Identifying Corridors Among Large Protected Areas in the United States

To identify which land units are most important for sustaining structural connectivity, authors used the composite map of corridors to evaluate connectivity priorities in two ways: 1) among land units outside of the pool of large core protected areas and;  2) among units administratively protected as Inventoried Roadless Areas (IRAs) or Wilderness Study Areas (WSAs). It provides a ranking of IRAs and WSAs that should be prioritized for additional protection to maintain minimal human modification. Results provide a coarse-scale assessment of connectivity priorities for maintaining a connected network of protected areas.