Description: The project boundary is formed by the watershed boundaries (8-digit hydrologic unit code) of the headwater streams of western South Dakota for the Little Missouri River, Moreau, Grand, and Belle Fourche (Cheyenne) Rivers, covering approximately 3.5 million hectares across SD, MT, ND, and WY.
Description: Hierarchical catchment topology showing reach membership across scales from NHD catchments to Huc12, Huc10, and larger drainages
Copyright Text: Produced by The Nature Conservancy in MN, ND, and SD with grant funding from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and ConocoPhillips SPIRIT of Conservation and Innovation.
Description: Major Land Resource Areas (MLRA) are geographically associated land resource units delineated by the Natural Resources Conservation Service and characterized by a particular pattern that combines soils, water, climate, vegetation, land use, and type of farming. Identification of these large areas is important in statewide agricultural planning and has value in interstate, regional, and national planning.
Description: Level 4 Ecoregions denote areas of general similarity in ecosystems and in the type, quality, and quantity of environmental resources. They are designed to serve as a spatial framework for environmental resource management.
Description: Represents the vegetation that may have been dominant on the landscape prior to Euro-American settlement and is based on both the biophysical environment and an approximation of the historical disturbance regime. Based on NatureServe's (NS) Ecological Systems classification as interpreted through the LANDFIRE effort
Description: The most general level of classification in the USDA system of Soil Taxonomy. Assigned based on dominant soil order for SSURGO polygons based on the SSURGO table variable "taxorder".
Description: Represents the maximum potential extent of active riparian and floodplain area function and processes based on topographic and terrain analysis using a 10m DEM. For additional info, see metadata.
Description: Quartile ranking of relative rangeland potential by catchment based on continuous, intact grassland habitat and rangeland soil productivity as the primary indicators of rangeland potential forage production.
Description: Quartile ranking of relative rangeland potential by catchment based primarily on rangeland productivity of soils (SSURGO) and observed NDVI for grassland cover types as the primary indicators of rangeland potential forage production.
Description: Percent of catchment that exceeds NDVI threshold value (40) for mesic conditions during dry years, indicating greater availability of moisture, wetland or riparian habitats
Description: Average "greenness" (NDVI*) by catchment for grass, hay, and non-woody vegetation during the driest years since 1984 when Landsat data first became available. Five driest years: 1988 (excluded from average due to large data gaps in Landsat grid), 2001-02, 2006, 2012). Natural cover types only, with developed and cropped lands removed. *Normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) is derived from remote sensing data and is an indicator of green vegetation, i.e. biomass.
Description: Average "greenness" (NDVI*) by catchment for grass, hay, and non-woody vegetation, for the 4 wettest years. Natural cover types only, with developed and cropped lands removed. 4 year average created from NDVI data for the four of the wettest years (1995, 1998, 2010, 2011), four of the most average years (1992, 1999, 2004, 2017), and four of the driest years (2001-02, 2006, 2012). *Normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) is derived from remote sensing data and is an indicator of green vegetation, i.e. biomass.
Description: Summarized per catchment to show the average NDVI variance, calculated as the square root of the squared difference between each year and the 12 year average, as an indicator of variability in grass production.
Description: Areas that are indicated as potential wetland based on topographic wetness and wet year NDVI, but that become non-mesic during dry years. Legend indicates the number of years out of twelve that the area meets the mesic threshold. Areas meeting the threshold for 6-9 years out of 12 are identified as having the highest potential for enhancement.
Description: Difference in NDVI between grid cell 12-year average and 12-year average calculated for that ecoregion, vegetation type, and upland vs riparian landscape position. Positive values represent grid cells that are "greener" than expected while negative values are "less green" than expected. All else being equal, lower values may indicate lower production, stress, or grazing intensity.
Description: KFFACT is a soil erodibility factor used in models to estimate soil loss by water. Low values indicate low vulnerability to erosion, higher values mean higher susceptibility to water erosion from runoff.
