Human Footprint

 
This map tells us that greater than 99% of the Northern Appalachian/Acadian ecoregion has been impacted by human activities. However, 16% of the region remains relatively wild (Human Footprint score <=10) and ecologically intact. Theses wild areas are shown in green on the map above, while the areas most impacted are in red and purple.
 
A significant concern in the Northern Appalachians is that the wildest areas of the region are becoming increasingly isolated, separated by regions of high human use and development. Notice how many of the low impacted areas (green, yellow) are separated — fragmented — from each other by zones of high human impact (purple, red, orange).

Conserving and restoring the connections between the wild and intact areas of the Northern Appalachian/Acadian Ecoregion is significant conservation priority. Building and maintaining an ecologically connected region is critical not only to ensure species like moose, black bear, Lynx, bobcat, fisher and marten are able to move across the landscape, but also to increase the region’s resilience and its ability to adapt as species and habitats respond to the uncertain impacts of a changing climate.

Methodology

The Human Footprint methodology was originally developed at the global scale by a team of scientist from WCS and CIESEN.  This global methodology has been tailored to the Northern Appalachian ecoregion by:

1. Increasing the resolution of the Human Footprint map from 1km to 90m
2. Using high resolution digital map data available for the regions from U.S. and Canadian agencies 
3. Tailoring how the impacts of human activities are assessed based research relevant to the ecoregion
 
Click here for a list of the datasets used to map the Human Footprint of the Northern Appalachians.
 

The Last of the Wild

Using the Human Footprint we have identified the largest and wildest places in the ecoregion. Called the "Last of the Wild" they are the 10 largest wild areas within each ecological subregion of the Northern Appalachian/Acadian Ecoregion. There are 12 ecological subregions in the Northern Appalachians, resulting in 120 "Last of the Wild". These are the places that reaming the most intact and potentially represent good conservation opportunities because there are few or no impacts with existing human activities.