U.S. Fish & Wildlife ServiceFOR non-AGOL ACCOUNT HOLDERS, DOWNLOAD THIS GEOSPATIAL DATA HERE: https://gis-fws.opendata.arcgis.com/search?tags=lmvjv Core Forest Patches -- Core forests are interior patches of forest buffered from edge effects of predation, cowbird parasitism and other anthropogenic deleterious effects and, thus, are beneficial areas for forest bird breeding success. The Lower Mississippi Valley Joint Venture (LMVJV) created the Core Forest Patch layer from a 2021 Forest Cover assessment for the Mississippi Alluvial Valley (also developed by the LMVJV) to determine the amount of bottomland hardwood forest and the number of quality core patches available to forest breeding-birds of the MAV. The LMVJV's Forest Breeding-bird Decision Support Model for Reforestation seeks to reduce forest fragmentation and increase the area of forest core (interior forest >250 m from "hostile" edge). Our primary objective is to increase the number of forest patches that harbor >2000 ha of forest core, but we also sought to increase the number and area of forest cores >5000 ha. Forest patches should be of sufficient size to support source populations of targeted bird species, to minimize the likelihood of extirpation, and to ensure a low probability of genetic degradation. The issues that must be resolved in order to select an appropriately‐sized patch of habitat for breeding birds are: 1) context, or how ought breeding birds be buffered from the negative influence of surrounding matrices; 2) desired number of breeding pairs to constitute a source population with a high probability of long‐term viability; and 3) the density at which birds tend to occur within habitat likely to be included in average patches. Area can be conceptually calculated using the formula: A = (N * D) + B where A = Area of forest required to support a source population (ha), N = Desired number of breeding pairs, D = Density of breeding birds (expressed as area / breeding pair), and B = The area (ha) of a 1‐km‐wide forested buffer around the core forest area (N * D).ArcGIS FeatureLayerhttps://hub.arcgis.com/datasets/6c78693496db4fcd9c97a3644080260e_0engU.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Open DataPublicMAV forestcore 2021 - areas greater than 5000ac [United States]Web servicesUnited States2021