Name: Cumulative Anthropogenic Stress Index (CASI)
Display Field: hu_12_name
Type: Feature Layer
Geometry Type: esriGeometryPolygon
Description: Cumulative Anthropogenic Stress Index (CASI) for four northern prairie fish habitat guilds; derived from the Great Plains Partnership Fish Habitat assessment (conducted by Downstream Strategies; see metadata for details).
Description: EPA used soils, land use, and other datasets to determine poorly drained soils that are naturally suited to be wetlands but are currently in ag. Range of suitability for restoration from 0-3 with three being high potential for wetland resoration. From the EPA's enviroatlas mapping website
Description: Nitrogen input density (kg/yr/km2), an estimate of anthropogenic nutrient inputs at the local catchment scale for the Great Plains Fish Habitat Partnership Assessment.
Description: Phosphorus input density (kg/yr/km2), an estimate of anthropogenic nutrient inputs at the local catchment scale for the Great Plains Fish Habitat Partnership Assessment.
Description: Relative ranking of intactness of riparian area based primarily on contiguous percentage of grass and perennial land cover/lack of land cover disturbance at the reach scale.
Description: Relative ranking of riparian zone resilience based on NDVI (dry versus wet year greenness) and persistence of mesic conditions. Areas that maintain mesic conditions during dry periods would rank higher for resilience, while areas with high variance would rank lower.
Description: Relative ranking of riparian zone vulnerability to erosion based primarily on topography (stream power and slope) and SSURGO soil characteristics (soil erodibility).
Description: Relative ranking of riparian vulnerability to drought based on NDVI and SSURGO soil characteristics. This is essentially the inverse of riparian resilience, showing catchments where riparian areas exhibit high variability in vegetation greenness from wet periods to dry periods.
Name: Riparian Areas With Potential for Mesic Enhancement
Display Field:
Type: Raster Layer
Geometry Type: null
Description: Areas in the active riparian zone that are potentially mesic based on topographic wetness and wet year NDVI, but that become non-mesic during dry years. Legend indicates the number of years out of twelve that the area meets the mesic threshold. Areas meeting the threshold for 6-9 years out of 12 are identified as having the highest potential for enhancement.
Description: Riparian areas that have potential for mesic habitat restoration/enhancement based on the NDVI, and are modeled as potential wetland habitat based on topographic wetness index; derived based on overlay of ARA, NDVI, and EPA potential wetlands (EPA EnviroAtlas).
Description: Represents the maximum potential extent of active riparian and floodplain area function and processes based on topographic and terrain analysis using a 10m DEM. For additional info, see metadata.
Description: The five grassland bird species selected as focal species for modeling in the 2016 Northern Great Plains business plan were Baird’s Sparrow, Chestnut-collared Longspur, Lark Bunting, McCown’s Longspur, and Sprague’s Pipit.
Description: Count of animal Element Occurrences (EO) in catchment, also known as Species of Greatest Conservation Need, based on state wildlife action plans.
Name: Great Plains Fish Habitat Partnership Protection Opportunity
Display Field: COMID
Type: Feature Layer
Geometry Type: esriGeometryPolygon
Description: Prairie fish protection priority based on Great Plains Fish Habitat Partnership models for turbid river and northern headwater species guilds.
Description: The stock water feature layer was created by The Nature Conservancy with volunteer labor and public data sources to visually digitize stock dams and other modified water features detectable from aerial imagery at ~1:7000 scale.
Description: Intact grassland catchments showing overall vulnerability in dry years but with opportunity to restore or enhance riparian mesic habitat along significant portions of the riparian corridor
Description: Intact grassland catchments showing low vulnerability to erosion at catchment scale but high riparian erosion vulnerability, indicating relatively higher potential for success of site-level efforts.
Description: Riparian areas that have potential for mesic habitat restoration/enhancement based on the NDVI, and are modeled as potential wetland habitat based on topographic wetness index; derived based on overlay of ARA, NDVI, and EPA potential wetlands (EPA EnviroAtlas).
Description: Difference in NDVI between grid cell 12-year average and 12-year average calculated for that ecoregion, vegetation type, and upland vs riparian landscape position. Positive values represent grid cells that are "greener" than expected while negative values are "less green" than expected. All else being equal, lower values may indicate lower production, stress, or grazing intensity.