Planning - Inventory of terrestrial and aquatic Resources

Updated 05/29/2008

(1) Species Distributions and Abundance

(2) Plants and Plant Communities

(3) Habitats

(4) Conservation Status of Fish and Wildlife Species

(5) Invasive Species

(1) Species distributions and abundance

The Web sites giving general information for all fish and wildlife species/groups follow:

• NatureServe Explorer is the source for information on distribution, conservation status, life histories, and habitat requirements for over 50,0000 plants, animals, and ecological communities in the United States and Canada:

http://www.natureserve.org/explorer/

• The Gap Analysis Program (GAP) was undertaken to provide regional assessments of the conservation status of native vertebrate species and natural land cover types and to facilitate the application of this information to land management activities. When completed, this program will provide a searchable database for landcover, indices of biodiversity, and distribution and conservation status of terrestrial vertebrates:

http://www.gap.uidaho.edu/

Check your state for GAP status and access to database.

Specific reference sites for species distribution and abundance are listed below:

• Birds:

• Breeding Bird Survey Clickable Abundance Map can be used to determine what species are in the chosen area and their relative abundance.

http://www.mbr-pwrc.usgs.gov/geotech/bbsmaps3.html

• Christmas Bird Count (CBC) is an annual survey organized by The Audubon Society and conducted by volunteers since 1900. The Website maintained by Patuxent Wildlife Research Center provides background information on the survey and distribution maps for wintering birds based on CBC data.

http://www.audubon.org/bird/cbc/

• Mammals

• Information on systematics, distribution, fossil history, genetics, anatomy, physiology, behavior, ecology, and conservation of 631 species of mammals is provided by the American Society of Mammalogists at

http://www.science.smith.edu/departments/Biology/VHAYSSEN/msi/default.html

• Lists of mammal species for selected states:

http://www.mammalsociety.org/statelists/index.html

• Bats—Photos, distribution, and life history information for selected species. Go to Bat Links, then to Detailed Species Information on the following site:

http://www.batcon.org/

• Amphibians

• Searchable database for occurrences of amphibians:

http://www.mp2-pwrc.usgs.gov/cvs/ampcv

• Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center Web site provides information on identification, distribution, and habitat associations for selected amphibian species:

http://frogweb.nbii.gov/

• Fish

• National Biological Information System's Web site contains information fish species, by river basin (US Fish Explorer):

http://pasdapp1.erri.psu.edu/website/US_Fish/viewer.asp

and other fish-habitat related data:

http://far.nbii.gov

• North American Native Fishes Association's Web site has links to taxonomically structured indices of the freshwater fishes of North America:

http://www.nanfa.org/

• FishBase is a relational database that is available for purchase. However, considerable species account information is available for downloading from the Web site:

http://www.fishbase.org/home.htm

• Butterflies—Butterflies of North America Web site contains distribution maps, photos, species accounts (information on size, identifying characteristics, life history, flight, caterpillar hosts, adult food, habitat, species range, conservation status, and management needs), and species checklists for each county in the United States and each state in northern Mexico:

http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/distr/lepid/bflyusa/bflyusa.htm#maps

(2) Plants, plant communities

Plants—Comprehensive list of online plant and vegetation maps organized by state, region, country, and continent:

http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/EART/vegmaps3.html#noamer

Physiographic regions/vegetative alliances—NatureServe Explorer is source for information on ecological communities in the United States and Canada:

http://www.natureserve.org/explorer/

Landcover—Gap Analysis Program (GAP) was undertaken to provide regional assessments of the conservation status of native vertebrate species and natural land cover types and to facilitate the application of this information to land management activities. When completed, this program will provide a searchable database for landcover, indices of biodiversity, and distribution and conservation status of terrestrial vertebrates:

http://www.gap.uidaho.edu/

Check your state for GAP status and access to database.

Trees by state—The Dendrology homepage at Virginia Tech provides tree identification fact sheets on over 450 species of trees as well as other tree information:

http://www.cnr.vt.edu/dendro/dendrology/map/zonemap.htm

(3) Habitats

Riparian—Assessing condition of riparian wetland corridors at area-wide level using Proper Functioning Condition methodology:

http://www.wsi.nrcs.usda.gov/products

Corridors or buffers—Designing conservation buffers for wildlife at the landscape scale (see subpart B, part 613).

Streams—NRCS Stream Visual Assessment Protocol (see 630 Exhibits, exhibit H)

This document requires Adobe Acrobat.
Streams - NRCS stream visual assessment protocol.   (PDF, 301 KB)

(4) Conservation status of fish and wildlife species

General references:

• NatureServe Explorer is a source for information on distribution, conservation status, life histories, and habitat requirements for over 50,000 plants, animals, and ecological communities in the United States and Canada:

http://www.natureserve.org/explorer/

• Gap Analysis Program (GAP) was undertaken to provide regional assessments of the conservation status of native vertebrate species and natural land cover types and to facilitate the application of this information to land management activities. When completed, this program will provide a searchable database for land cover, indices of biodiversity, and distribution and conservation status of terrestrial vertebrates:

http://www.gap.uidaho.edu/

Check your state for GAP status and access to database.

Aquatic species:

• North American Native Fishes Association’s Web site has links to taxonomically structured indices of the freshwater fishes of North America:

http://www.nanfa.org/

(5) Invasive species

General:

• USGS Web site provides links to resources on nonindigenous plants and animals:

http://nas.er.usgs.gov/links/default.asp

Specific:

• Aquatic—A central repository for accurate and spatially referenced biogeographic accounts of nonindigenous aquatic species is available at the following Web site. It provides scientific reports, online/realtime queries, spatial data sets, regional contact lists, and general information:

http://nas.er.usgs.gov/

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