MICRO-SCALE ECOLOGY, MACRO-SCALE IMPACT: A RANKED SUITABILITY ANALYSIS FOR UPDATING OREGON’S CONSERVATION OPPORTUNITY AREAS USING LEVEL IV ECOREGIONS

With environmental conservation continuing to be a paramount issue in the modern world, many state government agencies are looking to develop conservation efforts to curb various risk factors. Oregon is a state leading the way in comprehensive conservation strategy. Currently, the state has developed conservation opportunity areas (COA’s), prime locations for conservation efforts, built on the backbone of the level III ecoregion framework. With the publication of the level IV ecoregion framework in 2014, this analysis aims to determine which level IV ecoregions have the least coverage in the current COA locations, and to use a ranked suitability analysis approach to locate additional, alternative locations for COA’s to bolster level IV ecoregion ecosystems within the state. Results showed five ecoregions with less than 1% coverage. Ranked suitability analysis showed multiple areas of high-ranking opportunity areas for further conservation.