Land protection efforts should focus on areas of most importance to wildlife and natural biodiversity. The idea is simple, and yet, actually achieving that goal is very complicated. With the completion of BioMap and the Wildlife Action Plan, Massachusetts is well on its way to realizing this goal.

Completing this project was no easy task. The Natural Heritage & Endangered Species Program took the lead on researching and developing the BioMap, but contributions were made by individuals at the Executive Office of Environmental Affairs, the Division of Fisheries & Wildlife, MassGIS, Manomet Center for Conservation Sciences, The Nature Conservancy, and Harvard Forest. Ecologists, botanists, zoologists, a project manager, a data management assistant, and geographic information systems (GIS) specialists contributed their expertise to completing this project.

BioMap identifies and displays Core Habitat–land that supports rare plant and animal species and hosts healthy natural communities–and Supporting Natural Landscapes areas–land that maintains the ecological integrity of the Core Habitats. Massachusetts contains 1,160,000 acres of Core Habitat and 970,000 acres of Supporting Natural Landscapes. Combined, these lands account for 42% of Massachusetts’s total area and support 246 rare plant species, 87 invertebrates, and 42 vertebrates. Currently, approximately 69% of these important lands are still in need of conservation.

BioMap’s findings represent an important baseline: now we know which lands are most important to preserving our natural biodiversity and which of those lands still need protecting. This project, completed in 2001, provides a clear guideline of our conservation priorities. Now we can start working to preserve those important lands that still need protection.

Want to help preserve these important lands? Click here and join the Teaming With Wildlife coalition.