CNHP Maps for Download

Free Map Layers

Download free Statewide GIS data layers for NONCOMMERCIAL PURPOSES ONLY, depicting Elements by 7.5 Minute USGS Quadrangle, Potential Conservation Areas and Networks of Conservation Areas below. Click on the Metadata tag to see a detailed description of a map layer. Due to the sensitive nature of some element data, actual species and natural community locations have been generalized to 7.5 minute USGS quadrangles.

Click Here to download an ArcMap Geodatabase integrating all of the individual map shapefiles and associated metadata shown in the table below .

Individual Map Files for Download

Map Products	Statewide Elements by Quad	Statewide Potential Conservation Areas	Statewide Networks of Conservation Areas
ESRI Shapefiles
Metadata
Printable Maps Letter Size
Transcription Reports		OR View Individual PCA Reports

Statewide Elements by Quad map layer shows which species or natural communities are currently located on a quad, historically located on a quad and potentially located on a quad. Due to the sensitive nature of these data, actual species and natural community locations have been generalized to 7.5 minute USGS quadrangles.

Statewide Potential Conservation Areas (PCA) map layer shows CNHP's best estimate of the primary area required to support the long-term survival of targeted species or natural communities.

1. The size and configuration of a PCA will be dictated by the conservation targets (i.e., those species, communities, or systems we seek to conserve at a given location) and their sustaining physical features and/or ecological features.
2. PCA refers to the ability of a conservation area to maintain healthy, viable, targets over the long term (100+ years), including the ability of the targets to respond to natural or human-caused environmental change.
3. PCAs do not necessarily preclude human activities, but their ability to function naturally may be greatly influenced by them.
4. PCAs at all scales may require ecological management or restoration to maintain their functionality and long term persistence.

Statewide Network of Conservation Areas (NCA) map layer shows areas that fit one of the following definitions.

1. A landscape area that encompasses Potential Conservation Areas (PCAs) that share similar species or natural communities and ecological processes. NCAs include unoccupied or unsurveyed areas that are within the same ecological system that the species or natural communities require. NCAs contain PCAs with an obvious repeating pattern (that is, the same species or natural communities are in each associated PCA).
2. A mostly intact, lightly fragmented landscape that supports wide- ranging species and large scale disturbances. NCAs include unoccupied or unsurveyed areas that demonstrate the connectivity of the landscape. NCAs contain PCAs that may occur at a variety of ecological scales.

For more up-to-date, detailed, specific, and/or commercial information please contact:
Michael Menefee
Environmental Review Coordinator
Colorado Natural Heritage Program
254 General Services Building
Colorado State University
Fort Collins, CO 80523-1474
Tel: (970) 491-7331 or FAX: (970) 491-3349
E-mail: Michael.Menefee@colostate.edu