Climate change will bring extreme conditions to much of Earth’s surface without immediate action. (Image is in the public domain: CC0 1.0 Universal)

Human activities may promote speciation

We applaud the vital work to save species at risk. However, it is a truism (if not a law) of biology, that all species will eventually go extinct. With that sobering thought, can we ask what level of effort should be expended to save those plants and animals that are inevitably doomed? With his new book, Inheritors of the Earth, Chris Thomas, Professor of Evolutionary Biology at the University of York inspired me to consider an alternative view. He argues that many plants and animals benefit from human activities. For example, many species have expanded their geographic ranges. According to evolutionary biology theory, increasing fragmentation and niche availability drive species diversification. Indeed, Thomas argues that human activities are “increasing the rate at which new species are formed, perhaps to the highest level in Earth’s history.”

Embrace neobiodiversity

Thus, rather than the depressing notion that conservation is fighting a losing battle, we can view some kinds of human activity as actually promoting biodiversity in the long run. This positive view will provoke controversy. However, if we embrace the idea of a new paradigm for maximizing biodiversity, which we can call “neobiodiversity,” conservationists can start to turn toward the most serious threat facing life on Earth: climate change.

Climate change is the biggest threat

Indeed, earlier this month, the IPCC released yet another climate change report again sounding loud warning bells. Just this week, the Washington Post reported on a study published in PNAS showing “massive loss” of insect abundance in pristine rainforest. The researchers identified climate change as the culprit in driving the precipitous decline. Without action, we’re undoubtedly facing environmental catastrophe. Many scientists warn that we may soon reach a variety of tipping points. Beyond these, runaway global warming and its effects are unstoppable. Extreme conditions will prevail across large swathes of Earth. At this point, it won’t matter what species we have saved. They will disappear anyway, and humans along with them. Earth may be uninhabitable but for a few extremophiles.

Conservationists must shift focus to deal with climate change

Given this urgency, we should heed Professor Thomas’s message to “re-examine humanity’s relationship with nature.” We must be done with business as usual. Treating “Earth as a faded masterpiece that we need to restore” is no longer a luxury we can afford. Instead, global conservation must focus on taking all and any steps necessary to combat global warming. At the same time, such measures may include reforestation, which may benefit legacy species, but species-focused conservation may be a priority that no longer takes center stage in a long-term strategy to save life on Earth.

REFERENCES

1. 2018 IPCC Report: Global Warming of 1.5 °C http://www.ipcc.ch/report/sr15/
2. Lister, BC & A. Garcia (2018) Climate-driven declines in arthropod abundance restructure a rainforest food web. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1722477115

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A picture is worth a thousand words, they say. That may be true! Today we’re swamped with information. Images can say a lot with a little. That said, we’re in the digital revolution. So now we’re flooded with zillions of photos and memes. We like and tag images on social media. News websites have photos of current events. We share our own lives with selfies, food or pet pictures.

In today’s firehose of images are powerful stories about nature. Facts and figures are vital. But to connect with the widest audience we must nature’s story. Visual media are the most effective way to do that. Images transcend language. They evoke emotions in ways that words and data cannot. Human devastation, and our natural world’s fragility and beauty are best shown through biodiversity images like the ones you see here. Together they show human impacts on biodiversity, wildlife, the environment, and natural resources. Threats include global warming, deforestation, pollution and wildlife exploitation.

Help to tell the story of biodiversity

To help you share these stories, we’ve put together ten amazing images and graphics. We encourage you to share these images as widely as possible (including appropriate credit). It’s vital now more than ever to tell the story of biodiversity. It’s the only way we’re truly going to make a difference.

In all cases, we have strived to provide appropriate credit to the creators and copyright holders. Please contact us if you recognize an image and additional or alternative attribution is required.

The post The 10 Most Powerful Biodiversity Images appeared first on Biodiversity Professionals.

Stephen Thompson, 2018 Conservation Greenkeeper of the Year and member of Biodiversity Professionals

John o’ Gaunt Golf Club has two 18-hole courses. John o’ Gaunt course is a parkland style course with lots of trees, a brook running through and a newly installed pond. The Carthagena course is on part of the sandstone ridge. It’s much more free draining and has a more heathland feel to it, with gorse in various places, an oak woodland down one side and elm down another.

