North America Priority Conservation Areas (Grasslands 2010)

Overview The Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC), in concert with a trinational group of experts, has identified North American species of common conservation concern (SCCC). These terrestrial and marine species comprise a group of important migratory, transboundary, and endemic species selected from among the continent's great wealth of wild flora and fauna, which require regional cooperation for their effective conservation. This layer shows the terrestrial species of this group. Terrestrial species of common conservation concern were selected in 1999 by an experts' working group convened by the CEC. Initially, consultants to the CEC compiled lists of bird and mammal species taken from national endangered species lists in all three countries, with the intent of identifying species that would benefit most from collaborative action among two or all three countries. Given the respective mandates of the participating wildlife agencies, only birds and mammals were included in the initial lists. A workshop with experts from the three countries was then convened to identify mandatory and recommended selection criteria: mandatory criteria required that species be transboundary or migratory, exist in at least two participating countries, and be either a bird or mammal, with particular interest in species listed under existing bilateral treaties. Recommended criteria gave priority to species that are endangered, threatened, extirpated, or otherwise of special conservation concern in one or more countries; species of ecological or other significance, including keystone, umbrella, flagship, indicator, and endemic species; and species likely to demonstrate the importance of trilateral or bilateral cooperation and raise awareness of biodiversity issues across North America. Each country submitted up to ten candidate species to the CEC, with priority given to species recommended by more than one country and to species occurring in all three countries, while also seeking taxonomic, ecological, and geographic balance. Later in 1999, CEC professionals and consultants, together with SCCC Project Chair Dr. David Brackett, agreed on the final selection: burrowing owl, California condor, ferruginous hawk, golden-cheeked warbler, loggerhead shrike, mountain plover, northern and Mexican spotted owls, peregrine falcon, piping plover, whooping crane, black bear, black-tailed prairie dog, gray wolf, Sonoran pronghorn, lesser long-nosed bat, and Mexican long-nosed bat. Geographic Coverage This layer covers the range of the selected terrestrial species across North America, including Canada, Mexico, and the United States. Data Sources and Licensing Range data were compiled from National Geographic and NatureServe. This material is licensed under CC BY 4.0, allowing non-exclusive rights to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format, including for commercial purposes, so long as attribution is given to the creator. Update frequency: Irregular Limitations of use: None. Acknowledgement of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation would be appreciated in products derived from these data. Vintage: 2008 Applications (Intended Use) Regional and trinational conservation planning and collaboration. Biodiversity awareness and public education. Species range assessment and monitoring. Integration with other thematic layers in the North American Environmental Atlas for comprehensive continental analysis. Supporting cross-border environmental cooperation and policy-making among North American nations. Files Download

Overview This layer maps the ecological scorecard sites for marine protected areas (MPAs) across North America as part of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) North American Environmental Atlas. To assess the environmental conditions of MPAs, experts developed an Ecological Assessment Scorecard methodology that distills large amounts of complex technical and traditional/local ecological knowledge about MPA conditions. These scorecards are an easy yet powerful tool for MPA managers to share evidence-based ecological information about water, habitat, and living resources. The scorecard for each MPA is based on standard questions about three key themes (water, habitat, and living resources) to describe environmental health. Conditions for each ecosystem element addressed by the questions are defined on a five-point scale, ranging from superior (best it could be) to critical (worst it could be). Trends in conditions are likewise defined in five categories, ranging from rapidly improving to rapidly diminishing (likely to reach a different state in five years), with stable indicating conditions unlikely to change beyond normal variation. Geographic Coverage This layer covers the ecological scorecard sites for marine protected areas in the Bering Sea to Baja California (B2B) region, spanning Canada, the United States, and Mexico. Data Sources and Licensing Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) and NOAA Marine Protected Areas Center. This material is licensed under CC BY 4.0, allowing non-exclusive rights to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format, including for commercial purposes, so long as attribution is given to the creator. Update frequency: Irregular Limitations of use: None. Acknowledgement of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation and NOAA Marine Protected Areas Center would be appreciated in products derived from these data. Vintage: 2008 Applications (Intended Use) Sharing evidence-based ecological information about water, habitat, and living resources conditions within marine protected areas. Supporting MPA managers in tracking ecological conditions and trends over time. Research, education, monitoring, and reporting on the ecological health of North American marine protected areas. Reference framework for comparing environmental conditions across MPAs in the Bering Sea to Baja California (B2B) region. Integration with other thematic layers in the North American Environmental Atlas for comprehensive continental analysis. Supporting cross-border environmental cooperation and policy-making among North American nations. Files Download

