Polygons encompassing recent northern Idaho Ground squirrel detections from Idaho Department of Fish & Game standardized surveys, presence surveys, exploratory surveys, and incidental observations. Polygon boundaries modified to encompass new detections in 2019 based on actual locations (adjusted for distance and side of survey line). Polygon boundaries typically not reduced in size until multiple years of no data.

Range polygons may include areas not currently occupied by a species and, conversely, may omit areas potentially used by a species. The boundary delineations are primarily based on ecoregion subsections (USDA F.S., Ecomap Subsections 2007) and 10 Kilometer occurrence buffers. Criteria used to delineate range boundaries:Select all occupied ecoregion subsections.If subsection is composed of two separate polygons, select only the subsection polygon containing occurrence/s.Buffer species occurrences by 10 Kilometers (per maximum buffer distance suggested by scientific literature. If occurrence buffer extends outside a selected subsection, expand subsection boundary to incorporate buffer.If non-selected subsection is surrounded by selected subsections, incorporate non-selected subsections into species range after assessing vegetational characteristics.Clip species range by California State boundary.Merge ecoregion subsections to create a seamless species range polygon.EcomapSubsections_2007 - MetadataThe Ecomap Subsections feature class contains ecological subsection polygons attributed with subsection names and descriptions. The EcomapSubsections 2007 data set describes the ecological subsections within the conterminous United States. It contains regional geographic delineations for analysis of ecological relationships across ecological units. ECOMAP is the term used for a USDA Forest Service initiative to map ecological units and encourage their use in ecosystem-based approaches to forest land conservation and management. This is a collaborative effort with many partners. It is coordinated at the national and regional levels by USDA Forest Service staff and implemented in cooperation with State forestry agencies and others. ECOMAP mapping criteria are outlined in the National Hierarchical Framework of Ecological Units (https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/stelprdb5286434.pdf). The framework systematically divides the country into progressively smaller areas of land and water that have similar physical and biological characteristics and ecological processes.Note: The "EcomapSubSections_2007" was downloaded from the USDA Forest Service Clearing House website on January 17, 2023.

Reason for Selection Low-urban historic landscapes indicate significant cultural landscapes whose cultural context has been less impacted by urban development. Cultural landscapes are “properties [that] represent the combined works of nature and of man” (UNESCO 2012). Loss of natural habitat within these cultural landscapes reduces their overall historic and cultural value. Input Data

Southeast Blueprint 2023 subregions: Caribbean
Southeast Blueprint 2023 extent
2020 LANDFIRE Existing Vegetation Type (EVT) (v2.2.0) for Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands; access the data for U.S. Insular Areas
The following The National Register of Historic Places data for Puerto Rico provided by Eduardo Cancio, Information Systems Specialist with the Puerto Rico State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) on 2-21-2023 (contact ecancio@prshpo.pr.gov for more information):NRHP_PR_individual_properties.shp
    NRHP_PR_lineal_districts.shp
    NRHP_PR_polygonal_districts.shp 

The National Register of Historic Places reflects what Americans value in their historic built environment. It is the collection of our human imprint on the landscape that records through time our changing relationship with the landscape, bridging between modern life and our history by providing, as closely as possible, experiences that evoke our empathy and understanding of previous eras.

  OpenStreetMap data “multipolygons” layer, accessed 3-14-2023 

A polygon from this dataset is considered a historic site if the “historic” tag is not null. In OpenStreetMap, a historic feature refers to “features that still exist or of which traces are observable, and that are of historic interest, or where the feature class is generally of historical interest”. We only used historic polygons if the name tag is also not null. OpenStreetMap® is open data, licensed under the Open Data Commons Open Database License (ODbL) by the OpenStreetMap Foundation (OSMF). Additional credit to OSM contributors. Read more on the OSM copyright page.