I have recorded about 100 species of birds including barn owl (Tyto alba), kestrel (Falco tinnunculus), oystercatcher (Haematopus ostralegus), waxwing (Bombycilla garrulus and even a nightjar, as well as more common species such as great spotted woodpecker (Dendrocopos major) and blue tit (Cyanistes caeruleus).

Golf course conservation outreach

Over the last two years I have been running a moth trap regularly by the tractor sheds and held several moth evenings with the local moth group. To date, I have now recorded 354 species at the club including the rare white spotted pinion moth (Cosmia diffinis) on the Carthagena course.

A marbled white butterfly (Melanargia galathea).

Mating pair of large red-tailed damselflies (Pyrrhosoma nymphula).

Golf course conservation outreach

Helping wildlife on the golf course

There are several ways I help the wildlife on the course: I have made and installed over 100 bird boxes which I check every spring mostly in my own time and with a ringing permit, ring any chicks I find. I check boxes in the winter and repair and replace where necessary. I have also helped create many wildflower areas providing much needed habitats for bees and other pollinating insects.

Recognized for golf course conservation

I have helped bring much media attention to the club, appearing on BBC TV and local radio. I have helped the club win awards both locally and nationally, and written many articles in national magazines. I have been a finalist four times in a row in the Golf Environments Awards in the category of Conservation Greenkeeper of the Year. This year, I was recognized as Conservation Greenkeeper of the Year. Some golf course owners are less aware of the benefits these green spaces can provide. However, as my work shows, a golf course does not have to be just a golf course. It can also be a conservation boon for wildlife and wildlife advocates.

Resources
Steve on LinkedIn
Steve on Facebook
Steve on Twitter
Steve Thompson, Greenkeeper John O’Gaunt Golf Club – Badger Trust Conference 2016

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Evidence synthesis for environmental management

The Foundation for Research on Biodiversity has the pleasure of hosting the 2nd International Collaboration for Environmental Evidence conference in France in 2018. The methods of CEE evidence synthesis (systematic reviews, systematic mapping, etc.) and the results of these syntheses will be presented in different domains such as Health and Environment, Forests, Fisheries, Agriculture, Ecotoxicology, and many others. Training workshops will also help to familiarize oneself with the latest tools and methodological advances.

The CEE 2018 conference aims at effectively promoting an evidence-based approach to environmental management by facilitating the conduct and dissemination of high quality syntheses of evidence. Such synthesis will inform decision making to better conserve biodiversity and ecosystem services for global benefit. To accomplish this, the conference will cover scientific and policy-oriented topics and practice. Topics may be of interest at various scales, from local to global.

You are invited to join us in Paris at CEE2018. The calls for training events, sessions, and abstracts have gone out and can be found on the Collaboration for Environmental Evidence website.

The conference will be held in Paris, France at Ecole des Ponts ParisTech, Champs sur Marne, Paris, France from April 16-20th 2018. More information can be found on the Collaboration for Environmental Evidence conference website.

For more information please contact: Barbara Livoreil & Ludivine Boursier cee2018@fondationbiodiversite.com

Important dates:

• Deadline for submitting a session proposal: November 15th 2017
• Deadline for submitting a training event proposal: November 15th 2017
• Notification of acceptance of sessions and training events: December 1st 2017
• Deadline for submission of abstracts (talks and posters): December 15th 2017
• Notification of acceptance of talks and posters: January 10th< 2018
• Registration opens: December 2017
• Deadline for early bird registration: February 2018

Follow us on Twitter at @EnvEvidence and @FRBiodiv

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Advice on how to spot fake news from the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions. You can apply these principles to spot dubious claims from those who use unethical fund-raising methods. (Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.)

A hair-raising fund-raising story

This story begins with a post I read on LinkedIn. The article in question is trying to raise money for a conservation organization. Among several dubious claims, one stuck out. According to the author, for “approximately $12M a single donor could have protected, in perpetuity… trillions of microbial species.”

Well, I’m not a soil scientist. However, I’ve studied biodiversity since the mid-1980s. So I know that we understand microbial biodiversity too poorly to make such a claim. The writer is not a soil scientist, either. But that lack of expertise did not stop him from making this dramatic claim. I commented on his post that there is simply no agreement among biologists about the number of microbial species. In support, I found a Nature article that says, “estimates for the total number of microbial species vary wildly, from as low as 120,000 to tens of millions and higher.” Millions, maybe. But trillions? Who can say? Indeed, biologists can’t even agree on how well Mayr’s definition of species applies to microbes, and prokaryotes in particular. (See e.g., Konstantinidis, et al. 2006). The writer simply has no justification for stating that a donation could save “trillions of microbial species.”

