Landscape Project Version 3.1 - State of New Jersey

12 | Landscape Project Version 3.1 | CONSERVING IMPERILED WILDLIFE OF NEW JERSEYLandscape Project maps enable state, county,municipal and private agencies to identify importanthabitats and protect them in a variety of ways:Prioritize conservation acquisitions: The LandscapeProject is used to assist with prioritizing land parcels forpuchase through acquisition programs such as FarmlandPreservation and the USFWS’s refuge system.Guide regulators and planners: Landscape Project mapsprovide those who administer land use regulations and state,county and local planners with a crucial tool used to enhanceprotection and properly plan development through theregulatory and planning process.Provide citizens with conservation tools: The LandscapeProject provides a transparent and readily accessible tool tohelp guide citizen actions to protect imperiled and specialconcern species habitat at the local level.Guide stewardship of conserved areas: New Jersey hasmore than 400,000 hectares of open space. These lands aremanaged by a variety of agencies and organizations, bothpublic and private. Landscape Project maps identify importantimperiled and special concern species habitats on theselands. ENSP staff work closely with land managers andlandowners to develop appropriate best managementpractices for the long-term conservation of imperiled andspecial concern species.Landscape Project maps are widely used in municipal andcounty Environmental Resource Inventories (ERI) to documentthreatened and endangered wildlife habitat. ERI for KingwoodTownship, Hunterdon County, shown above.WHO BENEFITSConservation of large expanses of fields, forests and wetlands helps to ensure that wildlife will remain a part ofNew Jersey’s future. Conserving imperiled and special concern species habitat identified in the Landscape Projectalso results in more land contributing ecosystem services and more open space for outdoor recreation. Surveys by theUS Fish and Wildlife Service (2006) reveal more than 87.5 million U.S. residents sixteen and older participate insome form of wildlife-related recreation. Open spaces provide places where people can escape the confines andstresses of urban and suburban living. Retaining habitats in their natural state provides other benefits such as reducingthe threat of flooding, allowing for the biodegradation and filtering of environmental contaminants and rechargingground water reserves. In short, planning that employs the Landscape Project habitat mapping provides potentialbenefits for everyone.