U.S. Fish & Wildlife ServiceDefinition This indicator identifies large, unfragmented patches of habitat within the Midwest Landscape. It prioritizes areas based on quality and protection status of habitat cores. Pixels can take the following values: 1 - "Good" intact habitat core score 2 - "Better" intact habitat core score 3 - "Best" intact habitat core score, plus GAP 1-2 protected lands Selection This 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 Steps This indicator originates from the Esri Green Infrastructure Intact Habitat Cores Layer and the Protected Areas 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, merged all state-level habitat core layers into a single, regional layer, deleted identical polygons, converted the layer to a 30m raster using the core score as the case field, and reclassified the resulting raster into the following classes: 1 - Good core (score of 1.6-3.31), 2 - Better core (score of 3.32-4.12), 3 - Best core (score of 4.13-4.5). We selected all polygons with a GAP status of 1 or 2 from the Protected Areas database, converted the selected polygons to a 30m raster, and mosaiced this raster with the Intact Habitat Cores raster. Finally, highly altered areas were removed using our Highly Altered Areas Mask. For full mapping details, please refer to the Midwest Conservation Blueprint Development Process . For a complete download of all Blueprint input and output data, visit the Midwest Conservation Blueprint 2026 Data Download.ArcGIS ImageMapLayerhttps://hub.arcgis.com/datasets/eb76c6e0b9c84201a98178ce5af4d4cdengU.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Open DataPublicIntact Habitat Cores (Midwest Conservation Blueprint 2026 Indicator) [United States]Web servicesUnited States2026