DefinitionThis indicator identifies the ability of land to economically sustain human communities while also providing conservation benefits within the Midwest Landscape. It prioritizes areas based on the locations of conservation easements. Pixels can take the following values:1 - Closed Access or Unknown Access conservation easementNoData - Open Access or Restricted Access easements, or not a conservation easementSelectionThis indicator was chosen as a targetable, important feature of the MLI goals that will be used to track conditions over time and prioritize areas for conservation. Indicators were defined through elicitation and prioritization exercises with federal and state participants. Criteria for the indicators includes 1) actionable, 2) measurable, 3) relevant to multiple groups across the region, and/or 4) representative of other social and/or environmental values.Input Data & Mapping StepsThis indicator originates from the National Conservation Easement Database. To create this layer, MLI partners, members, and staff completed the following mapping steps: projected all input data to NAD83 (2011) UTM Zone 15N, converted the conservation easement polygons into a 30m raster, and reclassified the raster to a binary with the following values: 1 - Closed Access or Unknown Access conservation easement, NoData - Open Access or Restricted Access easements, or not a conservation easement. Finally, we removed highly altered areas using our Highly Altered Areas mask.For full mapping details, please refer to theMidwest Conservation Blueprint 2024 Development Process. For a complete download of all Blueprint input and output data, visit theMidwest Conservation Blueprint 2024 Data Download.
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