Montana Natural Heritage Program Information Products (Poster)

Abstract

The data system at the Montana Natural Heritage Program (MTNHP) contains information on over 18,100 different species and habitats that occur in Montana and the data system’s 6.1 million plus observations, 515,000 plus structured surveys, predicted habitat suitability models for over 2,300 species, and occurrence polygons for Species of Concern are used by over 1,800 natural resource professionals across the state to inform a wide variety of planning efforts, management actions, and permitting processes. Recently MTNHP has created and updated several key tools and products to support its core mission. Our new website is greatly simplified and mobile friendly. New conservation status rank summaries and reports are available in accounts on the Montana Field Guide for all vertebrates and ecological communities and selected invertebrates and plants. New stewardship responsibility metrics summarize the federal, state, local, private/tribal, and conservation lands/ easements responsibility for management of predicted suitable habitat for species in both accounts on the Montana Field Guide and in the Single Species Overview task of our Map Viewer web application. New dashboards summarize information on native species and habitats, the distribution of non-native species in Montana and adjacent to the state’s borders, and provide tools for beaver restoration, sustainable forestry initiative certification, and grazing. Finally, we have clarified and streamlined methods for data submission and provide resources for citizen scientists and professional biologists and resource managers to contribute data to the MTNHP via iNaturalist.