David Szczebak and Asuka Imai
Massachusetts Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Program
Westborough, Massachusetts

The BioMap project was launched in May, 2000 by the Massachusetts Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Program to create a biological conservation blueprint, or “greenprint”, for the Commonwealth. The Biomap was designed to inform statewide biodiversity efforts and provide information to local communities. The approximately 12,000 records of rare plants, animals, and exemplary natural communities maintained by the Heritage Program formed the foundation for the BioMap.

The viability of each occurrence, along with the rarity of each species or community type, determined which rare species populations and natural community examples to include. Natural community types acted as a “coarse filter”, protecting a cross-section of biodiversity. Protecting specific rare species locations, the “fine filter”, covered elements of biodiversity that were not captured through the coarse (community) filter.

Viable habitat areas were delineated by biologists, then used in a suitability model to place each habitat area within a functional landscape. In addition, the model was designed to highlight additional areas for which rare species information was not available, but which had a high probability of supporting important, functional populations.

We will be discuss the methodology used in delineating species-specific habitat areas, as well as the rationale behind the landscape model. We will touch on the limitations of our model, of ESRI’s ModelBuilder extension, and the availability of data relevant to issues raised by the project.