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69 <br /> • Communicate with landowners about the importance of their properties for conservation. <br /> • Prioritize land conservation efforts for critical habitat areas and corridors that are adjacent to <br /> major roads and highways,to provide the protection needed to incentivize the provision of <br /> wildlife underpasses in future transportation improvement projects. <br /> • Assess bridges and culverts in critical wildlife corridors for suitability as crossing structures, and <br /> actively work with NCDOT to replace or improve unsuitable bridges and culverts. <br /> PRIORITIZE AND DEFINE <br /> Objective Ensure that landscape corridor protection priorities are identified, <br /> recognized, and incorporated into local land conservation programs and <br /> initiatives, including acquisition by open space programs and conservation <br /> partners. <br /> A comprehensive strategy to achieve this objective includes several action items: <br /> • Evaluate corridor maps and priorities identified in this project with respect to existing protection <br /> priorities and conservation planning tools. <br /> • Incorporate priorities identified from this project's results into existing protection priorities, <br /> strategies, and plans. <br /> • Use the GIS layers from this project to incorporate landscape corridor protection into existing <br /> land conservation planning and prioritization approaches. <br /> • Integrate the information from this project into other conservation plans, such as the Jordan Lake <br /> One Watershed plan,which may eventually provide an additional funding mechanism for <br /> conserving these key properties. <br /> • When needed,verify or update the results from this project with ground surveys. <br /> • Regularly update biological inventory data available for use in land protection and open space <br /> planning, including obtaining NCNHP's quarterly updates to NHNAs and Element Occurrences <br /> and updated SGCN species status or data from NCWRC. <br /> • Conduct biological and ecological inventory of poorly known areas or areas in need of updated <br /> inventory. <br /> • Consider conducting a regional biological and ecological inventory that helps refine the results of <br /> this project and promotes interjurisdictional collaboration through shared conservation objectives <br /> and priorities. <br /> 56 A Landscape Plan for Wildlife Habitat Connectivity <br />