The U.S Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will be providing $300,000 in additional funding for an important research and extension project led by Kevin McGarigal and Scott Jackson of the Department of Natural Resources Conservation. The project is a collaborative effort involving the Department’s Landscape Ecology Program, UMass Extension and state agencies to use the Conservation Assessment and Prioritization System (CAPS) as the basis for a comprehensive wetlands monitoring and assessment program.
CAPS is a computer software program and a method to prioritize land for conservation based on the assessment of ecological integrity for various ecological communities (e.g. forested wetland, shrub swamp, headwater stream) within a particular landscape. CAPS provides an objective and scientifically credible approach for assessing ecological integrity and supporting decision-making for land acquisition, ecological restoration, project review and permitting to protect habitat and biodiversity. The approach has been under development by UMass researchers over the past several years. The CAPS Project Team includes Kevin, Scott, Brad Compton, Kasey Rolih,...