This layer represents the results of applying the Landscape Fragmentation Tool v2.0 (http://clear.uconn.edu/tools/lft/lft2/download.htm) to forest patches within and immediately adjacent to the counties of the Hudson River Estuary Watershed. The patches were based on the 2016 National Land Cover Database. They represent continuous patches of forest unfragmented by major roads, railroads, and non-forest habitat. The forest patches were converted from polygons to a 10 meter raster for proper application of the tool. Any pixels that were not inside a polygon were treated as fragmenting habitat. The output of the Landscape Fragmentation Tool assigned each pixel to one of six classes. Patch forest, edge forest, perforated forest, and three classes of core forest based on size. Patch forest: Patch forests are small forested areas that are surrounded by non-forest land cover. In some cases, edge pixels were misclassified as patch forest due to the reduction in resolution when converting from polygon representation of a forest patch to a 10 meter raster representation. These pixels were re-classified as edge pixels in the final output. Patch forest was classified as a forest fragment in this layer. Edge forest: Edge forest pixels were any forest pixels that fall within the 100 meter boundary between core forest and non-forested landscape. Perforated forest: Forest pixels that fall in the interior boundary between core forest and small forest openings. For our purposes, perforated forest pixels were considered part of the forest core and reclassified as core before calculating the core area. Core forest: Core forests are forested areas that are surrounded by a buffer of at least 100 meters of forest.
Layer is updated as needed.