Your source for information - Montana Natural Heritage Program

Accomplishments
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Mediated Requests
MTNHP zoology and ecology staff collaborated with species experts and partner
agencies to create: (1) a poster available at
the Montana State Library and Montana
Fish, Wildlife & Parks offices summarizing
the biology, identification, status, distribution, habitat use, host fish, and key
watersheds of the freshwater mussels of
Montana; and (2) a pamphlet checklist of
Montana dragonflies and damselflies that
includes information on each species’ distribution, month of occurrence, distribution, and relative abundance. See http://
mtnhp.org/docs/2009_odonata_checklist.
pdf to view the list.
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MTNHP conducted 944 documented mediated requests
for information in FY2010; 605 of these were for Species of
Concern reviews for environmental reviews.
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The composition of MTNHP mediated requests in FY2010
was as follows: state government (59.5%); private sector
(20.8%); local government (12.1%); and federal government
(7.3%) Two state agencies accounted for the vast majority
of mediated requests. The Montana Department of Natural
Resources and Conservation accounted for 31.7% of all
requests and the Montana Department of Environmental
Quality accounted for 19.7% of all requests.
MTNHP created an online Species of Concern Report for
plants and animals to replace hard copy versions and allow
status ranks to be updated in a more dynamic manner
as new information becomes available. The online report
includes an introduction, lists of the Species of Concern
and Potential Species of Concern, and summaries of species
added to, and removed from, the list. To view the list, see
http://mtnhp.org/SpeciesOfConcern/?AorP=a.
Web Applications
User Comments
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Visits to the MTNHP’s homepage (http://mtnhp.org/) in
FY2010 were up approximately 15% from FY2009. There
were 61,281 visits to the MTNHP homepage in FY2010 with
the average visit lasting just over three minutes. That is
5,107 visits per month or 1,277 visits per week on average
for a total of 3,166 hours of use on home page alone.
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The Montana Field Guide, MTNHP’s collaborative web application with Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks, also had about
a 15% increase in use in FY2010 over use in FY2009. The
Field Guide is being used by natural resource professionals, K-12 and universities, and the general public from every
corner of Montana and around the world. In the last year,
the Montana Field Guide has received 223,400 visits with an
average visit of about three minutes. Total use in FY2010
was 11,170 hours, equivalent to an average use of 931 hours
per month or 233 hours per week. It is typical for anywhere
from 20 to 40 patrons to use the Field Guide simultaneously
during business hours.
“Thanks in advance for any information you can
provide and I really must compliment the MT NHP
program on your web-based content, in my experience few if any states offer anything even close to
this.”
−Chris Burdett
http://mtnhp.org/
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Interim Director and Senior Zoologist, Bryce Maxell recently
collaborated with a doctoral student at the University of
Montana on a manuscript analyzing one of the longest demographic datasets available for an amphibian species. The
manuscript was accepted for publication in the prestigious
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The study
found that likely climate change scenarios in Montana,
including decreased snow pack and winter severity, are
likely to increase the viability of mountain populations of the
Columbia Spotted Frog (Rana luteiventris). The full citation
of the article is:
McCaffery, R.M. and B.A. Maxell. 2010. Decreased winter
severity increases viability of montane frog population. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 107(19):86448649.
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MTNHP released a tremendous amount of
information during FY2010, and our users
responded enthusiastically to
say the least. The use of our
mediated request service was,
as always very popular with
government employees and
businesses. And the use of our
web applications increased significantly.
Natural Heritage Tracker
Since the middle of June 2007, when MTNHP’s Natural
Heritage Tracker application was released, Tracker has had
9,240 hours of agency-level use and 11,267 hours of publiclevel use for a total of 20,507 hours of use. This means that
Tracker is seeing 570 hours of use per month or 142 hours
of use per week on average. Use of the Natural Heritage
Tracker application held steady in FY2010 and agency level
access was dominated by two federal and two state partners
as follows: U.S. Forest Service (29%); Montana Department
of Fish, Wildlife and Parks (25%); Bureau of Land Management (24%); and the Montana Department of Transportation
(15%).
Montana Field Guide
Ecological Systems Field Guide
“This is a great one-stop location for ecological and
status info on Montana species (not just species of
concern!)”
− Anonymous Survey Responder
“I was amazed in how fast MNHP fulfilled my request.
