These datasets are a component of a complete package of products from the Connect the Connecticut  project. Connect the Connecticut is a collaborative effort to identify shared priorities for conserving the Connecticut River Watershed for future generations, considering the value of fish and wildlife species and the natural ecosystems they inhabit. Click here to download the full data package, including all documentation.  For complete details on this design project see: Landscape Conservation Design Technical Report provided by the University of Massachusetts. For guidance using the data, please see Appendix B.

These datasets represents a set of terrestrial tier 1 core areas and the connectors between them, grassland bird core areas, and tiered core areas; in combination with the aquatic core areas, they spatially represent the ecological network derived from the CTR LCD project. All datasets in this map are included in the download.

Terrestrial Core and Connectors:  The network is designed to provide strategic guidance for conserving natural areas, and the fish, wildlife, and other components of biodiversity that they support within the Connecticut River watershed.  Core areas serve as the foundation of the conservation design. They reflect decisions by the CTR LCD planning team about the highest priority areas for sustaining the long-term ecological values of the watershed, based on currently available, regional-scale information. 

Terrestrial core areas represent the following: 1)  areas of relatively high ecological integrity across all terrestrial and wetland ecosystem types, emphasizing areas that are relatively intact (i.e., free from human modifications and disturbance) and resilient to environmental changes (e.g., climate change). Integrity has the potential to remain high, both in the short-term due to connectivity to similar natural environments, and in the long-term due to proximity to diverse landforms and other geophysical settings; 2)  areas of relatively high current habitat value ( landscape capability ) for a suite of 14 representative terrestrial wildlife species, emphasizing areas that provide the best habitat and climate conditions today; 3)  areas of high potential for floodplain forest restoration along major rivers, emphasizing areas where geomorphic characteristics favor the development of floodplain forest; and 4)  areas of rare terrestrial natural communities that support unique biodiversity, regardless of their landscape context; inclusive of communities listed by state heritage programs as S1 (extremely rare), S2 (rare), and S3 (uncommon), with definitions of S1-S3 varying slightly among states.

Core areas are built from focal areas with high value based on one or more of the attributes listed above. These "seed areas" are expanded to encompass surrounding areas that provide additional ecological value and resilience to both short- and long-term change. These surrounding areas within the core areas are typically of high to moderate ecological value. To maintain a coherent shape and size, in some cases core areas contain low-intensity development and minor roads, but high-intensity development and major roads are excluded. Collectively, terrestrial tier 1 core areas encompass 25% of the Connecticut River watershed area, as decided by the partnership. A total of 1,120 core areas have been identified, ranging in size from 8 to 26,515 ha, with an average size of 600 ha.

Connectors represent “corridors” that could facilitate the movement of plants and animals (i.e., ecological flow) between terrestrial core areas. These connectors increase the resiliency of the core area network to uncertain changing land use and climate. They are wider where more movement between cores is expected because of larger and closer core areas and a more favorable natural environment between them. Connectors primarily link adjoining core areas where there is the greatest similarity in ecosystems; they do not necessarily represent travel corridors for any individual species. Connectors may traverse through areas of low-density development and cross roads of all classes, but they do not include high-intensity development. Connectors are not identified between core areas that are greater than 10 km apart. Collectively, connectors encompass an additional 23% of the Connecticut River watershed area.

Considerations for the Terrestrial Core and Connector Network: The terrestrial tier 1 core-connector network can serve as a starting point for a regional conservation network that can be used in combination with other sources of information to direct action. Indeed, terrestrial core areas and connectors are not the only places of high ecological value deserving of conservation attention. Other suggestions include:
Use in combination with other data layers to identify additional areas of high ecological value. Layers to consider include: 1) terrestrial ecosystem-based core area selection index, 2) index of ecological integrity, 3) The Nature Conservancy's (TNC) terrestrial resiliency index, and 4) individual species landscape capability index.Use in combination with the secured lands layer to identify the places in the network that remain unsecured from development, and thus could represent priorities for land protection.
Use in combination with the probability of development layerand local and regional vulnerability layersto identify places in the core-connector network that are relatively vulnerable to future development, and thus could represent priorities for land protection.
Identify overlap between this network and resource priorities identified at the state or local level, but that are not available across the entire watershed (e.g., from State Wildlife Action Plans, towns, and land trusts), to further rank areas for land protection.
Although the terrestrial tier 1 core areas and connectors are presented as discrete entities, it is important to recognize that their boundaries are, in fact, "fuzzy" and are best interpreted as general places to focus attention.

