Land as community : an assessment of habitat fragmentation, development pressure, and wildlife impact along the southern border of Shenandoah National Park

Abstract

The fragmentation of large, protected areas is a growing concern in ecology, as increased urban and infrastructural development isolates habitat patches and can lead to increased human-wildlife conflict, especially along roadways. Research has shown that fragmentation and loss of forest cover in protected areas is correlated with increased infrastructural development, and that roadways have an outsized effect on surrounding habitat and animal populations for their size, though there are gaps in this knowledge relevant to specific protected areas and highly mobile animal species. I examined the area around the Interstate 64 corridor that sits between the southern tip of Shenandoah National Park and the Blue Ridge Parkway, utilizing land cover, topographic, and deer-vehicle crash data to analyze the effect of infrastructure and urban development on the fragmentation of white-tail deer habitat. Habitat fragmentation was shown to be more widespread south of the highway corridor, where there is less protected land area, allowing for more dense infrastructural development along the mountain ridges that comprise the bulk of the study area. Additionally, I-64 was shown to be the greatest barrier to deer within the study area due to its width and much higher traffic volume than surrounding county and state roads. Food and water resources are scarce within the study area, likely leading to increased competition in the autumn months, incentivizing animals to range further in search of nutritional requirements – making the highway crossing a necessity to move between both protected areas. Fragmentation analysis highlights the importance of holistic management of protected areas, treating them as part of wider ecosystems rather than closed systems, as well as providing insights for the creation of wildlife corridor implementation, which would help reduce human-wildlife conflict within the study area.