BioFinder & Vermont Conservation Design

Project description (English)

Vermont Conservation Design identifies features at the landscape and natural community scales that are necessary for maintaining an ecologically functional landscape – a landscape that conserves current biological diversity and allows species to move and shift in response to climate and land-use changes. BioFinder (http://BioFinder.vermont.gov) is the online map accessible to everyone that brings the data alive. At the landscape scale, users can see patterns in Vermont’s forests, waterways, and the places that connect both into functional networks. At the community scale appear significant natural communities, lakes representing high quality examples of different lake types, and similar important features that are vital to assemblages of plants and animals. Finally, a user can see components that support individual species—the habitats and locations on which rare and uncommon species rely, for example. At all scales, Vermont Conservation Design identifies locations of ecological priority. These are divided into priority or highest priority areas, to allow users to make informed decisions about the locations most suitable for development and those on which to focus conservation efforts.

Project description (French)

Main contact organization for the project

Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department

Partner organization(s)

Vermont Land Trust

Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation

The Nature Conservancy

Vermont Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation

Part of larger network(s)

Staying Connected Initiave (SCI)

Project status

Underway

Start year of project

2012

Primary ecosystem focus

Forested

Freshwater

Riparian

Connectivity action

Core priority area designation

Corridors network design

Land protection

Land use planning

Outreach

Policy and governance

Research (Field evaluation of connectivity)

Research (Modelling)

Restoration

Standard keywords

Corridors

Stepping stone

Transportation (roads, rails, bridges, culverts)

Keywords

Conservation Design

Interior Forest

Physical Landscape Diversity

Surface Waters & Riparian Areas

Natural Communities

Rare Species

Wetlands

Vernal Pools

Conservation Targets

Taxonomic Coverage

Amphibians

Birds

Fish

Fungi, molds and yeast

Insects

Mammals

Other invertebrates

Reptiles

Vascular plants

Geographical coverage

Jurisdiction(s)

Vermont

Location name

Vermont (statewide coverage)