Wyoming Bioinformation Node Wyoming Gap Analysis

The Wyoming Gap Analysis project (WY-GAP) is part of the National Gap Analysis Program. It was begun in 1991, and was officially completed in November, 1996. The main goal of WY-GAP was to analyze the current status of biodiversity within Wyoming, focussing on two biodiversity elements: land cover types and terrestrial vertebrate species. Land ownership and management for the state of Wyoming was combined with the data on land cover and species distributions in a geographic overlay using GIS in order to determine which biodiversity elements are not adequately protected within the current system of areas managed for conservation.

View Final Report Executive Summary Contents Introduction Land Cover Vertebrates Land Stewardship Analysis Management Implications Data Availability Glossary Literature Cited	On-line distribution and habitat information for 445 vertebrates. Now available: The Final Report, ArcView interface, and Wyoming GAP data sets are available as part of a 2 CDROM set. Ordering information	1998 presentation Gap on the Web: a presentation on the results of the Wyoming Bioinformation Node project. Download Final Report Land Cover Atlas Vertebrate Atlas Land Cover GIS Data Vertebrate GIS Data Ownership GIS Data
Other GAP-related projects in Wyoming Refuge GAP: a decision support tool to assist the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in project reviews and land acquisition prioritization. Biodiversity Expert Systems Tool: provides county planners with access to biodiversity information for integration into routine planning and land-use evaluations.

Since the completion of WY-GAP, the Wyoming Bioinformation Node, a cooperative project between University of Wyoming's Spatial Data and Visualization Center and USGS Biological Resources Division's National Gap program, has assumed the responsibility for distributing the WY-GAP data. The WBN has also been responsible for developing tools, such as the projects listed above, to make Wyoming Gap data useable in different management and planning contexts.

Contacts:

Vegetation/Land Cover mapping:
William Reiners, Dept. of Botany, reiners@uwyo.edu