Through the Locality Assistance Program for Natural Heritage Conservation, the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation's Division of Natural Heritage (DCR-DNH) assists local conservation partners in fully utilizing natural heritage resource information as well as consultative services to ensure protection of natural heritage resources (rare, threatened and endangered species, significant natural communities, caves and karst features).
The Locality Assistance Program seeks to establish natural heritage resource information as part of fundamental locality decision-making criteria through tools such as:
The DCR Locality Assistance Program for Natural Heritage Conservation is implemented by the locality liaison who serves as a primary DCR-DNH point of contact for:
The locality liaison is available to provide presentations on the Locality Assistance Program and the Natural Heritage Data Explorer to interested localities and other conservation partners. The locality liaison can also provide basic information on ConserveVirginia and Virginia ConservationVision. Each presentation is tailored to the specific organization and is followed by a discussion of the organization's needs.
Please contact your Locality Liaison for additional information or to schedule a presentation for your locality or organization.
Tyler Meader, Locality LiaisonThe Locality Assistance Program offers a suite of optional tools and services to localities and other local conservation partners. The locality liaison can provide assistance in selecting from the various options in order to tailor the program to local needs.
A full list of the tools and services available in the DCR Locality Assistance Program for Natural Heritage Conservation are listed below.
Tools
Services
The subscription provides users with data concerning natural heritage resources. Data are available in the form of a shapefile to integrate into an existing GIS, or by access to the Natural Heritage Data Explorer. Subscriptions are free to local governments, Virginia Indian Tribes and other non-profit organizations. A data license agreement is required. Subscriptions last one year, and quarterly updates are provided.
This project was funded in part by the Virginia Coastal Program at the Department of Environmental Quality through Grant NA18NOS419 task #5 of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management, under the Coastal Zone Management Act of 1972, as amended.