Nevertheless, the writer insisted that he was correct in his use of that unverifiable number. I beg to differ. Any time someone uses an exaggeration, hyperbole or invented data to bolster a cause, particularly when trying to raise money, their motives are suspect. In the old days, such a person would be called a snake oil salesman, a charlatan, a conman or any number of other derogatory names. I avoided such epithets. Instead I tried to present my case rationally, from a scientific standpoint. To no avail.

Bogus claims

The writer made several other claims that I could challenge. For example, the claim that $12M could protect 11 million acres of “life-essential ecosystems.” I have helped to manage a small conservation non-profit called SavingSpecies for the past seven years. We focus on buying cheap, degraded land in high biodiversity areas of the world. The cheapest land we have been able to purchase was in Ecuador at just over $400 per acre. That land was infertile and eroded former cattle pasture. When we bought it, the land was not good even for that any more. So quite how the writer proposed to protect “in perpetuity” land comprising “life-essential ecosystems” for $1.09 per acre is a complete mystery to me.

The corrosive effects of fake news

Dubious claims such as these benefit no-one. Indeed, it’s a sad commentary on our times that we’re swamped with “fake news.” Look no further than Washington DC. You can see the corrosive effects of false and misleading information. For those of us who are in the fund-raising business, it’s more vital than ever to keep our facts and figures straight. Yes, there’s lots of competition for the donor dollar. But that does not justify using hyperbole. Bending facts, fudging figures, massaging data–these are the tools of hustlers and swindlers, not respectable fund-raising enterprises. Here’s why you should stick to the facts.

1. Exaggeration or dubious claims do your enterprise more harm than good.
2. Such claims damage your own credibility, and that of organizations for whom you’re working.
3. The claims of other hard-working fund-raisers and conservationists can also come under suspicion, particularly among non-experts.
4. You provide opponents of conservation with ammunition to use against conservation in general.
5. When donors give to causes based on exaggerated claims, and their expectations aren’t met, they will likely give their future gifts to unrelated causes.

Read up, stand up, and speak up

So, my fellow conservationists and fund-raisers, I implore you (1) to carefully read through claims to ensure that they are based on fact and are verifiable, (2) not to share or like any content that has questionable data, and (3) to call out the perpetrators when you encounter them. Otherwise, we risk being tarred by the same “fake news” brush that plagues other realms of the media. And that jeopardizes the entire donor-funded conservation enterprise.

REFERENCE
Konstantinidis, K, Ramette A and Tiedje JM (2006) The bacterial species definition in the genomic era. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 361(1475): 1929–1940. doi: 10.1098/rstb.2006.1920

The post Honesty, integrity and “fake news” in fund-raising for conservation appeared first on Biodiversity Professionals.

This Fall Webinar Series welcomes Dr. Robert Carver. He will give a guest presentation. His topic is on using JMP effectively to prepare data for analysis. Join this guest webinar. You will be entered in a drawing to receive a free copy of Dr. Carver’s new book, Preparing Data for Analysis in JMP.

Register and mark your calendar! Fall webcasts include:

Sept 20th at 11am ET: Teaching Introductory Statistics
Sept 26th at 10am ET: JMP Basics for Professors and Students
Oct 5th at 2pm ET: Data Summary and Analysis
Oct 11th at 12PM ET: Teaching Engineering Statistics
Oct 24th at 11am ET: Teaching ANOVA and Regression
Oct 26th at 12pm ET: JMP Integration with SAS, R, Matlab…
Oct 31st at 11am ET: Preparing Data for Analysis with JMP (Guest Speaker)
Nov 2nd 10am ET: JMP Basics for Professors and Students
Nov 7th at 12pm ET: Teaching Basic Predictive Modeling
Nov 9th at 12pm ET: Teaching Advanced Predictive Modeling
Nov 13th at 11am ET: Data Summary and Analysis
Nov 14th at 10am ET: Teaching Design of Experiments
Nov 20th at 12pm ET: Scientific Workflow in JMP: Creating Reproducible Analyses
Nov 28th at 10am ET: Visualization and Graphics
Dec 6th at 12pm ET: Multivariate Analysis and Advanced Visualization
Dev 12th at 12pm ET: Teaching Statistics in the Health and Life Sciences
Register now

Who should participate?