Lastly, the tier 1 cores and connectors can and do include some low-intensity development, minor roads and agriculture. For the core areas, this is the result of growing out the cores from the highest-valued seed areas in which we elected to allow only major roads and medium-to-high intensity development to serve as barriers to spread. For the connectors, this is the result of the necessity of moving through such developed areas when moving between cores embedded in a developed landscape context.

Grassland Bird Cores: Represents a set of terrestrial core areas for grassland birds based on the eastern meadowlark as a representative species for grassland birds. The CTR LCD planning team decided that eastern meadowlark and the grasslands they represent warranted separate treatment from the other terrestrial representative species due to their unique association with a culturally created and maintained habitat. Consequently, eastern meadowlark and the grasslands they represent were not explicitly included in the derivation of the tier 1 and 2 core areas. However, some grasslands did get included in the tier 1 and 2 cores areas due to other considerations, such as meeting the needs of other representative species (e.g., wood turtle) that also use grasslands to some extent, and growing out cores from their seeds through lower-valued areas that included grasslands.

Grassland bird cores were derived from the eastern meadowlark landscape capability layer, which is a measure of habitat capability and climate suitability for the species. Briefly, for each disjunct patch of habitat (defined as contiguous cells having landscape capability index >0.03), we computed the maximum landscape capability index value. Next, we rank-ordered the habitat patches from highest value to lowest maximum value and selected the top number of patches in which the cumulative landscape capability value (i.e. ,the sum of the landscape capability index in the patches) equalled 50% of the species' total landscape capability value for the CTR watershed. Thus, the final set of 1448 eastern meadowlark cores captured 50% of the landscape capability for this species and represented 1.15% of the CTR landscape.

Considerations for Using the Grassland Bird Cores: The terrestrial tiered cores and connectors in combination with the grassland bird cores can serve as a starting point for a regional conservation network that can be used in combination with other sources of information to direct action. Although the grassland bird core areas are presented as discrete entities, it is important to recognize that their boundaries are, in fact, "fuzzy" and are best interpreted as general places to focus attention. Lastly, as noted previously for the tier 1 cores and connectors, all three tiers can and do include some low-intensity development, minor roads and agriculture.

Terrestrial Core Tiers: This layer depicts the terrestrial tier 1 cores (encompassing 25% of the landscape), nested within tier 2 cores (encompassing 50% of the landscape), nested with tier 3 supporting landscapes (encompassing 77% of the landscape). The tiers reflect the arbitrariness in selecting thresholds for designating priority core areas. Tier 1 represents a highly strategic scenario designed to target the very best, highest priority core areas. Tier 2 represents a more liberal scenario and a correspondingly more lofty conservation goal. Tier 3 are the road-bounded blocks containing the tier 2 cores, in which all road classes except tracks and medium-to-high intensity development function as boundaries. Tier 3 areas, as defined, are intended to represent more practical on-the-ground conservation units and provide the supporting landscape necessary to ensure maintenance of the ecological values of the tier 1 and 2 cores in the future.

Considerations for Using the Terrestrial Core Tiers: The tiered cores provide spatial context for the strategic tier 1 core-connector network. Importantly, tier 2 and 3 identify places of ecological importance outside of the tier 1 core area network that can be used in combination with other sources of information to direct action.  Although the tiered core areas are presented as discrete entities, it is important to recognize that their boundaries are, in fact, "fuzzy" and are best interpreted as general places to focus attention.  Lastly, as noted previously for the tier 1 cores and connectors, all three tiers can and do include some low-intensity development, minor roads and agriculture.