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Maps | Targets | Tabular Data | Spatial Data

​​The Lower New England - Northern Piedmont ecoregion includes portions of 12 states and the District of Columbia.  It extends from southern Maine and New Hampshire with their formerly glaciated, lower mountain and lake-studded landscape through the limestone valleys of western Massachusetts and Connecticut, Vermont, and eastern New York.  Rhode Island, eastern Massachusetts and Connecticut are distinctive in that the communities are more fire adapted including pitch pine and oak dominated forests on glacially deposited sandy till that forms a broad plain with many ponds.  The Northern Piedmont in Maryland, northern Virginia and eastern Pennsylvania was never glaciated and is characterized by broad gently-rolling hills and valleys upon which dry oak woods and remnant mesophytic forests occur on remnant sites, steep slopes and ridgelines.  For more, read or print the original report (pdf).  
                                                

Maps


These maps will download as high quality pdfs.
Ecoregion boundary and subsections, pdf
Terrestrial community subregions, pdf
Bedrock geology, pdf
Topography, pdf
Landcover, pdf
Ecological Drainage Units (EDUs), pdf
Ecological Land Units (ELUs), pdf
EO Viability, pdf
Managed area ownership, pdf
Minor road-bounded block size, pdf
Initial potential matrix occurrences, pdf
Potential matrix occurrences by ELU, pdf
Potential matrix occurrences by dominant forest type, pdf
Full aquatic portfolio, pdf


Ecoregional targets: plant and animal species
Glossary

Methods used to assess plant and animal conservation targets include target selection, goal setting, and viability assessments (downloads as a pdf). Plants selected for the portfolio are in the plan report's species results section (pdf).

Ecoregional targets: terrestrial ecosystems and communities

Methods used to assess community conservation targets, including target selection, goal setting, and viability assessment (downloads as a pdf). Communities selected for the portfolio are in the plan report's terrestrial ecosystems and communities results section (pdf). The national vegetation classification for Lower New England is documented in Plant Communities of the Lower New England-Northern Piedmont Ecoregion, by Julie A. Lundgren, 2000.

Ecoregional targets: matrix forests:

Methods used to develop and assess matrix-forming ecosystem conservation targets. Matrix forest examples selected for the portfolio are in the plan report's matrix-forming ecosystem results section (pdf). Ecological Land Units (ELUs) are introduced in the methods chapter, but without much technical description. Since the original LNE/NP assessment, a new spatial dataset for ecological systems has been developed. Read more about ELUs in the supplementary metadata for systems30 raster data (.doc download).
Block reports are pdf documents that summarize all important descriptive and quantitative information about a matrix block. They were created for the 128 matrix blocks that formed the basis for the final portfolio selection of 95 high priority and alternate matrix blocks. Annotations have been added to the reports on those blocks that were changed in some way but still appear in the final set. A map of the spatial arrangement of blocks is shown below.
 

Ecoregional targets: aquatic systems:

Methods used to assess aquatic conservation targets, including target selection, goal setting, and viability assessment. Aquatic systems selected for the portfolio are in the plan report's aquatic results section (pdf). Download a slideshow of ecoregional planning for aquatic biodiversity in Lower New England, by Arlene Olivero in 2003, here (ppt, 80mb).

The five Lower New England Ecological Drainage Units (EDUs) are the Merrimack, Upper Connecticut, Middle Connecticut, Lower Connecticut, and Cape Cod. For these EDUs, the following tables have summary data and are ready to print (Microsoft Excel downloads).
  • Summary of fish and mussel distribution by HUC8 watershed (download)
  • Size 2 aquatic system biophysical setting summary (download)
  • Size 3 aquatic system biophysical setting summary (download)
These tables and more can be found in the appendices section of this page.

Download all LNE spatial data in one zip file here (1.3gb).