Any student, graduate student, or professor looking to enhance their analytics capabilities–no matter which country you’re based in.

What can I expect from a JMP data analysis webcast?

You’ll learn how to get the most out of JMP. You’ll also see how various features can make data analysis easier, faster and more fruitful overall.
For additional webinar details, click here.

Can”t make it to a webcast? Please visit the JMP/SAS Academic Webinar Library for recorded versions of webinars:

Stay tuned for more events and don”t hesitate to reach out with any questions.
Academic@JMP.com
877.594.6567
jmp.com/why

The post SAS/JMP Fall Academic Webinar Series appeared first on Biodiversity Professionals.

(Image courtesy of BBC.)

Do you know what the word “biodiversity” means?

In 2010, the UN Year of Biodiversity, the BBC conducted a survey. The survey showed that most people don’t know the meaning of “biodiversity.” Most people thought it was a type of laundry powder. Consider that in perspective. Biodiversity loss is the biggest problem facing us today, alongside global warming. Yet most people don’t even know what the word means. How many could actually give a definition? Given that lack of understanding, we can take hope. We surveyed the world’s languages. We found that most have their own word for “biodiversity.”

How to translate the word “biodiversity”

We used Google Translate to convert the word “biodiversity” into 103 languages. It’s impressive and heartening to realize that interest in biodiversity is truly global. We did find a few gaps! There were a few languages for which we couldn’t find an equivalent word. Do you know of the word for biodiversity in any of those languages? If so, please let us know in the comments, and we’ll add it to the list. Also, if you know of any language not in the list, please let us know. Either contact us, or write your comment below.

How to listen to the translated word for “biodiversity”

For non-native speakers of some of these languages, their word for biodiversity seems like a real tongue twister. If you want to hear how it’s pronounced, type “biodiversity” into the first window in Google Translate. Click the speaker icon below the translated word. You will hear the translated spoken word. (Not all languages have this feature.)

Original translation data

Click for the spreadsheet. Biodiversity translated into world languages

Please share this article to help raise global awareness of biodiversity.

