Defenders' Experts
New Jersey Landscape Project
New Jersey
New Jersey is the most densely populated state in the country. Since 1972,
the state has lost 20,000 acres of wildlife habitat each year. In 1994, the New
Jersey Division of Fish Game and Wildlife's Endangered and Nongame Species
Program initiated the Landscape Project, which attempts to address this habitat
loss by providing scientific information about the distribution of rare wildlife
populations across the New Jersey landscape. It is a statewide, ecosystem-level
approach to the long-term protection of rare species and critical habitat. The
project's goal is "to protect New Jersey's biological diversity by maintaining
and enhancing rare wildlife populations within healthy functioning
ecosystems."
The Landscape Project is based on a rigorous, peer-reviewed methodology that uses wildlife data to map the state's important habitat patches (Niles et al. 2001). Using sophisticated GIS technology, every significant contiguous patch of field, woodland, and wetland in the state was mapped. The mapping method involved a four step process that uses satellite imagery to map existing habitat, overlays rare species locations, weights habitat area values based on those locations, and finally produces a composite weighted habitat map for any part of the state.
The project aims to make scientifically sound information easily accessible to planning and protection programs throughout the state. This information, including GIS maps, which are available through the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection website, may serve as the basis for developing habitat protection ordinances, critical habitat zoning, or land acquisition and management projects. The Landscape Project's maps are already serving land managers, land planners, environmental commissioners, land development consultants, environmental groups, land acquisition programs, and many other lay and professional people whose decisions affect the land. The project also anticipates that use of this information will encourage better planning and reduce conflicts over endangered and threatened species protection.
The strength of the Landscape Project lies in the detail of the maps. A biodiversity conservation map is provided for the whole state, yet information is detailed enough that municipalities now have access to information about relative habitat values in their areas down to the site level. The Landscape Project is also the only example nationwide where statewide biodiversity assessment mapping is incorporated into state regulations that guide land use decisions.
The West Eugene Wetlands Plan addresses the need for protection of significant natural lands within designated growth areas while still allowing some development.
The Beginning with Wildlife Program provides habitat maps, species descriptions, and guidance to local communities to help integrate biodiversity protection into local land-use planning and guide habitat conservation decisions.
The purpose of Arizona's Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan is to ensure the long-term protection of "the heritage and natural resources of the west in Pima County."
The goal of the Chicago Wilderness is "to protect the natural communities of the Chicago region and to restore them to long-term viability, in order to enrich the quality of life of its citizens and to contribute to the preservation of global diversity."
The Willamette Restoration Strategy addressed water quality and habitat issues in Oregon's Willamette basin and adopted a strategy to protect and restore the basin's ecological health.
The BioMap project's goal was "to promote strategic land protection by producing a map showing areas, that if protected, would provide suitable habitat over the long term for the maximum number of Massachusetts' terrestrial and wetland plant and animal species and natural communities."
The Landscape Project's goal is "to protect New Jersey's biological diversity by maintaining and enhancing rare wildlife populations within healthy functioning ecosystems."
In 1994, Defenders initiated the Oregon Biodiversity Project which produced a statewide biodiversity assessment and a conservation strategy that included 42 "Conservation Opportunity Areas" across the state.
Maryland's two important planning programs are the Green Infrastructure Assessment and the GreenPrint Program.
The Southeast Ecological Framework Project used GIS technology and landscape ecology principles to identify ecologically significant areas and connectivity in Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida.
