Imperiled Species (T&E) is an indicator of the Midwest Landscape Initiative’s (MLI) 2023 Midwest Conservation Blueprint. The Blueprint is a basemap of priority lands and waters for conservation across the Midwest consisting of over 20 social and environmental values representing diverse interests across society. 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. This indicator identifies the prevalence of species listed as threatened or endangered within the Midwest Landscape. It prioritizes areas based on the number of threatened or endangered species found within a 900m pixel. This indicator originates from the NatureServe Imperiled Species Richness layer. To create this layer, MLI partners, members, and staff completed the following mapping steps: projected all input data to NAD83 (2011) UTM Zone 15N, resampled the raster to 30m pixels, reclassified the raster into three classes, and emphasized natural assets leading to the following categories: 1 – 0-2 imperiled species, not a natural asset, 2 – 0-2 imperiled species, natural asset, 3 – 2-4 imperiled species, not a natural asset, 4 – 2-4 imperiled species, natural asset, 5 – >4 imperiled species, not a natural asset, 6 – >4 imperiled species, natural asset. Finally, we removed highly altered areas using our Highly Altered Areas mask. For full mapping details, please refer to the Midwest Conservation Blueprint 2023 Development Process document.
