The Northeast Terrestrial Habitat Mapping Project was undertaken in 2008 with the support of the Northeast Association of Fish Wildlife Agencies (NEAFWA) as part of its Regional Conservation Needs assessment.  Development of a consistent habitat classification framework and map was seen by many Northeastern biologists and managers as the most critical initiative for habitat-based conservation efforts.  The purpose of this mapping effort is to provide a common framework and language for conservation planning and wildlife management across jurisdictional borders.  Specifically, the Northeast Terrestrial Habitat Classification System (NETHCS) and this map aims to:  provide a standardized and consistent habitat and ecosystem classification at multiple scales across states;  facilitate interstate communication about habitats;  offer managers a tool for understanding regional biodiversity patterns;  allow for more effective and efficient habitat conservation across the region, including the prioritization of habitat conservation activities.

The Terrestrial Habitat Map was recently completed in the Eastern Conservation Science office of The Nature Conservancy's Eastern Region.  It is a 30 meter grid that maps upland and wetland wildlife habitats/ecological systems for the Northeast, including all 13 states from Maine to Virginia, west to New York, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.  The ecological systems represented in the map are mosaics of plant community types that tend to co-occur within landscapes with similar ecological processes, substrates, and/or environmental gradients, in a pattern that repeats itself across landscapes.  Systems occur at various scales, from "matrix" forested systems of thousands of hectares to small patch systems, such as cliffs, basin wetlands, or barrens on a particular bedrock type, of a hectare or two.

ECS had great support throughout this effort from ecologists and administrators throughout the Northeast, too many to name.  They provided data and guidance, especially in early stages of the project, and include staff from NatureServe, state Natural Heritage Programs and environmental conservation agencies, US Fish and Wildlife and state Fish and Wildlife Agencies, USDA-Forest Service's Forest Inventory and Analysis Program and the Green Mountain National Forest, the Southeast Gap Program, and other TNC offices throughout the region.  We are grateful to all of them, and especially to Sue Gawler of NatureServe, who drove the process that led to the development of the NETHCS, and who was there with grace and patience to try to answer our questions and to cheer us on.  Sue is largely responsible for the collection of supporting documents made available here.  They are about the project, the systems concept, and the systems themselves.

DOWNLOAD THE RASTER GIS DATASET

DOWNLOAD THE SUPPORTING DOCUMENTS  

DOWNLOAD THE HABITAT MAP POSTER