Overview This 30-meter dataset reflects land cover information for 2010 from Mexico and Canada, and 2011 for Alaska and the conterminous United States. Each country developed its own classification method to identify land cover classes and provided an input layer to produce a continental land cover map across North America. The main inputs for image classification were 30-meter Landsat data; image selection varied by country according to site-specific requirements. Canada selected most images from 2010, with a few from 2009 and 2011; the United States primarily used 2011 imagery; and Mexico used all available images from 2010. National maps were generated for Canada by the Canada Centre for Remote Sensing (CCRS); for Mexico by the National Commission for the Knowledge and Use of Biodiversity (Comisión Nacional para el Conocimiento y Uso de la Biodiversidad), National Institute of Statistics and Geography (Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía), and National Forestry Commission of Mexico (Comisión Nacional Forestal); and for the United States by the United States Geological Survey. Each country used its own approach, ancillary data, and mapping methodology, and the national datasets were then combined by the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) into a seamless North American product, merging four map sections: Alaska, Canada, the conterminous United States, and Mexico. The current version (version 3) includes updated data over Canada, provided by the CCRS and the Canada Centre for Mapping and Earth Observation (CCMEO) in February 2024, along with updated 2011 land cover datasets for Alaska and the conterminous United States, provided by the USGS in February 2024. The main change in Alaska relates to the inclusion of an improved road network. No updates were performed over Mexico for this version. Land Cover Classes The raster attribute table provides 19 thematic land cover classes plus a background value, with class names in English, Spanish, and French: 1: Temperate or sub-polar needleleaf forest 2: Sub-polar taiga needleleaf forest 3: Tropical or sub-tropical broadleaf evergreen forest 4: Tropical or sub-tropical broadleaf deciduous forest 5: Temperate or sub-polar broadleaf deciduous forest 6: Mixed forest 7: Tropical or sub-tropical shrubland 8: Temperate or sub-polar shrubland 9: Tropical or sub-tropical grassland 10: Temperate or sub-polar grassland 11: Sub-polar or polar shrubland-lichen-moss 12: Sub-polar or polar grassland-lichen-moss 13: Sub-polar or polar barren-lichen-moss 14: Wetland 15: Cropland 16: Barren lands 17: Urban and built-up 18: Water 19: Snow and ice Geographic Coverage The service covers Canada, the United States, and Mexico, including Alaska. Data Sources and Licensing This dataset is produced by the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC), derived from national land cover maps provided by Natural Resources Canada, the National Commission for the Knowledge and Use of Biodiversity, the National Institute of Statistics and Geography, the National Forestry Commission; and the United States Geological Survey. The compiled dataset is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0), allowing redistribution and adaptation with appropriate attribution. Update frequency: Irregular Limitations of use: Intended for continental-scale reference. Vintage: 2010 Applications (Intended Use) Land cover review and continental- to national-scale mapping. Environmental monitoring and change detection over time. Spatial analysis and integration with other thematic layers in the North American Environmental Atlas. Supporting cross-border environmental cooperation and policy-making among North American nations. Files Download

Overview This layer shows different wetland types, as well as lakes and rivers, across North America. The map was made using the Global Lakes and Wetlands Database (GLWD) Level 3, which was created using a variety of the best available sources for lakes and wetlands on a global scale. Level 3 of the Global Lakes and Wetlands Database (GLWD) comprises lakes, reservoirs, rivers, and different wetland types in the form of a global raster map. GLWD-3 may serve as an estimate of wetland extents for global hydrology and climatology models, or to identify large-scale wetland distributions and important wetland complexes. Source: Lehner, B., and P. Döll. 2004. Development and validation of a global database of lakes, reservoirs and wetlands. Journal of Hydrology 296/1-4: 1–22. Geographic Coverage This layer covers all of North America, including Canada, Mexico, and the United States. Data Sources and Licensing This dataset integrates the Global Lakes and Wetlands Database, Level 3 (World Wildlife Fund US). This material is licensed under CC BY 4.0, allowing non-exclusive rights to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format, including for commercial purposes, so long as attribution is given to the creator. Update frequency: Irregular Limitations of use: None. Acknowledgement of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation and the World Wildlife Fund US would be appreciated in products derived from these data. Vintage: 2004 Applications (Intended Use) Global hydrology and climatology modeling. Identification of large-scale wetland distributions and important wetland complexes. Water resource assessment and monitoring. Integration with other thematic layers in the North American Environmental Atlas for comprehensive continental analysis. Supporting cross-border environmental cooperation and policy-making among North American nations. Files Download

