BioFinder Users
A tool for
Developers, Planners, Scientists, Educators
BioFinder is an interactive mapping tool that can be used in many different situations from exploring a possible development site to teaching students more about their natural heritage. By just drawing around a specific location and turning on and off different GIS layers, you can obtain a wealth of biodiversity data.
BioFinder’s Tiered Contribution to Biodiversity layer shows the relative concentrations of components, giving you a coarse-scale measure or view for an area. For example, an area could be a Tier 1, which means that it has the highest concentration of biodiversity components, or Tier 4, which means it has a moderate concentration of biodiversity components. For a more detailed understanding of the location, you can use the Components Contributing to Biodiversity map layers to see which of the 21 components (for example, rare species, wetlands, habitat connectivity) might be present in the location you are looking at.
On the Using BioFinder: Tips & Tools page under BioFinder Tools you’ll find information about the “ Point Identify” and “Area Identify” features. These two functions produce quick snapshots of a point or area of your choosing by providing the tier rank and a list of all the contributing components (with links to detailed information about each). A suite of drawing tools allows you to mark-up and annotate maps to meet your needs. The Tier Report and Component Report tools will produce documents you can export (as pdf or MS Excel documents) for the location you are interested in. For the greatest insight into a location it is important to use both the Tier and Component reports.
Data used in creating BioFinder are current as of 2012, but individual data sets may have been updated since and are available at the ANR Natural Resources Atlas . BioFinder's 21 components contributing to biological diversity do not represent all available natural resource data that are important for understanding Vermont's environment, or for use with land use planning and regulation. Moreover, BioFinder and the information it contains is not intended to replace environmental consultation, land-use and other permitting, or the need for on-the-ground, site-specific evaluations.
Developers
One of BioFinder’s primary aims was to help renewable energy developers and others interested gathering information about potential large-scale developments in Vermont. No web-based tool can assess all the possible impacts on wildlife and other natural elements from all types of developments in all locations, but BioFinder is an excellent resource for a "first-cut" desktop suitability assessment. BioFinder tools can identify areas where there would be negative impacts to rare species, natural communities, unfragmented and undeveloped habitat blocks, and other important areas.
Tier rankings, as shown in the Tiered Contribution to Biodiversity map layer provide a useful coarse-scale measure for determining the level of potential risk associated with the development of a particular site. For instance, Tier 1 generally supports multiple natural resource values, often including rare features. It may be best to simply avoid large-scale development projects in these areas.
Regardless of a tier rank, it is important to assess the possible effects on each of the natural resource features at any site. For example, BioFinder brings many of these features together so you can consider possible effects on each feature in advance of a site inventory. Although it does not offer regulatory predictability, BioFinder does offer a sense of the number and importance of various ecological components that might have regulatory implications. Tier 1 or 2 lands, for example, are likely to have quite a few components that a development review would need to address.
Planners
BioFinder is not a conservation plan but rather a tool for planners to use to support conservation planning and development review. The BioFinder maps and reports can be easily incorporated into municipal, regional, transportation, and other plans.
In looking at the Tiered Contribution to Biodiversity map layer, planners can see the relative concentrations of the components contributing to biodiversity within an area thus giving a broad, biologically inclusive, overview of an area. For example, BioFinder could identify an area where there is a high concentration of unfragmented habitat or rare species. This kind of quick assessment can also help planners identify “hotspots” — locations where multiple components of biological diversity overlap — as well as patterns of biological diversity across a landscape. Identifying these hotspots and patterns can help set priorities — the foundation of good conservation planning.
Scientists
BioFinder offers the scientific community a comprehensive look at how the components of biological diversity are distributed spatially, and how they occur together in interesting combinations. We suggest starting with the components independently and building an understanding of how the tiers were created from these pieces. The BioFinder Development Report goes into greater detail about the methods used in creating the tool and provides other background information that may be helpful.
BioFinder also provides insight into habitat connectivity at different scales and how those connections relate to blocks of unfragmented habitat across the state. Users can drill down into results to see how riparian corridors, rare species occurrences, and important aquatic features intersect with say landscape features.
Educators
As an educational tool, BioFinder can enhance students’ understanding of our state’s rich natural heritage. Students can choose to explore biodiversity in their own community or in an area in another part of the state. In a course that focuses on animal habitat, for example, students can look for habitat that is connected and determine whether that area could support a wide-ranging mammal like the black bear. Students can identify locations where there are rare species within the state and then study the different components that it make possible for a particular species to survive. Learning how biodiversity components are interconnected will also bring students insight into how ecosystems work.
Working with the map itself also offers students a technological opportunity to learn about topography and geographic information systems (GIS) and about how to capture and manipulate information that is presented in layers. The BioFinder reports are excellent tool in teaching how data can be produced and analyzed.
