Montana Natural Heritage Program Wins International and Regional Awards

This past May, The Montana Natural Heritage Program received the “Outstanding Technological Advancement Award” at NatureServe’s International Leadership Conference, held in Maryland.  Montana was selected for this award from a network of 75 natural heritage programs and conservation data centers in the Western Hemisphere.

 

The Technology Advancement award recognizes the Montana Natural Heritage Program’s development of a new system that revolutionizes the tracking of plant and animal species distributions via computer databases.  This system automates the process of adding an updating “Element Occurrence” records -- previously a very labor-intensive procedure.  These records identify locations of “Species of Concern” or important habitat areas.  In the past year, the new system has enabled the MTNHP to double the size of its database from approximately 6,000 occurrence records in January 2005 to more than 12,000 occurrence records in January 2006.  This expanded data provides government agencies, businesses, and the public with more up-to-date information for effectively managing Montana’s outstanding natural heritage. 

 

The Montana Natural Heritage Program was also one of the first programs to implement and field-test new, more objective methods for ranking species status in the 2005 “Animal Species of Concern” review.  This ranking became the cornerstone for prioritizing species in Montana’s Comprehensive Fish & Wildlife Conservation Strategy.  

 

“The Montana Natural Heritage Program staff has pioneered the development of new tools that support conservation effectiveness not only in Montana but also throughout NatureServe’s network,” said Mary Klein, Acting President for NatureServe. 

 

“We’re extremely happy with the award and the international recognition of our staff’s efforts,” said Sue Crispin, Director of the Montana Natural Heritage Program.  “We look forward to sharing these new technologies with other programs in order to better monitor species that may be in trouble.” 

 

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In June, the U. S. Forest Service awarded the Montana NHP the Regional Forester’s Award for Technology Transfer.  This award recognized “extraordinary accomplishments in providing research, information and learning tools regarding aquatic and terrestrial plant and animal species and ecological communities for Forest Service resource specialists.”  Region 1 of the Forest Service includes 12 National Forests in Washington, Idaho, Montana and the Dakotas.  The award was presented by Regional Forester Gail Kimbell at a reception in Missoula.


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