Bird Conservation Regions, Northern Appalachian

BCRs were developed initially from 1998 to 1999 by a mapping team comprising members of the United States, Mexico, and Canada. BCR’s were defined through a process of expert consultation whereby CEC polygons from various scales were combined or split to create units corresponding to bird species distribution and requirements, and recognizing practical planning considerations. It was understood that updates to the BCR layer would be made every three years, but this did not begin to occur in an official capacity until 2009. The USFWS created the original BCR layer (Arc/INFO format) in 1999 with help from Bird Studies Canada (BSC). BSC has hosted the master copy of the file on its website ever since. Following initial use of the layer, some inconsistencies were found, at which point Environment Canada made substantial edits to the base map (primarily to improve the resolution of the Canadian coastline). Subsequently, BSC made further edits to the base map, embedded lakes, and attributes; and made other fixes to improve the utility of the layer for analysis purposes (e.g., range map analyses for the Partners in Flight Species Assessment). _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ As part of a formal review process led by US NABCI, beginning in 2009, six changes were proposed for US BCRs. Upon review, proposed changes were either approved in their original state, or approved with modifications. These were then sent to BSC for implementation. The changes have now been completed and are described in detail in this document. Seven proposed changes to Canadian BCRs, as requested by NABCI Canada, were also incorporated. Edits from 2009 completed by Andrew Couturier, Sandra Marquez, and Eva Jenkins, Bird Studies Canada. Bird Studies Canada and NABCI. 2014. Bird Conservation Regions. Published by Bird Studies Canada on behalf of the North American Bird Conservation Initiative. http://www.birdscanada.org/research/gislab/index.jsp?targetpg=bcr Accessed: [2014-02-10]