Ecology

After 35 years of having an Ecology Program, state funding eroded to the point that we were no longer able to maintain permanent staff in this program in 2021.  We are currently contracting for the core information products of the Ecology Program as funding is available for a Montana land cover layer that includes mapping of existing natural vegetation communities and mapping of wetland and riparian areas to National Wetland Inventory (NWI) standards using aerial imagery coupled with ground truthing.

The Ecology Program is needed to track the distribution and status of native terrestrial and aquatic biological communities across Montana in a manner compatible with NatureServe and the network of natural heritage programs across the United States and Canada. 

---

2024 Program Focus

• Contract for the transition of the land cover layer from Ecological Systems as the existing habitat descriptor to the National Vegetation Classification (NVC) system at the level of Groups as the existing habitat descriptor.  This includes NVC Group descriptions, mapping of Groups in an updated land cover layer, and assignment of conservation status ranks for these vegetation community Groups.
• Contract for modern NWI wetland and riparian mapping in approximately ten 1:24,000 scale USGS quadrangle maps.