IRA NorthernForests March2024

<div style='font-family:&quot;Avenir Next W01&quot;, &quot;Avenir Next W00&quot;, &quot;Avenir Next&quot;, Avenir, &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;, sans-serif; font-size:16px;'>The Midwest Landscape Initiative (MLI) is a collaboration of fish and wildlife organizations that identifies shared conservation priorities to develop solutions for healthy, functioning ecosystems in the Midwest. One product stewarded by the Midwest Landscape Initiative is the Midwest Conservation Blueprint, a base map of priority lands and waters for conservation across the Midwest. The blueprint prioritization was created using more than 20 cross-cutting societal and environmental values (i.e., indicators), including biodiversity, access to drinking water, and public recreation, among many others.</div><div style='font-family:&quot;Avenir Next W01&quot;, &quot;Avenir Next W00&quot;, &quot;Avenir Next&quot;, Avenir, &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;, sans-serif; font-size:16px;'><br /></div><div style='font-family:&quot;Avenir Next W01&quot;, &quot;Avenir Next W00&quot;, &quot;Avenir Next&quot;, Avenir, &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;, sans-serif; font-size:16px;'>This layer illustrates the approximate boundary of the Northern Forest biome as determined by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for 2024 Inflation Reduction Act spending. Within this boundary, the Midwest Landscape Initiative and Northeast Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies Landscape Conservation Committee collaborated to select projects for IRA funding. The Midwest Conservation Blueprint and Nature's Network Conservation Design were considered as criteria during the funding process. These boundaries are estimated and are for viewing purposes only. This layer is an input for a web map which is highlighted on a StoryMap that is used to share successes of the Midwest Landscape Initiative. It is not recommended to view this layer on its own, but rather as part of the StoryMap, which can be found here: <a href='https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/15a30ebafbce4f44a1135750bf22105a' style='font-family:inherit; color:rgb(0, 97, 155); text-decoration-line:none;' target='_blank' rel='nofollow ugc noopener noreferrer'>https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/15a30ebafbce4f44a1135750bf22105a</a>. </div>