BioFinder Presentation by Vermont Fish & Wildlife at July Commission Meeting

Central Vermont Regional Planning Commission’s July monthly meeting will feature a presentation by Jens Hilke, Conservation Planning Biologist with Vermont Fish & Wildlife, on the new BioFinder map and database tool (more information below).

Conservation Commission members and interested citizens are encouraged to join the Commissioners and staff at the meeting which will be held on Tuesday, July 9th at 7pm,  at the Central Vermont Chamber of Commerce, Paine Turnpike South, Berlin.   Directions: Coming off the interstate at exit 7, turn left at the first light.  At the next crossroads, the Chamber is on your left.  It is the light yellow building.

BioFinder is a map and database identifying Vermont’s lands and waters supporting high priority ecosystems, natural communities, habitats, and species. The most comprehensive assessment of its kind in Vermont, BioFinder was developed by the Agency of Natural Resources and partners to further our collective stewardship and conservation efforts.

At its core, BioFinder is 21 overlapping data sets representing terrestrial and aquatic biological, ecological, and natural heritage data at various scales and aspects. A co-occurrence analysis  then identified the locations of greatest overlap for priority ranking at the statewide scale. This Tiered Contribution to Biological Diversity dataset is available for download on VCGI, but we strongly recommend that you use the BioFinder Mapping Tool to explore the distribution and richness of Vermont’s biodiversity and help secure Vermont’s natural heritage for future generations. Our online mapping tool includes both the Tiered Contribution dataset and the 21 component datasets and makes it much easier to go back and forth between datasets than in ARC.

The presentation will explain why & how this dataset was created, but we’ll spend most of our time together exploring how to use BioFinder for land-use planning and some of the specific tools we created for this purpose. Don’t hesitate to contact me with questions or concerns.

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