Start Date
3-8-2022 12:10 PM
End Date
3-8-2022 12:20 PM
Abstract
In November 2019, the region’s voters approved a $475 million bond measure to protect clean water, restore fish and wildlife habitat and provide opportunities for people to connect with nature close to home. It was the third such measure over the past 25 years. Each bond measure presented the public with a set of carefully selected “target areas” (TAs) within which properties may be purchased from willing sellers using bond funds. Once a bond passes, TAs undergo a “refinement process” to identify a high priority subset of lands based on a suite of criteria. All three bonds share goals for healthy streams and habitat and included substantial governmental and community outreach, and but the 2019 bond differs in three important ways: (a) it prioritizes racial equity and Indigenous needs, (b) for the first time it includes an Urban TA, and (c) it specifically emphasizes opportunities to increase climate change resilience. To support equity and climate goals for the 2019 bond Metro’s contractor, Knot, produced models based on existing datasets such as tree cover, water resources, priority habitats and species, census data and habitat connectivity; and new datasets, the latter including: equity focal areas, urban heat island areas based on methods of Dr. Vivek Shandas’ lab (Voelkel et. al 2018), and the potential effects of upper watershed management on urban flooding. The Urban TA provides an outstanding suite of high-value habitat areas that intersect with opportunities to increase racial equity and strengthen communities’ climate change resilience. Here we will describe refinement methods and results pertaining to the Urban TA.
Subjects
Climate Change, Conservation biology, Environmental social sciences
Persistent Identifier
https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/38008
Captions
Metro’s Bond Refinement: Identifying acquisition priorities in the Urban Target Area
In November 2019, the region’s voters approved a $475 million bond measure to protect clean water, restore fish and wildlife habitat and provide opportunities for people to connect with nature close to home. It was the third such measure over the past 25 years. Each bond measure presented the public with a set of carefully selected “target areas” (TAs) within which properties may be purchased from willing sellers using bond funds. Once a bond passes, TAs undergo a “refinement process” to identify a high priority subset of lands based on a suite of criteria. All three bonds share goals for healthy streams and habitat and included substantial governmental and community outreach, and but the 2019 bond differs in three important ways: (a) it prioritizes racial equity and Indigenous needs, (b) for the first time it includes an Urban TA, and (c) it specifically emphasizes opportunities to increase climate change resilience. To support equity and climate goals for the 2019 bond Metro’s contractor, Knot, produced models based on existing datasets such as tree cover, water resources, priority habitats and species, census data and habitat connectivity; and new datasets, the latter including: equity focal areas, urban heat island areas based on methods of Dr. Vivek Shandas’ lab (Voelkel et. al 2018), and the potential effects of upper watershed management on urban flooding. The Urban TA provides an outstanding suite of high-value habitat areas that intersect with opportunities to increase racial equity and strengthen communities’ climate change resilience. Here we will describe refinement methods and results pertaining to the Urban TA.