Amazing service! I wish other State government
offices worked this fast in fulfilling requests. I was just
blown away in how fast I received the data. Thank you
to MNHP staff!!”
− Anonymous Survey Responder
Again, I am so appreciative of the MNHP resources
online. I use the Montana Field Guide more than
anything else - every day, all the time! I hope you
can keep adding information about species where
info is currently incomplete. I would like to see more
detailed write-ups of ecological communities.
− Anonymous Survey Responder
MNHP provides a great service. Thanks!
− Anonymous Survey Responder
I am consistently impressed with the efficient distribution and quality information provided by MT NHP.
− Anonymous Survey Responder
http://mtnhp.org/
Your source for information
The Montana Natural Heritage Program is a statutory
MTNHP’s Wetland and Riparian Mapping Center recently
surpassed one million acres of mapped wetlands and riparian
program of the Natural Resources Information System
areas across Montana (1,133,322 acres in total) with 843,052
at the Montana State Library that is operated by the
acres of wetlands and 290,270 acres of riparian habitat. Wetland
University of Montana. We manage information on
and riparian mapping information has also been made accessible in multiple user-friendly formats via a new web site: http://
plants, animals, and communities with a focus on those
mtnhp.org/nwi/nwi_data.asp.
of conservation concern. Montana’s Natural Heritage
is a diverse resource
National Wetland Inventory Wetland Mapping Status
for our citizens and
by USGS Topographic Quad
economy, and is central
to our quality of life.
Good information is
critical to maintain this
valuable heritage as
the state grows and
develops.
Natural
Heritage
Program
In Fiscal Year 2010, the
Montana Natural Heritage
Program continued to make
great progress in every aspect of
our mission, from collecting data
to making that data available to
the public and much more. Some
of our top achievements include:
The Montana Natural Heritage
Program (MTNHP) completed major
updates to the Montana Field Guide, a
collaborative web site with Montana Fish,
Wildlife, and Parks. The updates include:
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NWI Mapping Status
Mapping in Progress (CSKT)
NWI digitized from 1980s imagery and available from NWI
Release of an Ecological Systems Field Guide,
which provides detailed profiles of ecological systems
mapped in Montana (see the guide at http://fieldguide.
mt.gov/displayES_LCLU.aspx);
Maps showing relative density and recency and charts
showing elevational and temporal distributions of animal
observations;
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Associations of animals with ecological systems that serves
to crosswalk the animal and ecological systems portions of
the field guide;
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Links and directed searches for articles containing information on each species on the WorldCat, Google Scholar,
Google Books, and Science.gov search engines to allow
resource managers and the general public to more easily
identify other sources of information on individual species
as well as the repositories where
they can access the articles;
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Addition of 100 new bird calls
from the Macaulay Library of
Natural Sounds which makes
calls for all passerine birds
commonly encountered in
Montana now available.
Hear an audio sample of the
Bank Swallow - Riparia riparia.
Last updated December 27, 20101
No NWI Mapping Available
Completed from 2005 imagery and available from NW
Mapping completed from 2005 imagery (provisional)
Mapping in Progress
At the end of FY2010, MTNHP Point Observation Databases
surpassed a milestone of one million animal observations
(1,030,792), an increase of over 800,000 records in the last five
years. In addition, 97,738 locations have been documented in
the central databases where a structured animal survey was
performed (e.g., bird point count or small mammal trapping
station). This information has been made accessible to the
general public, biologists, and natural resource managers via
both the Natural Heritage Tracker http://mtnhp.org/Tracker/
NHTMap.aspx and the Montana Field Guide http://fieldguide.
mt.gov.
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MTNHP released a first edition Checklist of Montana Vascular
Plants that provides the scientific and common names,
global and state status ranks, origin (native or exotic),
wetland indicator status, and coefficient of conservatism
for 2,559 vascular plant species. See http://mtnhp.org/
Docs/020210_MT_Plant_List.pdf to view the list.
Continued on inside
Natural Heritage Program
Montana State Library
1515 East 6th Avenue
PO Box 201800
Helena, MT 59620-1800
Local: (406) 444-5354
Fax: (406) 444-0581
Email: [email protected]
http://mtnhp.org
Your Source for Information
about Montana’s Animals,
Plants, and Habitats