Name: Forest and Wetland Implementation Opportunities - Prioritized
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Type: Raster Layer
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Description: Opportunities pertinent to forest or wetland conservation located within the Mississippi River Basin.In order to identify where implementation opportunities <https://www.sciencebase.gov/catalog/item/55df291fe4b0518e354e0970> within the Mississippi River Basin with the highest benefit to water quality, habitat, or agriculture are located, each opportunity was assigned a weight according to the benefit that opportunity can provide to water quality, habitat, or agriculture (e.g. taking unprofitable land out of production) and then all opportunities were summed together. Overlaps with wetland complexes were incorporated as well. Wetland complexes are groupings of existing wetlands including an upland buffer of 60 meters. Implementation opportunities were then grouped according to whether the habitat benefit was for grassland or forest (opportunities that can benefit either were included in both groups). Both groups contain opportunities for wetland restoration.After opportunities were grouped by habitat benefit, they were classified into three groups (High/Medium/Low) following natural breaks in the sum value. For both the grassland and forest groups, over 85% have a value of three or less (Low and Medium classes). The “High” class represents 12-13% (by area) of all implementation opportunities.In addition to comparing individual opportunities in a given locality, this dataset can be used for prioritizing watersheds or other geographic units.