List of words for biodiversity in 103 languages

Afrikaans – biodiversiteit
Albanian – biodiversiteti
Amharic – ብዝሃ ሕይወት
Arabic – التنوع البيولوجي
Armenian – Կենսաբազմազանություն
Azerbaijani – bioloji müxtəliflik
Bangla/Bengali – জীব বৈচিত্র্য
Basque – biodibertsitatea
Belarusian – біяразнастайнасці
Bosnian – biodiverzitet
Bulgarian – биологичното разнообразие
Burmese – ဇီဝမျိုးစုံမျိုးကွဲများ
Catalan – biodiversitat
Cebuano – biodiversidad
Chinese (Mandarin) – 生物多样性
Corsican – a biodiversità
Croatian – bioraznolikosti
Czech – biodiverzity
Danish – biodiversitet
Dutch – biodiversiteit
English – biodiversity
Esperanto – biodiverseco
Estonian – bioloogiline mitmekesisus
Filipino – biodiversity
Finnish – biodiversiteetti
French – biodiversité
Galacian – biodiversidade
Georgian – ბიომრავალფეროვნება
German – biodiversität
Greek – βιοποικιλότητα
Gujarati – જૈવવિવિધતા
Haitian Creole – divèsite biyolojik
Hausa – bambancin halittu
Hawaiian – nā meaola like’oleHebrew – המגוון הביולוגי
Hindi – जैव विविधता
Hmong – biodiversity
Hungarian – a biológiai sokféleség
Icelandic – líffræðileg fjölbreytileik
Igbo – Ụdị ndụ dị iche iche
Indonesian – keanekaragaman hayati
Irish – bithéagsúlacht
Italian – biodiversità
Japanese – 生物多様性
Javanese – keanekaragaman hayati
Kannada – ಜೀವವೈವಿಧ್ಯ
Kazakh – Биоәртүрлілік
Khmer – ជីវចំរុះ
Korean – 생물 다양성
Kurdish – biyanîparêz
Kyrgyz – биологиялык ар түрдүүлүк
Lao – ຊີວະນາໆພັນ
Latin – biodiversitatis
Latvian – bioloģiskā daudzveidība
Lithuanian – biologinė įvairovė
Luxembourgish – biodiversitéit
Macedonian – Биодиверзитет
Malagasy – harena voajanahary
Malay – biodiversitiMalayalam – ജൈവവൈവിദ്ധ്യം
Maltese – bijodiversità
Maori – te koiora
Marathi – जैवविविधता
Mongolian – Биологийн төрөл зүйл
Nepali – जैव विविधता
Norwegian – biologisk mangfold
Nyanja – zachilengedwe
Pashto – ژوندی تنوع
Persian – تنوع زیستی
Polish – różnorodności biologicznej
Portuguese – biodiversidade
Punjabi – ਜੀਵ ਵਿਭਿੰਨਤਾ
Romanian – biodiversitatea
Russian – биоразнообразия
Samoan – meaola eseese
Scottish Gaelic – bith-iomadachd
Serbian – Биодиверзитет
Shona – biodiversity
Sindhi – حياتي تنوع
Sinhala – ජෛව විවිධත්වය
Slovak – biodiverzita
Slovenian – biotske raznovrstnosti
Somali – kala duwanaanta bay’ada
Southern Sotho – mefuta-futa ea lihloliloeng
Spanish – biodiversidad
Sundanese – biodiversiti
Swahili – biodiversity
Swedish – biologiska mångfalden
Tajik – Гуногунии биологӣ
Tamil – பல்லுயிர்
Telugu – జీవవైవిధ్యం
Thai – ความหลากหลายทางชีวภาพ
Turkish – biyoçeşitlilik
Ukrainian – Біорізноманіття
Urdu – جیو ویو
Uzbek – bioxilma-xillik
Vietnamese – Đa dạng sinh học
Welsh – bioamrywiaeth
Western Frisian – biodiversity
Xhosa – eziphilayo
Yiddish – ביאָדיווערסיטי
Yoruba – oniruuru ipinsiyeleyele
Zulu – eziphilayo

Do these languages have a word for biodiversity?

Cambodian
Fiji
Quechua
Tatar
Tibetan
Tonga

The post The word for “biodiversity” in 103 different world languages appeared first on Biodiversity Professionals.

A stark future awaits if we fail to act on climate change. (Credit: Wikimedia, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license)

Why is a video infographic helpful?

It can be hard to visualize global temperature changes. For example, a simple line graph shows a single number changing over time. It doesn’t show the complex data comprising changes in the range of temperatures across the planet over time.

Who can use this video infographic of global warming?

Scientists, educators, teachers and students can benefit from a better way to communicate global temperature change. This video infographic accomplishes that. It shows temperature anomalies arranged by country from 1900 to 2016. The visualization based on GISTEMP data, maintained by NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies. The video is available for download free-of-charge on Flickr (see below for download link).

How can I use this video infographic?

The video infographic is ideal to illustrate the increasing urgency of climate change. You can clearly see that over time, temperature anomaly frequency is increasing. No special data interpretation skills are needed. Since it is available as a download, it can be used offline. Therefore, presenters could include this in a digital slide presentation, for example. An educator could show the video to students and use it as a way to engage students in a discussion about global warming. It’s also a good opportunity to talk to students about the importance of data visualization. Edward Tufte’s book, The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, is an excellent primer on this topic.

A picture is worth a thousand words, it is said. Well, good data visualization can convey complex ideas more readily than words. With that in mind, I encourage you to make use of this resource and share widely with colleagues and fellow Biodiversity Professionals.

CREDIT AND DOWNLOAD LINK
Antti Lipponen: Temperature anomalies arranged by country 1900 – 2016.
DOWNLOAD (13.1 MB MP4 file)

The post Video infographic shows temperature anomalies increasing over time appeared first on Biodiversity Professionals.

Citizen Science Coordinator Caitlin Kenney, a Student Conservation Association (SCA) intern, poses with an amphibian in the backcountry of Mount Rainier National Park. (Photo courtesy of NPS)

1. Citizen scientists help increase project reach

With the potential to amass millions of citizen scientists from around the globe, the amount of data that can be collected is unimaginable. Having so many individuals in the field at varying times may lead to exotic or innovative discoveries. “Enlisting input from a network of volunteer citizen scientists expands the reach of a project, sometimes beyond what scientists can imagine,” says National Geographic writer Karen de Seve.

