

Flyways have been used for many years in North America as the unit for managing waterfowl populations because they allow land managers to link efforts to conserve migratory bird species and their habitats on breeding, migration, and wintering grounds.

Regional Scale Efforts in Bird Conservation Regions

The ACJV area contains a diversity of habitat types from the boreal forests of Maine to the mangrove swamps and coral reefs of Florida and Puerto Rico. At the regional scale the JV is working on integrated planning efforts in the eight Bird Conservation Regions (BCRs) partially or wholly within the JV. To view an interactive map of the Bird Conservation Regions, please visit this site.

These large physiographically-based regions tend to have similar biotic (e.g. vegetation) and abiotic (e.g. bedrock geology, climate) features that are useful for assessing conservation priorities and determining the importance of a particular region relative to other regions of the continent. For example, at least 90% of the breeding distribution of the rare Bicknell’s Thrush occurs in the Atlantic Northern Forest BCR and thus protecting the spruce-fir habitats used by this species is a continental priority for this region.

Regional integration efforts have moved forward in the South Atlantic Migratory Bird Initiative, Lower Great Lakes - St. Lawrence Plain, and the Atlantic Northern Forest Bird Conservation Regions, resulting in an assessment of priorities that allows the partners to identify, work together and implement priority habitat conservation projects in these regions. Refined through habitat analyses, mapping, and models, implementation of these priorities happens through state working groups and other partnerships.

Other types of regions are also important for planning and implementing habitat conservation in the JV especially in the coastal area where partnerships have formed around major estuaries such as the Chesapeake and Delaware Bays. The ACJV has a Chesapeake Bay Work Group that exchanges information and works together on wetland conservation projects seeking funding through the NAWCA grant program and the National Coastal Wetlands Conservation Grant Program.

Focus Area Scale

Focus areas, specific, important geographic areas, have been identified and mapped for waterfowl and are being developed for other migratory birds within BCRs. These focus areas are discrete and distinguishable habitats or habitat complexes that are regionally important for one or more priority species during one or more life history stages.

Focus Area Maps:

The links below will open maps in Adobe pdf format in a new window. For many browsers, you may use the left mouse button to view the maps on line. To download the maps to your own computer, use the right mouse button, then choose either “Save Target As” or “Save Link As” from the pop-up menu.

You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader software Version 5 or above to read these maps. If you do not have this software, you may obtain a free copy by visiting the Miscellaneous Links page.

Once a particular focus or project area is identified through regional or flyway scale planning efforts, joint venture partners bring together resources to implement the projects at the specific focus area or project site level.

A number of federal, state and local funding sources are available for habitat conservation including the North American Wetlands Conservation Act.



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