Appendix 6
Reference Document 6-2
capacity to continue supporting species diversity and ecosystem function in the face of climate change and sea-level rise. Including the Blueprint priorities ensures NC’s COAs prioritize the vast majority of these resilient places for climate-smart conservation action. Input data • Intact habitat cores with at least one SGCN observation (NC_cores_ranked_by_heritage_species_totals.shp, created above) • Southeast Conservation Blueprint version 2024 (download 2024 data package) o Continental hubs o Continental corridors o Blueprint priorities • 2015 NC WRC SWAP priority 1 km aquatic buffers (provided by NC SWAP Coordinator Cindy Simpson via GoogleDrive on October 18, 2024) • National Hydrography Dataset Plus (NHDPlus) Version 2.1 medium resolution catchments (used to remove estuaries from the analysis area) • NC state boundary from 2021 TIGER/Line Shapefiles General mapping steps • In the top tier of COAs, combine the SGCN cores with priority river buffers from the 2015 NC SWAP. • Identify hubs and corridors from Southeast Conservation Blueprint 2024 that are not already captured in the Tier 1 cores, and append them as a second tier of priorities representing additional important areas for regional connectivity. • Identify all remaining priorities from Blueprint 2024 that are not already captured in the Tier 1 cores or Tier 2 hubs and corridors, and append them as a third tier of priorities representing additional important areas for regional collaboration. Detailed mapping steps Note: For more details on the mapping steps, code used to create this layer is also provided. The code is an .ipynb file that can be opened and run in ArcPro. Prepare input layers to combine in the COA analysis • From the TIGER/Line shapefile, make a layer of the NC state boundary and convert to raster. • Convert to raster the SGCN cores created above, using the total species count field. • Clip the SGCN cores total species count raster to the NC state boundary.
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2025 NC Wildlife Action Plan
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