To evaluate the protection status of lands in the
Northern Appalachian/Acadian ecoregion the The Nature Conservancy (TNC)
compiled a data base of lands from existing
state, provincial and federal sources and then added to it information on TNC
held easements and those held by other land trust in the region. Lands
were then evaluated for protection value using the GAP classification system.
Information for Canada is not shown here due to data licensing constraints.
What is GAP Status?
GAP status is an indicator
that looks at land ownership and identifies those tracts of lands that have
permanent legal protection against conversion to development. The three GAP status levels examined here
are:
GAP 1: Lands that are explicitly protected for biodiversity with a
management plan to ensure this purpose and to allow for natural processes to
occur freely. For example, nature reserves and research natural
areas.
GAP 2: Lands that are explicitly conserved for biodiversity but allow for
alterations of natural processes, artificial manipulations and multiple uses.
For example, wildlife refuges and some U.S. national parks.
GAP 3: Lands subject to extractive practices such as logging but governed
to policy restrictions such as maintaining stream buffer areas. For example,
Canadian Crown lands, state forests. GAP
3 lands will remain in primarily natural cover and will likely to play a
key supporting role in maintaining biodiversity.
Definitions of GAP status levels from Crist, P.J., B. Thompson, T.
C. Edwards, C. G. Homer, S. D. Bassett. 1998. Mapping and Categorizing Land
Stewardship. A Handbook for Conducting Gap Analysis.
What Do the Data Show? - 36% of the region, over 29
million acres, are secured against conversion but only 7% is explicitly
protected for biodiversity. Amounts range from a high in New Brunswick of
over 8.5 million acres to a low in PEI of 43,000 acres. New York has the
highest amount of reserve land (GAP status 1 or 2) with almost 2.5 million
acres, most of that in the Adirondack state park.
- 96% of the GAP 1 & 2 are
public lands, predominately managed by the states and provinces.
- Private land accounts for 4%
of the area explicitly protected for biodiversity. The Nature Conservancy
(TNC) and Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) lands account for three
quarters of that 204,000 acres.