This dataset is the first installment of a yearly connectivity update for forested habitat within the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative's (GLRI) Terrestrial Habitats & Connectivity (TH&C) work group's Pilot Area. The Pilot Area is a region of the northern Great Lakes Basin between Ashland, WI and the Keweenaw Peninsula and is bounded by Lake Superior in the north and the basin boundary in the south, including a 70 km buffer. Each year the TH&C selects project proposals for funding within the pilot area. These proposals involve either restoration, research, or land acquisition aimed at improving or increasing connectivity in this area. The intended purpose of each year’s update is to understand the effects of funded projects on the ground work and help inform the location and purpose of future projects proposals. These pre-fiscal year 2021 forest connectivity maps serve as a baseline for comparison from each future fiscal year through FY25. To create these connectivity maps, we used the GAP/Landfire landcover dataset and identified all forested landcover grid cells. Forests were assigned a low movement resistance; land cover categories were assigned higher movement resistance values the more they deviated from forest characteristics. High intensity development was assigned the highest resistance as it was least similar to forested habitat. This analysis produced two connectivity maps: a cumulative current map and a normalized current map. The cumulative current map shows where potential movement pathways between forests are located within the pilot area, while the normalized current map shows where obstructed movement, diffuse movement, and channelized movement occurs within the pilot area.

This dataset is the second installment of a yearly connectivity update for open habitat within the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative's (GLRI) Terrestrial Habitats & Connectivity (TH&C) work group's Pilot Area. The Pilot Area is a region of the northern Great Lakes Basin between Ashland, WI and the Keweenaw Peninsula and is bounded by Lake Superior in the north and the basin boundary in the south, including a 70 km buffer. Each year the TH&C selects project proposals for funding within the pilot area. These proposals involve either restoration, research, or land acquisition aimed at improving or increasing open connectivity in this area. The intended purpose of each year’s update is to understand the effects of funded projects on the ground work and help inform the location and purpose of future projects proposals. These post-fiscal year 2021 open connectivity maps serve as a baseline for comparison from each future fiscal year through FY25. To create the post FY21 installment of GLRI's Terrestrial Habitats & Connectivity work group's pilot area yearly connectivity maps, we identified the geospatial locations where restoration work benefitting open habitats was completed throughout FY21. Using the GAP/Landfire landcover dataset we identified all open landcover grid cells. Open habitat was assigned a low movement resistance; land cover categories were assigned higher movement resistance values the more they deviated from open habitat characteristics. High intensity development was assigned the highest resistance as it was least similar to open habitat. We then used the FY21 restoration geospatial locations, all cells within these locations were assigned the lowest resistance value. This analysis produced two connectivity maps: a cumulative current map and a normalized current map. The cumulative current map shows where potential movement pathways between open patches are located within the pilot area, while the normalized current map shows where obstructed movement, diffuse movement, and channelized open habitat movement occurs within the pilot area. These maps provide important information on how restoration efforts in the pilot area are affecting open habitat connectivity.

This dataset is the fourth installment of a yearly connectivity update for forested habitat within the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative's (GLRI) Terrestrial Habitats & Connectivity (TH&C) work group's Pilot Area. The Pilot Area is a region of the northern Great Lakes Basin between Ashland, WI and the Keweenaw Peninsula and is bounded by Lake Superior in the north and the basin boundary in the south, including a 70 km buffer. Each year the TH&C selects project proposals for funding within the pilot area. These proposals involve either restoration, research, or land acquisition aimed at improving or increasing forest connectivity in this area. The intended purpose of each year’s update is to understand the effects of funded projects on the ground work and help inform the location and purpose of future project proposals. The post-fiscal year 2023 forest connectivity maps serve as an additional time step for comparison from each previous fiscal year into the future. To create the post FY23 installment of GLRI's Terrestrial Habitats & Connectivity work group's pilot area yearly connectivity maps, we identified the geospatial locations where restoration work benefitting forested habitats was completed throughout FY23. These locations were then assigned the lowest resistance value. Then using the forest habitat resistance layer from Great Lakes Restoration Initiative's Terrestrial Habitats and Connectivity Work group's Pilot Area's post-fiscal year 2022 we overwrote the post FY22 resistance values with the resistance values assigned to the FY23 locations where work was done. This analysis produced two connectivity maps: a cumulative current map and a normalized current map. The cumulative current map shows where potential movement pathways between forests are located within the pilot area, while the normalized current map shows where obstructed movement, diffuse movement, and channelized movement occurs within the pilot area. These maps provide important information on how restoration efforts from FY21, FY22, and FY23 in the pilot area are affecting forest habitat connectivity.

This dataset is the first installment of a yearly connectivity update for open habitat within the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative's (GLRI) Terrestrial Habitats & Connectivity (TH&C) work group's Pilot Area. The Pilot Area is a region of the northern Great Lakes Basin between Ashland, WI and the Keweenaw Peninsula and is bounded by Lake Superior in the north and the basin boundary in the south, including a 70 km buffer. Each year the TH&C selects project proposals for funding within the pilot area. These proposals involve either restoration, research, or land acquisition aimed at improving or increasing connectivity in this area. The intended purpose of each year’s update is to understand the effects of funded projects on the ground work and help inform the location and purpose of future projects proposals. These pre-fiscal year 2021 open connectivity maps serve as a baseline for comparison from each future fiscal year through FY25. To create these connectivity maps, we used the GAP/Landfire landcover dataset and identified all open landcover grid cells. Open habitat was assigned a low movement resistance; land cover categories were assigned higher movement resistance values the more they deviated from open habitat characteristics. High intensity development was assigned the highest resistance as it was least similar to open habitat. This analysis produced two connectivity maps: a cumulative current map and a normalized current map. The cumulative current map shows where potential movement pathways between open patches are located within the pilot area, while the normalized current map shows where obstructed movement, diffuse movement, and channelized open habitat movement occurs within the pilot area.