  Select USVI historic districts: Polygon boundaries for the Christiansted National Historic District on St. Thomas and Charlotte Amalie Historic and Architectural Historic District on St. Croix, provided by Nikita Beck with the University of the Virgin Islands on 3-6-2023 (contact nikita.beck@uvi.edu for more information)

Mapping Steps

Identify urban areas using the following classes from 2020 LANDFIRE EVT: Developed-High Intensity, Developed-Low Intensity, Developed-Medium Intensity, Developed-Open Space, Developed-Roads. Classify all urban pixels as 1 and all other pixels as 0.
Calculate the percent urban in a 270 m radius circle for each pixel using the Focal Statistics tool in ArcGIS. Since the LANDFIRE data resolution is 30 m, 270 m (9 pixels) approximates a 250 m radius. Retain all pixels that are <50% urban within a 270 m radius. 
Create a historic places layer by combining the following vector datasets as follows:Buffer National Register point data from the Puerto Rico SHPO by 100 m.
    Combine National Register polygons from the Puerto Rico SHPO, select USVI historic districts, and OpenStreetMap polygons. Only use OpenStreetMap polygons if both the historic and name columns are null. Buffer the polygons by 30 m.
    Buffer line data from the Puerto Rico SHPO by 30 m.
    Merge all buffered point, polygon, and line data into one layer and convert to a 30 m raster representing historic places.

Use the historic places raster to remove areas that fall outside of the historic places.
Reclassify the above raster into 3 classes, seen in the final indicator values below.
Clip to the Caribbean Blueprint 2023 subregion.
As a final step, clip to the spatial extent of Southeast Blueprint 2023. 

Note: For more details on the mapping steps, code used to create this layer is available in the Southeast Blueprint Data Download under > 6_Code. Final indicator values Indicator values are assigned as follows: 2 = Historic place with nearby low-urban buffer 1 = Historic place with nearby high-urban buffer 0 = Not identified as a historic place Known Issues

There are likely spatial mapping errors for some of the historic areas. 
Some historic areas with cultural importance are not captured in the National Register of Historic Places.
The approach to measuring urban development doesn’t capture degradation to historic places that were historically in larger cities (e.g., courthouses and other downtown buildings). It also doesn’t distinguish between historic places that have always been urban and historic places that used to be low-urban.
This layer likely underrepresents some historic areas in the U.S. Virgin Islands compared to Puerto Rico because we were unable to incorporate historic places data from the USVI SHPO during the timeline of this Blueprint update. As a result, some sites on the National Register of Historic Places are not depicted in this indicator.
OpenStreetMap is a crowdsourced dataset. While members of the OpenStreetMap community often verify map features to check for accuracy and completeness, there is the potential for spatial errors (e.g., misrepresenting the boundary of a historic site) or incorrect tags (e.g., labelling an area as a historic site that does not have historic value). However, using a crowdsourced dataset gives on-the-ground experts, Blueprint users, and community members the power to fix errors and add new historic sites to improve the accuracy and coverage of this indicator in the future.
Because open water is considered a non-urban landcover for the purposes of this analysis, this indicator is likely overprioritizing some urbanized historic areas that are close to water, such as marinas and bridges.

Disclaimer: Comparing with Older Indicator Versions There are numerous problems with using Southeast Blueprint indicators for change analysis. Please consult Blueprint staff if you would like to do this (email hilary_morris@fws.gov). Literature Cited OpenStreetMap. Historic. Data extracted through Geofabrik downloads. Accessed March 14, 2023. [https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Key:historic].

LANDFIRE, Earth Resources Observation and Science Center (EROS), U.S. Geological Survey. Published August 1, 2022. LANDFIRE 2020 Existing Vegetation Type (EVT) Puerto Rico US Virgin Islands. LF 2020, raster digital data. Sioux Falls, SD. [https://www.landfire.gov].UNESCO (2012) Operational Guidelines for the Implementation of the World Heritage Convention [1]. UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Paris. Page 14. [https://whc.unesco.org/archive/opguide12-en.pdf].