| NEARC 2001
New Jersey’s Landscape Project: A GIS Model for Rare Species Protection Authors: The New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife’s Endangered and Nongame Species Program (ENSP) is using GIS and remote sensing technologies to identify, delineate and rank critical wildlife habitat statewide. The Landscape Project uses land use/land cover data classified from TM satellite imagery and major roads to delineate ecologically significant patches of habitat for forest, forested wetlands, emergent wetlands and grasslands. State and federally listed species, as well as non-listed sate and regional priority species location data are then intersected with the delineated patches. Patches are ranked based upon the conservation status of the species present. The resulting critical area maps can be used to prioritizing conservation acquisitions, guiding land use regulators and planners and guiding the stewardship of existing public lands. To provide non-GIS users with conservation tools, the maps will be available on the Internet via an interactive mapping application. |