Berkshire Wildlife Linkage AllStates

This data package includes GIS analyses identifying conservation priorities for habitat connectivity within the Berkshire Wildlife Linkage -- an important habitat link between the Green Mountains in Vermont and the Hudson Highlands in New York. 


The data presented here for Massachusetts, completed in 2015, are based on interpretation of the Critical Linkages II (2013) data created by UMass-Amherst, supported by the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, and The Nature Conservancy in Massachusetts http://www.umasscaps.org/applications/critical-linkages.html). Critical Linkages data are designed to help identify priorities from a statewide perspective.  This interpretation defines priority road segments that provide the greatest benefit to wildlife connectivity if wildlife crossing structures are incorporated into the transportation network.  The interpretation also identifies three sets of priority connectivity areas, answering three questions:


1. Where does Critical Linkages II identify areas that if developed would most disrupt connectivity to the entire network of conservation nodes?
2. Which set of priority connectivity areas connects nodes that lead to a continuous corridor through western MA from the VT border in the North to the CT and NY borders in the South?
3. Which set of priority connectivity areas connects nodes that are within a set of large, intact “forest cores” identified by TNC as the forests most likely to support a full range of ecosystem benefits if effectively conserved?


When all of these data are displayed simultaneously, they highlight overlaps, and thus point to areas where investments in the transportation corridor to accommodate wildlife movement (underpasses, etc.) can be complemented by land protection and management activities in the adjacent corridor between nodes.  These actions, if successful, result in an integrated and comprehensive wildlife connectivity strategy designed to support wildlife populations over generations and in the context of range shifts resulting from climate change.  These high priority connectivity areas are critically important to the movement of animals of all sizes, and inform priorities where land conservation and/or transportation infrastructure improvements would result in the largest improvement in the ability of animals to move through this corridor.  


In 2016, this dataset was revised in include a complementary set of spatial priorities for the portions of the linkage outside Massachusetts, based on the best available data for those regions.