Overview

This datalayer contains points for all vernal pools that have been certified by the Natural Heritage & Endangered Species Program (NHESP) according to the Guidelines for Certification of Vernal Pool Habitat (MA Division of Fisheries & Wildlife, 2009).

Vernal pools are small, shallow ponds characterized by lack of fish and by periods of dryness. Vernal pool habitat is extremely important to a variety of wildlife species including some amphibians that breed exclusively in vernal pools, and other organisms such as fairy shrimp, which spend their entire life cycles confined to vernal pool habitat. Many additional wildlife species utilize vernal pools for breeding, feeding and other important functions. Certified vernal pools are protected if they fall under the jurisdiction of the Massachusetts Wetlands Protection Act Regulations (310 CMR 10.00). However, the certification of a pool only establishes that it functions biologically as a vernal pool. Certification does not determine that the pool is within a resource area protected by the Wetlands Protection Act. Certified vernal pools are also afforded protection under the state Water Quality Certification regulations (401 Program), the state Title 5 regulations, and the Forest Cutting Practices Act regulations.

Data in the current layer were extracted from the NHESP database on February 28, 2011 and posted on the MassGIS Web site for download on August 19, 2011.

The Certified Vernal Pools layer is stored in ArcSDE as CVP_PT.

Before 2004, Certified Vernal Pools were mapped on 1:24,000 or 1:25,000 USGS topographic quadrangle maps. The datalayer was created by NHESP by generating an Arc/Info coverage from a database of latitude and longitude points read from the USGS quads. Currently though, Certified Vernal Pools are heads-up digitized onscreen in ArcView 3x, at approximately 1:25,000 scale, using MassGIS’ 2005 Digital Orthophotos as a basemap.

This datalayer's point attribute table contains the following fields:

CVP_NUM		A unique identifier which may be used to identify a Certified Vernal Pool when contacting the Natural Heritage Program.
EXTRACTED		The date that the Certified Vernal Pools were extracted from the NHESP database.

The legend that MUST accompany this datalayer on ALL maps is:
"NHESP Certified Vernal Pools"

Occurrence records of Certified Vernal Pools from the NHESP database are continuously being added and modified. Those changes will be incorporated into the Certified Vernal Pools datalayer twice annually, in the months of January and July.

Questions about the creation of this datalayer should be directed to NHESP at 508-389-6375.  For questions relating to the certification of Vernal Pools, please call 508-389-6365.

Also see these layers:

• NHESP Priority Habitats of Rare Species
• NHESP Estimated Habitats of Rare Wildlife
• NHESP Potential Vernal Pools

Last Updated 8/19/2011
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