Large Forests

The base dataset used in this forest fragmentation analysis is the 2006 C-CAP Land Cover Analysis (http://www.csc.noaa.gov/crs/lca/northeast.html). Land cover categories that were considered 'forest' for this analysis include Deciduous Forest, Evergreen Forest, Mixed Forest, Estuarine Forested Wetland and Palustrine Forested Wetland. Two buffered roads layers were erased from the forest polygons, in order to approximate the intrusive significance of roads on the landscape. Because the area of interest crosses the boundaries of multiple states, the ESRI North America Detailed Streets layer (http://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=f38b87cc295541fb88513d1ed7cec9fd) was used. Two selections of the roads data were extracted and buffered: Interstate roads were buffered 150 feet from the center line in both directions, while US, State, and County roads were buffered 33 feet from the center line. Finally, the 1:24,000 linear hydrography (for New York State only) was intersected with the resulting forest polygons, in order to identify forested areas containing river and steam features. A field was added to identify whether or not the forest polygon contains a riparian feature. Columbia County Planning Department added a field called "Category" that allows symbology to be applied matching the Large Forests map included in the Columbia County Natural Resources Inventory.