Dataset name Definition
Vector Data
blocks Road, utility line, railroad, and major hydrography line and polygon features used to build ecosystem blocks; chosen for impact on biodiversity.
census Housing unit density for the U.S. census block groups in 1960-1990 and estimates for 2000-2040.
cerclis Point sources of pollution: EPA Superfund data used in aquatic condition analysis.
cities Major cities (over 10,000) in LNE.
counties Line and polygon boundaries for counties in Northeastern U.S.
dams National inventory of dams, used in aquatic condition analysis.
dws Drinking water supplies, used in aquatic condition analysis.
ecoregions Ecoregion boundaries for the Eastern U.S. Source TNC ECS, based on USFS (Keys et al.) subsections and Natural Heritage Program.
ecosubsect Ecoregion subsection boundaries.
edu2001 Ecological Drainage Units.
gnis Place names: an automated inventory of physical and cultural geographic features in the U.S.
hucs_8digit Hydrologic Units for the Northeastern U.S.A. extracted from USGS 1994 dataset.
ifd Point sources of pollution: Industrial Facilities Discharge used in aquatic condition analysis.
lakes Lakes, ponds, and reservoirs polygons.
managedareas Managed areas: All managed lands with a conservation purpose along with other large state or federally managed lands greater than 500 acres.
matrix Viable matrix forest examples in the LNE ecoregion.
mines Point sources of pollution: mining operations, mineral deposits, processing plants.
minorroads Minor roads, railroads, utility lines, and major hydrological linework.
mjrds Major roads: U.S. interstate and state highways and other major thoroughfares.
mjrds_blocks Major road-bounded blocks, including major roads.
mtx_tier12 Viable matrix forest blocks in LNE. Tier 1 are highest priority and are included in the portfolio.
pcs Point sources of pollution: Permit Compliance System used in aquatic condition analysis.
portfolio_aqua Aquatic systems portfolio as of 9-30-2002.
qsurf_e Surficial geology: displays the surface distribution of Quaternary sediments.
rcris Point sources of pollution: Resources Conservation and Recovery Info system.
rdstrm_reg1 Road stream crossing points.
reg1shedpoly_s1 Size 1 watershed boundaries: Headwaters to small tributaries.
reg1shedpoly_s2 Size 2 watershed boundaries: Small to medium rivers.
reg1shedpoly_s3 Size 3 watershed boundaries: Medium to large rivers.
states State boundaries.
streams_reg1 USEPA OW River Reach File 3 (RF3) for USGS Drainage Region 1.
trails Trails: logging roads, fire roads, hiking and other trails not usable by ordinary vehicles.
tri Point sources of pollution: Toxic Release Inventory; Water release in 1995 used in aquatic condition analysis.
Raster Data
dem30fill National Elevation Dataset: processed to fill cell depressions or 'sinks' that reflect isolated surface error. Ground resolution approximately 30 meter.
systems30 Ecological systems: a composite of several different grids, intended to capture the biophysical character of the LNE/NP and NAC ecoregions, including landcover, elevation zone, geological substrate, and landform. Ground resolution approximately 30 meter.
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The tables that follow will download as Microsoft Excel files.

Species tables:
All species, primary and secondary targets
Viable invertebrate targets - Distribution, stratification, and goals
Progress toward goals
Viable primary vertebrate targets - Distribution, stratification, and goals
Number EOs in portfolio sites
Secondary targets with no EOs
Species in ESA

Communities and ecosystems tables:
Distributions of community associations - arranged by group type, subregion, and subsection with distribution and goals
Communities by subregion - Compares the expert estimated numbers and subsection distribution of ecosystems with the total number and number of viable examples per subsection included in Heritage databases
EOs by matrix block and EOs by LCA are extracts that show community targets that occur within preferred matrix locations and proposed LCAs, respectively.
Community goals by subsections

Matrix forest tables:
ELUs in the portfolio
ELUs by matrix block
Matrix blocks by state

Aquatic tables:
Aquatic targets detailed results
Aquatic results by size 2 watershed
Aquatic results by size 3 watershed
Aquatic portfolio occurrences
Portfolio occurrences variables
Access database - allows for more detailed examination of the aquatic portfolio data, containining several pre-defined queries and reports. You must copy the database off this webpage and redefine it to be hte master, as described in the documentation.

EOs by subsection is an extract from lneoccurrence.xls that includes all species targets and their distribution across subsections. See the reference map below for subsections.
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