Custom Data Request ID/Name: (Permissions not needed)
Organization/Individual Requesting Data: The USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) is the chief federal agency supporting American farmers, ranchers and forest landowners. The agency generates, manages and shares data, technology and standards that enable partners and policymakers to make decisions informed by objective, reliable science. One of the ways the NRCS helps landowners, land trusts, and other entities to protect, restore, and enhance wetlands and working farms and ranches is through their agricultural and wetland easement programs.
Purpose:
The goal of this project is to support NRCS easement programs within the U.S. Department of Agriculture as it seeks to reauthorize the Farm Bill containing the authority for easement acquisition. This analysis will provide information on the overlap between the roughly 4 million acres of NRCS conservation easements and federally listed species, as well as other species that are critically imperiled (G1/S1) or imperiled (G2/S2) and potential candidates for future listings. Output numbers generated from this analysis may be used on the NRCS Easements web page: https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/programs-initiatives/easements or included in other products and reports highlighting the general value of NRCS easements to at-risk species[1].
[1] At-Risk Species = Federally listed species and species with a NatureServe Global Conservation Rank of G1 or G2, and S1 or S2.
Project Objectives/Scope:
As the best source for comprehensive, high-quality data on the conservation status and precise location of at-risk species in the U.S., NatureServe is able to conduct an assessment with high degree of spatial accuracy in order to meet the objectives stated above. Under this project, NatureServe will:
1.) Generate a summary of the number of at-risk species documented to occur, or potentially occur on NRCS lands2.) Run an analysis to determine the percentage of documented occurrences or potential habitats overlapping with NRCS Easements
3.) Generate a species report for the species identified in steps 1 and 2 above
4.) Generate several national maps displaying the information generated in steps 1 and 2 above
5.) Work with local conservation biologists to highlight a few specific easements to be written up as case studies
Mode and Date of Delivery:
Final products resulting from this analysis will be electronically transmitted to the NRCS program contact. Products include a final report that contains completed spreadsheets on known and predicted species occurrences on NRCS easements by easement type as applicable, species lists, and maps described in this scope of work.