2. Citizen science helps to stretch limited funding

Citizen scientists allow far greater amounts of data to be collected at little to no cost. Such economies of scale free up funds. Researchers have more time to be spent on data analysis. Andrea Korte reported in an AAAS article, “The work of the 2.3 million volunteer citizen scientists who contribute to biodiversity research have an economic value of up to $2.5 billion per year.”

3. Citizen scientists help raise local and governmental awareness

There’s no doubt that when enough people start to ask questions, others start to listen. Engaging citizens spreads the word of shrinking biodiversity. According to the European Environment Agency, “Involving people in monitoring gives them a basic understanding of the underlying threat to biodiversity…” Furthermore, such involvement “…can facilitate a willingness to contribute to solving the problem.” World-changing movements always start with people’s passionate interest in a problem. Impassioned citizen scientists have the power to alter the world around them. They can bring problems to the attention of people with the ability to enact change.

4. Citizen scientists may experience transformative learning

TD Jakes said it best, “There is nothing as powerful as a changed mind.” When an individual momentarily exits their busy lifestyle, taking time to study the world around them, what they learn can change their life. Many people are unaware of how their choices affect the world around them. The clothing they wear, the food they eat, their mode of transportation can all impact their local environment. A citizen scientist can help biodiversity by changing the way they live and inspiring those around them.

5. Citizen science can help to prevent extinctions

The loss of many species populations goes largely unnoticed until it is far too late. UCLA recently called for greater public participation in citizen science. According to their report, monitoring by citizen scientists can lead to “early detection of species decline.” Identifying a problem is the first step towards rectification. Training citizen scientists to participate in conservation research increases the efficiency of our work to protect biodiversity.

We see the potential for citizen science in such initiatives as Bioblitzes. Conservationists must now take advantage. Here is their opportunity to conduct more research—cheaper and faster—while at the same time connecting people across the world in a common purpose. We, as members of the human race, all share the responsibility to be stewards of our planet’s biodiversity for economic, aesthetic and moral reasons. Climate is changing. Human population is increasing. Cities expand while species vanish into extinction. It is now more important now than ever to take action.

The post 5 Reasons Citizen Science Can Help To Save Biodiversity appeared first on Biodiversity Professionals.

State Vegetation Type Map for New South Wales (NSW), Australia. The map shows color-coded Plant Community Types (PCTs). Click for the full size image.

To better manage our native vegetation, the New South Wales government is delivering a comprehensive and complete state-wide baseline for the extent and distribution of the different groupings or types of vegetation – the State Vegetation Type Map (SVT Map).

The SVT is based on site surveys, a standard classification system and high resolution spatial representation. With a complete vegetation type map for NSW, for the first time government, business and the community will be able to see what we currently know about the distribution of Plant Community Types for all of NSW. This approach will provide a wide-ranging basis to set conservation priorities instead of just localized and incomplete information.

Plant Community Types (PCTs) are the agreed foundation level for classifying vegetation in NSW and are intended to provide the most ecologically relevant grouping of plant species for a range of purposes not just mapping. For example, site assessments will use this classification unit to describe the vegetation present and compare their current condition with related benchmarks.

Plant communities are complex and dynamic entities that can be challenging to map or even recognize on the ground especially where they have been significantly modified through clearing or logging. Some closely related PCTs can share common species or differ by a particular layer. Boundaries between types are not always distinct. Our understanding of PCTs will continue to change as more site survey data is collected especially in poorly sampled areas.

With the support of the NSW Environmental Trust, a major project was initiated to accelerate the creation of a complete and consistent reference layer for the extent and distribution of the approximately 1300 (PCTs) in NSW–the State Vegetation Type Map.

The State Vegetation Map cannot be expected to be a perfect and timeless representation of the landscape. Rather, it is designed to provide a common basis for vegetation information in NSW that can be readily updated without the need for producing entirely new maps. The underlying skeleton can more easily incorporate new site information and more detailed special-purpose vegetation maps (where compatible) to continuously improve the state wide picture.

For more information about vegetation information please visit our website at: http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/vegetation/vinfo.htm

Bob Denholm
Senior Team Leader Vegetation Mapping
Native Vegetation Information Science Branch
Science Division
Office of Environment and Heritage

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