Description: These data represent the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries (VDGIF) coldwater or trout streams. VDGIF biologists have identified all of the reaches in this dataset as wild (Class I-IV) or stockable (Class V and VI) trout streams or as tributaries to wild trout streams. These classifications give the streams special management considerations and protection. Please note that many of the streams are on private property and are not necessarily public fishing waters.
Description: This information identifies and delineates the boundaries of stream reaches containing federal and state threatened or endangered aquatic species. The species included in this analysis were limited to species inhabiting primarily lotic, or riverine, habitats including fish, mollusks, crayfish, snails and the wood turtle (Clemmys insculpta). Aquatic resource professionals from the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries reviewed several data sources in the development of this spatial information. The spatial data used for development include DGIF's T&E Species Observations (DGIF 2016) a hydrography data layer (USGS, NHD 1:24,000K), a county boundary data layer (DCR, 2016), and a roads data layer (VDOT 2007). Additional data sources included regional scientific literature and professional resource experience. The reaches were delineated based on the presence of a threatened or endangered species and extended to include suitable habitat if known. Stream reaches are defined as confluence to confluence and boundaries were extended to road crossings or county boundaries to facilitate text descriptions and recreation of the boundaries. No specific upstream protection zones were added.
Description: This report describes new digital maps delineating areas of the United States, including Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, having karst or the potential for development of karst and pseudokarst. These maps show areas underlain by soluble rocks and also by volcanic rocks, sedimentary deposits, and permafrost that have potential for karst or pseudokarst development. All 50 States contain rocks with potential for karst development, and about 18 percent of their area is underlain by soluble rocks having karst or the potential for development of karst features. The areas of soluble rocks shown are based primarily on selection from State geologic maps of rock units containing significant amounts of carbonate or evaporite minerals. Areas underlain by soluble rocks are further classified by general climate setting, degree of induration, and degree of exposure. Areas having potential for volcanic pseudokarst are those underlain chiefly by basaltic-flow rocks no older than Miocene in age. Areas with potential for pseudokarst features in sedimentary rocks are in relatively unconsolidated rocks from which pseudokarst features, such as piping caves, have been reported. Areas having potential for development of thermokarst features, mapped exclusively in Alaska, contain permafrost in relatively thick surficial deposits containing ground ice. This report includes a GIS database with links from the map unit polygons to online geologic unit descriptions.
Copyright Text: The data for this map were compiled and edited by David J. Weary and Daniel H. Doctor of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). Most of the spatial data compiled in this project originated as lithologic map units on geologic maps produced by various State geological surveys. Versions of the original source maps are available for purchase or download from the respective State geological surveys. Much of the digital map data for this project was compiled from a series of integrated geologic map databases for the United States produced by the USGS Mineral Resources Program (see http://mrdata.usgs.gov/geology/state/, accessed May 16, 2014). Use of the USGS digital geologic data provided a consistent data structure within which a derivative database of areas with potential for karst could be constructed. In some areas, other miscellaneous datasets and publications were referenced to facilitate accurate map compilation. These references are cited in the COMMENTS field of the feature data.
Description: The data set was developed by the Virginia Division of Geology and Mineral Resources to depict areas of karst as defined by the presence of sinkholes. Sinkholes were identified from low-altitude stereoscopic aerial photo pairs and traced onto 1:24:000 paper topographic maps, from which they were table-digitized. This is the same data depicted at 1:250,000 scale in Division of Geology Mineral Resources Publications 44, 83, and 167. Field checking has revealed that many more sinkholes are present than are depicted in this dataset. Therefore, these data should serve as a general guide to areas of karst-related sinkhole development, and not as a true indication of the presence or absence of sinkholes at a particular location.
Copyright Text: Virginia Division of Geology and Mineral Resources
Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy
Hubbard, D. A., Jr., 1983, Selected Karst Features of the Northern Valley and Ridge Province, Virginia: Virginia Division of Mineral Resources Publication 44, 1:250,000-scale map.
Hubbard, D. A., Jr., 1988, Selected Karst Features of the Central Valley and Ridge Province, Virginia: Virginia Division of Mineral Resources Publication 83, 1:250,000-scale map.
Hubbard, D. A., Jr., 2001, Selected Karst Features of the Southern Valley and Ridge Province, Virginia: Virginia Division of Mineral Resources Publication 167, 1:250,000-scale map.
Description: The primary funder of the 2014 Virginia Wetlands Catalog (VWC), the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), needed a tool for ranking easements for various conservation programs, including the Wetlands Reserve Program, the Farm and Ranch Lands Protection Program, and the Grassland Reserve Program. Other funders, including Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation-Division of Natural Heritage, The Natural Conservancy, Virginia Department of Transportation, and Virginia Commonwealth University-Center for Environmental Studies, had various needs for a tool that could be used to prioritize wetland parcels for conservation or restoration purposes, that could make project design more efficient, that could be used to assess impacts of proposed projects, and that could be used to identify possible mitigation sites. The VWC was designed to satisfy these various needs. The analysis started with development of a wetlands and streams layer by massive overlays of data from the National Wetlands Inventory, the high-resolution National Hydrography Dataset, 100-year floodplains from the Digital Flood Insurance Rate Map Database, and hydric and likely hydric soils from the Soil Survey Geographic Database. Two separate prioritizations, one focused on conservation and the other on restoration, were then applied to the wetlands and streams layer, again by massive overlays. The weighted layers used for the conservation prioritization indicated plant and animal biodiversity, significant natural communities, natural lands that provide ecosystem services, natural corridors and stream buffers, proximity to conserved lands, relatively clean watersheds, and drinking water sources. Some of these weighted layers also were used for the restoration prioritization and to them were added layers that indicated degradedwatersheds and impaired waters, existing wetland mitigation banks, prior converted and farmed wetlands, and stream reaches with depressed biodiversity that potentially could be restored. Statewide parcel and subwatershed data were incorporated into the results during the massive overlays. The various ranked and summary products were produced by analysis and processing of the resulting attribute tables, including summation of fields from the weighted inputs, reclassification of values, and reduction of data to maximum values. The results include six feature classes in a file geodatabase that are split into conservation and restoration prioritizations and summaries by wetland, parcel, and subwatershed boundaries. These six feature classes include representations embedded in them that portray the vast amounts of data thirty different ways and allow enhanced exploitation of the database. All representations can be viewed easily with the accompanying ArcMap document. The two most important of these representations are Conservation Rank and Restoration Rank, which clearly indicate relative values of wetlands with ranks 1 through 5, with five being most valuable. The VWC provides spatial tools to assist federal and state agencies, and perhaps private corporations, in designing projects efficiently, with reduced impacts, and in identifying wetlands for conservation, restoration, or mitigation purposes.
Copyright Text: Weber, J. T. and J. F. Bulluck 2014. Virginia Wetlands Catalog: An Inventory of Wetlands and Potential Wetlands with Prioritization Summaries for Conservation and Restoration Purposes by Parcel, Subwatershed, and Wetland Boundaries. Natural Heritage Technical Report 14-4. Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation, Division of Natural Heritage. Richmond, Virginia ## pp.
Description: This dataset contains boundary information for Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries' (VDGIF) Wildlife Management Areas (WMA). The coverage includes all WMAs within Virginia. These data are formatted as an ArcView shapefile compiled by the VDGIF Fish and Wildlife Information Services (FWIS) from the VDGIF Capital Outlay database. These data are presented as polygons of each site boundary.