Northern waters land trust nwlt has experienced great conservation success with our clean water critical habitat cwch interactive map tool over the past 7 years, nwlt has perpetually protected over…

Northern waters land trust nwlt has experienced great conservation success with our clean water critical habitat cwch interactive map tool over the past 7 years, nwlt has perpetually protected over 3,463 acres of land with approximately 160,000 feet of shoreline, within its service area currently, our GIS mapping tool identifies properties within cold water refuge lake watersheds and scores their need for protection with additional resources from mglp, our goal to expand this scoring framework to include lakes of biological significance and prioritize conservation of specific parcels within these sensitive watersheds a lake of biological significance LBS , as defined by MN DNR, is a lake with unique plant or animal presence, such as aquatic plants, fish, birds, and amphibians currently, our service area includes 391 LBS and there is no prioritization method for parcels on or within the watersheds of these LBS nwlt s proposed methodology is essential for conservation efforts directed at mitigating the impacts of shoreline development, climate change, deforestation, and more the results of this mglp grant will be essential in helping nwlt continue its permanent land conservation efforts in this developing region northern waters land trust will identify andprioritize 20 40 priority lakes of biological significance and their associated watersheds, withinthe service area of aitkin, cass, crow wing, and hubbard counties, will facilitate outreach meetings to develop and refine a scoringframework to prioritize parcels within these watersheds refined data will be input onto nwlt s online GIS mapping tool the mglp grant will be used solely for the development of the lakes of biological significancegis mapping tool