Forest vegetation provides an integrated measure of terrestrial ecosystem health by expressing information about the collective suite of drivers and stressors which act upon it. These include climate, disturbance, browse, and invasive species. We developed a comprehensive forest monitoring protocol to detect change in the nine Great Lakes Network parks. Monitoring is conducted on a nine-year rotation, with each of the parks sampled over the course of one summer, once every nine years. Site locations were selected to ensure that they are random, but also spatially balanced throughout the parks. At each sampling site, we collect extensive data on trees (including saplings and seedlings), shrubs, herbs, coarse woody material, and browse. We also carry out assessments of tree health. Data are housed in a Microsoft Access database and published annually in an open-source, machine readable format. Quality control measures include both on site assessments of accuracy, as well as extensive data checking via automated parsing routines. Finally, reports from monitoring are produced on a regular basis and include internal National Park Service technical reports and externally reviewed manuscripts for publication in peer-reviewed journals. All data are publicly available.

This dataset contains spatial layers describing Forest Connectivity from 1995-2019, in NSW Regional Forest Agreements (RFA) Areas along the eastern coast. Forest Connectivity accounts for the general quality of terrestrial habitats supporting biodiversity at each location, the fragmentation of habitat within its neighbourhood and how its position in the landscape contributes to connectivity among the habitats across a region. These have been based off the National Greenhouse Gas Inventory (NGGI) National Carbon Accounting System (NCAS) National Forest and Sparse Woody Vegetation Data grids (ABARES, 2020). These base grids are Landsat in origin and have a resolution of 25m. Forest Connectivity, including canopy cover connectivity and fragmentation is concerned and linked to forest condition. Concepts applied are to be aligned with definitions as found in the NSW Biodiversity Indicator Program (BIP) and the Spatial Links methodology for calculating connectivity. Base cover extent grids used are from the NSW RFA Historic Forest Canopy Cover Extent – 1995 to 2019 product. Read more about the project on the Natural Resources Commission website: https://www.nrc.nsw.gov.au/fmip-baselines-ecosystem-health-projectfe1 This dataset is superseded by 'NSW Forest Monitoring and Improvement Program State-Wide Historic Forest Connectivity - 1995 to 2020'

This dataset is part of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Great Lakes Coastal Wetland Restoration Assessment (GLCWRA) initiative. The degree flowlines dataset was created to indicate how many culverts each flowline passes through within the Lake Ontario Restoration Assessment (LORA) study area. The more road crossings on a flowline the more disconnected that area is from the lake and the less suitable it will be for restoration. The GLCWRA initiative identifies coastal wetland areas that have the greatest habitat restoration potential. The data model uses seven parameters to identify and rank wetland restoration areas, resulting in a composite index raster that can be used by ecological managers and planners to assist with the selection of wetland restoration sites. The parameters are Parameter 0: Mask, Parameter 1: Hydroperiod, Parameter 2: Wetland Soils, Parameter 3: Flowlines, Parameter 4: Conservation and Recreation Lands, Parameter 5: Impervious Surfaces, and Parameter 6: Land Use (represents developed areas without impervious surfaces but high societal value). The ancillary data include dikes, degree flowlines, study area and culverts. These data layers are put through an ecological model, which results in a composite restoration index of ranked restoration areas.

A vector GIS dataset of candidate areas for terrestrial ecological restoration based on landscape context. The dataset was created using NLCD 2011 (www.mrlc.gov) and morphological spatial pattern analysis (MSPA) (http://forest.jrc.ec.europa.eu/download/software/guidos/mspa/). There are 13 attributes for the polygons in the dataset, including presence and length of roads, candidate area size, size of surround contiguous natural areas, soil productivity, presence and length of road, areas suitable for wetland restoration, and others. This dataset is associated with the following publication: Wickham, J., K. Riiters, P. Vogt, J. Costanza, and A. Neale. An inventory of continental U.S. terrestrial candidate ecological restoration areas based on landscape context. RESTORATION ECOLOGY. Blackwell Publishing, Malden, MA, USA, 25(6): 894-902, (2017).

This data package comprises discrete data collected for the Mojave Desert Network Inventory and Monitoring Program Streams and Lakes protocol. This protocol is designed to monitor the hydrologic and ecosystem health of nine streams and six subalpine lakes in Great Basin National Park and to identify and assess the effects of stressors such as climate change, groundwater withdrawal, and atmospheric nutrient deposition. Collected data include lake surface elevations, water quality measurements, stream channel characteristics, water chemistry samples, and benthic macroinvertebrate samples. Lake surface elevations, water quality measurements, and stream channel characteristics data covers 2009 to 2023. Water chemistry sample data covers 2009 to 2022. Benthic macroinvertebrate sample data are published in a separate data package.

This dataset is the output of a python script/ArcGIS model that identifes dikes as having a difference in elevation above a certain threshold. If the elevation difference was below a certain threshold the area was not considered a dike; however, if the difference in elevation between two points was significantly high then the area was marked as a dike. Areas continuous with eachother were considered part of the same dike. Post processing occured. Users examined the data output, comparing the proposed dike locations to aerial imagery, flowline data, and the DEM. Dikes that appeared to be false positives were deleted from the data set.