This layer represents the Expanded Opportunity Area for Highlands Landscape. States may request that theU.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) add municipalities (with their concurrence) within thisExpanded Opportunity Area for Highlands Landscapeto the Federal Highlands boundary used for the Federal Highlands Conservation Act.The Highlands Conservation Act authorizes the Secretary of the Interior to provide financial assistance to the States of Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania (Highland States) to preserve and protect high priority conservation land in the Highlands region. This dataset was developed by the USFWS in April 2024 with state input.The Expanded Opportunity Area for Highlands Landscapeexpands the region that was initially established in the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) reports (Federal Highlands boundary used for the Federal Highlands Conservation Act) to generally include the remainder of level 4 ecoregions that were initially only partially included. It is defined by physiographic and geomorphic features where possible, although it follows municipal boundaries as was done in the initial USFS studies. On the west side, from south to north, the updated Highlands Landscape is bounded by the Kittatinny Ridge and Appalachian trail in Pennsylvania north to the Shawangunk Mountains in New York. It includes the remainder of the Hudson Valley, Taconic Foothills, and Western New England Marble Valleys Level 4 ecoregions (parts of which were within the initial federal Highlands Boundary, and which make up the "Northeastern Highlands" Level 3 Ecoregion) in New York. At its northern edge, the Highlands Landscape includes Columbia Co., NY and ends at the Massachusetts border.On the east side, the updated Highlands Landscape includes the remainder of the Connecticut Valley and Southern New England Coastal Hills and Plains ecoregions in Connecticut and New York, which were partially included in the initial federal HCA boundary, except the landscape does not include the highly developed, low elevation towns in Westchester and Rockland County, NY. The Highlands Landscape then continues along the eastern edge of the Watchung Mountains, which form the boundary of the Trap Rock and Conglomerate Uplands ecoregion in Passais, Essex, and Union Counties, NY. The Landscape then follows the eastern edge of the Triassic Lowlands Ecoregion, in which other "trap rock and conglomerate uplands" like the Sourland Mountain are embedded in New York and Pennsylvania, and a portion of which was in the initial federal boundary.The Landscape then follows the boundary of the Schuylkill Highlands Conservation Landscape in Pennsylvania to Octoraro Creek, incorporating Lancaster County, PA west to the Susquehanna Riverlands Conservation Landscape and then along Codorus Creek to the Maryland border.The original federal HCA boundary encompassed nearly 3.5 million acres and 320 municipalities, while the updated Highlands Landscape boundary is almost 3 times larger, encompassing 10.2 million acres and 877 towns.