GIS rasters to identify sites for creating habitat for American Woodcock in Rhode Island

The University of Rhode Island has conducted several studies of habitat use of Scolopax minor (American Woodcock) in Rhode Island, USA. In 2020 we developed a new species distribution model (SDM) tool to identify sites in the Rhode Island where forest clearcutting to create young forest habitat would have the most positive effect for American woodcock. A typical SDM predicts the probability of presence (POP) of a species at any location based on an analysis of known occurrences and environmental variables, but it cannot predict how much the POP of a species would change after a new patch of young forest is created in any location. We believe that our new tool is effective, and that it will help landowners identify the best locations on their properties to improve woodcock habitat. We also believe that similar tools can be developed for other wildlife species of conservation concern. We created the new tool by modifying the existing 2018 SDM raster for American Woodcock in Rhode Island. Creating the tool involved creating four new ArcGIS raster datasets. The existing 2018 SDM raster and the four new rasters are now publicly available in a geodatabase in the Dryad repository.