Objective: Develop a system to measure forest fragmentation over time and identify potential sites for reforestation in attempts to decrease that degree of fragmentation.
The Baraboo Hills, located in southwest Wisconsin, is an ecologically dynamic region dominated by agriculture. Through community based conservation strategies The Nature Conservancy, sponsor of this project, hopes to aid agriculturalists in their managment practices. Combining aerial photography, remote sensing digital image processing, and GIS technologies this project will attempt to spatially analyze the degree of forest fragmentation in the Baraboo Hills. The goals of this project are two fold: the primary goal is to create a forest fragmentation index-a means to measure forest fragmentation over time; the second goal is to identify sites for reforestation in the Baraboo Hills region. Potential sites would be those that would decrease the degree of forest fragmentation. Once those sites are identified, if agreed upon by the landowner, they can be partially or completely reforested. A decreased degree of fragmentation is beneficial to species such as the hooded warbler that rely on large uninterrupted tracts of forest for thier daily activities. Once a forest fragmentation index has been created subsequent fragmentation analysis may be undertaken with greater ease and effectiveness.