Biological Corridor
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Illustration based on original mapping by the U.S. Forest Service. The green lines represent forest and vegetative communities that comprise the corridor link connecting the northern and southern Rocky Mountains. NFS boundaries are approximate.
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One major component of the Bear River watershed is the mountain range known as the Bear River Mountains, located in northern Utah and southern Idaho. This relatively narrow tract of Forest Service land is part of the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest (UWCNF) and the Caribou and Targhee National Forests (CTNF) and is a key component of the western United States biological corridor system.
Corridors are areas that remain largely undisturbed or unfragmented, providing important migrational links between critical zones of habitat for both plants and animals. These migrational pathways are essential for the viability and persistence of species diversity and eco-system health.
The corridor created by the UWCNF along with the CTNF is a "critical choke point" for species migration in the western United States because it offers the ONLY major link between the northern and southern Rockies, or more specifically, the link between the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem and the High Uintas Wilderness area.
The Canada lynx of the Northern Rocky Mountain region exemplifies the significance of this biological corridor. The lynx, recently listed as "threatened" by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), is a reclusive species that requires large expanses of intact habitats for migration, shelter, and food source requirements.
According to USFWS, the majority of lynx occurrences are associated at a broad scale within the "Rocky Mountain Conifer Forest." Most of the lynx occurrences are in the 1,500-2,000 meters (4,920-6,560 feet) elevation class typical of the Rocky Mountains of Montana, Idaho, eastern Washington, and Utah and the Cascade Mountains in Washington and Oregon.
The majority of verified lynx occurrences in the U.S. and the confirmed presence of resident populations are from this region. In order to ensure the recovery of the lynx, such habitats and migratory corridors will need to be protected.
Since the theory of species isolation known as 'island biogeography' was established in the 1960s, scientists have been recommending landscape connectivity to reduce the effect of habitat isolation and ensure species migratory mobility and genetic diversity.
When genetic diversity is limited or destroyed by fragmentation of habitat due to human development, industrial extraction, recreation, and road building, species begin disappearing at alarming rates.
Restoring linkage corridors at both the local and regional levels is critical to ensuring long-term health of the watershed and thrse specie divees which depend upon it.
