Resources

TOOLS RELATED TO ECOLOGY OF PLACE REQUIREMENTS

RESTORATION PLANNING RESOURCES

International Principles and Standards for the Practice of Ecological Restoration

Society for Ecological Restoration, Second Edition, 2019. Currently available in English, Chinese (the Society is seeking volunteers to provide translations).
https://www.ser.org/page/SERStandards

International Principles and Standards for the Practice of Ecological Restoration

Society for Ecological Restoration, First Edition, 2016. Available in English, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Arabic, Korean, and French.
https://www.ser.org/page/Standards_1st_ed_archive

National standards for the practice of ecological restoration in Australia

http://seraustralasia.com/standards/National%20Restoration%20Standards%202nd%20Edition.pdf

Society for Ecological Restoration Interactive Recovery Wheel

http://seraustralasia.com/wheel/index.html

Society of Ecological Restoration Resource Center

A variety of resources aimed at facilitating restoration projects, including guidelines and manuals, directory of professionals, and case studies.
https://www.ser-rrc.org/

“Making Nature’s City: A Science-Based Framework for Building Urban Biodiversity”

Guidance on the strategies providing the biggest impact within constrained landscapes.
https://www.sfei.org/projects/making-natures-city#sthash.L2o83nga.vImtQQJA.dpbs

Society for Ecological Restoration CERP and CERPIT Directory

List of Certified Ecological Restoration Practitioners (CERPs) and Certified Ecological Restoration Practitioners-in-training (CERPITs).
https://www.ser.org/page/CERPDirectory

Nature’s Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation that Starts in Your Yard

A book offering an approach to conservation for homeowners with specific guidance for establishing small scale conservation corridors that provide wildlife habitat. (Portland, Oregon: Timber Press, 2019) Douglas W. Tallamy

REFERENCE HABITAT TOOLS

WWF Terrestrial Ecoregions of the World

Map of terrestrial ecoregions as defined by the World Wildlife Fund. Must be downloaded and viewed by a program that can interpret .shp files. It can be viewed with Google Earth.
https://www.worldwildlife.org/publications/terrestrial-ecoregions-of-the-world

World Wildlife Fund Ecoregions

Explanation of World Wildlife Fund Ecoregion characteristics. The landing page lists Major terrestrial and aquatic Habitat Types of the world; click on a major habitat type to find a description of the Major Habitat Types and a list with further descriptions of the Terrestrial Ecoregions that fall within the Major Habitat Type.
https://www.worldwildlife.org/biomes

Ecoregions2017

Online map depicting world ecoregions corresponding to those defined by the World Wildlife Fund.
https://ecoregions2017.appspot.com/

Geospatial Data – The Nature Conservancy

Terrestrial Ecoregions
Online map of terrestrial ecoregions based on WWF’s ecoregions outside the United States, and loosely based on Bailey’s ecoregions (from the USDA Forest Service) within the United States.
https://geospatial.tnc.org/maps/edit?content=7b7fb9d945544d41b3e7a91494c42930_0

Zoom into the map using the +/- squares in the upper right-hand corner
When zoomed in enough to distinguish the boundary line surrounding the project site, click within the boundary, which will pull up a small data box
Within that data box, WWF_MHTNAM corresponds to the World Wildlife Fund Major Habitat Types; ECODE_NAME corresponds to the Ecoregion (World Wildlife Fund designations outside the US/roughly USDA Forest Service in the United States).

Additional TNC map resources
https://geospatial.tnc.org/pages/data

U.S. EPA Ecoregion Maps

PDF maps of North American ecoregions as defined by the United States Environmental Protection Agency, at 4 levels of detail.
https://www.epa.gov/eco-research/ecoregions-north-america

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Wetlands Map

Online interactive map locating wetlands in the United States.
https://fwsprimary.wim.usgs.gov/wetlands/apps/wetlands-mapper/

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers National Wetland Plant List

List of plants indicating or suited to wetlands habitats in the United States.
http://wetland-plants.usace.army.mil/nwpl_static/v33/home/home.html

Ecology Pocket Guide

Interactive online reference intended to support integrative design, that provides an introduction to the major habitat types of the world, where they occur, representative species, and use/design considerations.
http://www.ecologypocketguide.com/

HABITAT CORRIDOR PROJECTS

Examples:

Monarch Way Stations
https://www.monarchwatch.org/waystations/
Bat-friendly Communities
https://bcbats.ca/index.php/get-involved
Pollinator Partnership
https://www.pollinator.org/

RESOURCES BY REGION

Canada

Descriptions of ecozones and ecoregions of Canada, including GIS data, primarily developed by Environment Canada.
http://ecozones.ca/english/

California

Many states have similar sources of local information. These California links are included as an example.

San Francisco Estuary Institute and Aquatic Science Center Data
A variety of ecological datasets, much of which is GIS-based, covering habitats in the San Francisco Bay-Delta and northern montane regions.
https://www.sfei.org/sfeidata.htm

California Invasive Plant Council
A variety of science-based tools and information about invasive species occurrence and management in California
https://www.cal-ipc.org/

Calflora
A variety of tools and resources providing information about plants that occur wild in California, both native and non-native species.
https://www.calflora.org/about-cf.html

California Department of Fish and Wildlife
Conservation Resources from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, including links to the state natural diversity database and its online accessible Biogeographic Information and Observation System (BIOS), and other datasets that can be used with GIS.
https://wildlife.ca.gov/ConservationCalscapeDatabase
https://calscape.org/

Jepson Herbarium
A variety of technical resources about the flora of California, including a description of geographic bioregions and online taxonomic keys.
https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/geography.html

CalFire
Natural resource management and other information related to current and past wildfire occurrences in the state.
https://www.fire.ca.gov/programs/resource-management/

United States

Interactive online map of soil types within the US
https://websoilsurvey.sc.egov.usda.gov/App/WebSoilSurvey.aspx

Ladybird Johnson Wilflower Center
Information about native plants of North America, including plant lists that can be created by state and plant needs or attributes.
https://www.wildflower.org/

Missouri Botanical Garden
Online resources to support plant conservation, sustainability generally, including a searchable plant database, as well as links to sustainability efforts in St. Louis.
http://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/PlantFinder/PlantFinderSearch.aspx

SPECIES IDENTIFICATION AND INFORMATION SHARING TOOLS

Inaturalist

A nonprofit program to generate millions of data points for biodiversity research by helping people learn what is in their neighborhood and sharing observations with naturalists and scientists.
https://www.inaturalist.org/

Merlin Bird ID

https://merlin.allaboutbirds.org/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIzP2m7Ob05QIVeR-tBh0NZQXiEAAYASABEgJLvvD_BwE

FERTILIZERS AND PESTICIDES

Organic Materials Review institute

List of products or inputs allowed under United States and Canadian organic rules. Products must be used in accordance with all indicated and referenced information.
http://omri.org/ubersearch