Overview This dataset shows North American land cover for 2005 at a spatial resolution of 250 meters, based on Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) satellite imagery. It provides a harmonized view of the physical cover of Earth's surface across the continent, classified into nineteen Level II land cover classes defined using the Land Cover Classification System (LCCS) standard developed by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations. The dataset was produced as part of the North American Land Change Monitoring System (NALCMS), a trilateral effort between Natural Resources Canada, the United States Geological Survey, and three Mexican organizations: the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía), the National Commission for the Knowledge and Use of Biodiversity (Comisión Nacional para el Conocimiento y Uso de la Biodiversidad), and the National Forestry Commission of Mexico (Comisión Nacional Forestal). The collaboration is facilitated by the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC), an international organization created by the governments of Canada, Mexico, and the United States under the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation to promote environmental collaboration between the three countries. Land Cover Classes The raster attribute table provides 19 thematic land cover classes: 1: Temperate or sub-polar needleleaf forest 2: Sub-polar taiga needleleaf forest 3: Tropical or sub-tropical broadleaf evergreen forest 4: Tropical or sub-tropical broadleaf deciduous forest 5: Temperate or sub-polar broadleaf deciduous forest 6: Mixed forest 7: Tropical or sub-tropical shrubland 8: Temperate or sub-polar shrubland 9: Tropical or sub-tropical grassland 10: Temperate or sub-polar grassland 11: Sub-polar or polar shrubland-lichen-moss 12: Sub-polar or polar grassland-lichen-moss 13: Sub-polar or polar barren-lichen-moss 14: Wetland 15: Cropland 16: Barren land 17: Urban and built-up 18: Water 19: Snow and ice Geographic Coverage This dataset covers Canada, Alaska, the conterminous United States, and Mexico. Data Sources and Licensing This dataset represents the baseline North American Land Cover product for 2005, later updated to produce the 2010 edition. This version (3.0) supersedes Edition 2.0, correcting labeling and classification errors identified after the initial release, and removes the water buffer along the coastline of North America to ensure consistent statistics for the water class. The dataset is produced by the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC), derived from national land cover maps provided by Natural Resources Canada, the National Commission for the Knowledge and Use of Biodiversity, the National Institute of Statistics and Geography, the National Forestry Commission; and the United States Geological Survey. The compiled dataset is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0), allowing redistribution and adaptation with appropriate attribution. Update frequency: As needed Limitations of use: Intended for continental-scale reference. Vintage: 2005 Applications (Intended Use) Land cover review and continental- to national-scale mapping. Environmental monitoring and change detection over time. Spatial analysis and integration with other thematic layers in the North American Environmental Atlas. Supporting cross-border environmental cooperation and policy-making among North American nations. Files Download

Overview This dataset shows North American land cover for 2010 at a spatial resolution of 250 meters, based on Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) satellite imagery. It provides a harmonized view of the physical cover of Earth's surface across the continent, classified into nineteen Level II land cover classes defined using the Land Cover Classification System (LCCS) standard developed by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations. The dataset was produced as part of the North American Land Change Monitoring System (NALCMS), a trilateral effort between Natural Resources Canada, the United States Geological Survey, and three Mexican organizations: the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía), the National Commission for the Knowledge and Use of Biodiversity (Comisión Nacional para el Conocimiento y Uso de la Biodiversidad), and the National Forestry Commission of Mexico (Comisión Nacional Forestal). The collaboration is facilitated by the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC), an international organization created by the governments of Canada, Mexico, and the United States under the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation to promote environmental collaboration between the three countries. Land Cover Classes The raster attribute table provides 19 thematic land cover classes: 1: Temperate or sub-polar needleleaf forest 2: Sub-polar taiga needleleaf forest 3: Tropical or sub-tropical broadleaf evergreen forest 4: Tropical or sub-tropical broadleaf deciduous forest 5: Temperate or sub-polar broadleaf deciduous forest 6: Mixed forest 7: Tropical or sub-tropical shrubland 8: Temperate or sub-polar shrubland 9: Tropical or sub-tropical grassland 10: Temperate or sub-polar grassland 11: Sub-polar or polar shrubland-lichen-moss 12: Sub-polar or polar grassland-lichen-moss 13: Sub-polar or polar barren-lichen-moss 14: Wetland 15: Cropland 16: Barren land 17: Urban and built-up 18: Water 19: Snow and ice Geographic Coverage This dataset covers Canada, Alaska, the conterminous United States, and Mexico. Data Sources and Licensing This dataset builds on the initial 2005 North American Land Cover product, updated to reflect land cover changes detected through 2010. No changes were mapped in Hawaii due to a lack of newer data. This version (2.0) supersedes Edition 1.0, correcting labeling and classification errors identified after the initial release, and removes the water buffer along the coastline of North America to ensure consistent statistics for the water class. The entire dataset is produced by the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC), derived from national land cover maps provided by Natural Resources Canada, the National Commission for the Knowledge and Use of Biodiversity, the National Institute of Statistics and Geography, the National Forestry Commission; and the United States Geological Survey. The compiled dataset is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0), allowing redistribution and adaptation with appropriate attribution. Update frequency: As needed Limitations of use: Intended for continental-scale reference. Vintage: 2010 Applications (Intended Use) Land cover review and continental- to national-scale mapping. Environmental monitoring and change detection over time. Spatial analysis and integration with other thematic layers in the North American Environmental Atlas. Supporting cross-border environmental cooperation and policy-making among North American nations. Files Download