Northeast Regional Wildlife Conservation Project Summaries

Introduction

The Northeast region has a long and productive history of collaboration and coordination among natural resource agencies. A key component of these efforts has been the Regional Conservation Needs (RCN) grants program. Since 2007, the RCN grants program has funded almost $3 million to support regional scale conservation projects and research. The State Wildlife Grants (SWG) program and the North Atlantic Landscape Conservation Cooperative (NALCC) have also spear-headed a variety of region-wide conservation initiatives. All together, these programs have resulted in volumes of information, tools and other products related to wildlife conservation in the Northeast. As states revise their State Wildlife Action Plans (SWAP) for 2015 approval, there is a need to synthesize this information in a way that is most useful and efficient for that process. This document represents the first step in that direction by concisely summarizing all current and ongoing RCN, SWG and NALCC projects funded in the Northeast region. Hopefully, this information will assist state wildlife agencies in integrating these regional data and tools into their SWAP revision and other planning processes.

For ease of use and navigation, this document has both internal and external hyperlinks. Text in underlined blue fonts will direct users to relevant websites on the internet. Text with underlined, black fonts are internal links within the document that refer users to the selected RCN Topic or to a specific project. In the PDF version, bookmarks have been included to help with navigation.

Regional Habitat Classification and Mapping

NETWHCS: Northeast Terrestrial Wildlife Habitat Classification System

The Northeast Terrestrial Wildlife Habitat Classification System (NETWHCS) is a flexible framework for characterizing wildlife habitat that works on two levels – habitat systems and structural modifiers. The basic layer is the habitat system which corresponds to the Ecological Systems developed by NatureServe, with additional systems for altered habitats and land-use types. Because most habitat systems can incorporate substantial variation in vegetative species dominance, successional stage, and other characteristics that are relevant to wildlife use, the classification superimposes a set of structural modifiers. The combination of habitat system with structural modifiers provides a powerful tool for assessing habitat. The NETWHCS has been designed for maximum compatibility with existing habitat classification efforts in the Northeast, including LANDFIRE and the GAP Analysis Program. The habitat classification, presented in an Excel workbook with seven worksheets, is hierarchical for habitat systems consistent with the Federal Geographic Data Committee vegetation standard and can be scaled to different applications.