Current Projects

In collaboration with the US Fish & Wildlife Service, CEG developed a mechanistic, spatially-explicit, individual-based, forecasting model for the threatened Humboldt Marten (Martes caurina humboldtensi) to support the agency’s population viability and recovery planning.

The Humboldt marten, a distinct subspecies of the Pacific marten, is a medium sized carnivore endemic to northwestern California and western Oregon. Martens occupy a fraction of their historic range, and their ability to recolonize former habitats is constrained by movement barriers. We developed a model that integrates habitat and barrier maps, movements and behaviors to simulate occupancy, movement connectivity, and population dynamics. We are using the model to identify locations where the habitat may support additional marten populations, and where movement barriers may have the greatest impacts on connectivity. This spatial IBM serves as a decision support framework that can integrate a diverse array of existing empirical information but is also extensible and capable of incorporating new data and insights as they become available.