Regulatory Maps: Priority & Estimated Habitats

Due to the current public health emergency posed by the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), the Governor issued “COVID-19 Order No. 17” on March 26, 2020 (see link here). This Order suspends state permitting deadlines and extends the validity of existing state permits. This suspension applies to all applications submitted or received after the Governor’s state of emergency declaration on March 10, 2020. This suspension also applies to all applications received before but with deadlines occurring after March 10, 2020. The review time period for these applications shall resume 45 days after the termination of the current state of emergency. Until that time, the Division will continue to review applications as quickly as possible. Permits and other authorizations valid as of March 10, 2020 shall not lapse or otherwise expire until the termination of the current state of emergency.

Priority Habitat is based on the known geographical extent of habitat for all state-listed rare species, both plants and animals, and is codified under the Massachusetts Endangered Species Act (MESA). Habitat alteration within Priority Habitats may result in a take of a state-listed species, and is subject to regulatory review by the Natural Heritage & Endangered Species Program. 

Estimated Habitats are a sub-set of the Priority Habitats, and are based on the geographical extent of habitat of state-listed rare wetlands wildlife and is codified under the Wetlands Protection Act (WPA), which does not protect plants. State-listed wetland wildlife species are protected under the Massachusetts Endangered Species Act as well as the Wetlands Protection Act.

Access to Priority and Estimated Habitat maps is provided through a variety of sources:

• A large-scale map has been provided to each Conservation Commission, Planning Board, and Building Inspector showing the entire town 
• A large-scale map may be purchased from NHESP 
• An interactive map viewer with address-matching capability is available online
• Priority Habitat GIS datalayers and Estimated Habitat GIS datalayers can be downloaded from MassGIS (appropriate software required for use).

It is the responsibility of the land owner or project proponent to determine if their project falls within Priority Habitat or Estimated Habitat and requires review. Failure to file under MESA constitutes a violation of the Act and is subject to a fine (pursuant to 10.06).

We will re-evaluate the map every 4 years. The current map was released August 1, 2017 (the 14th Edition Natural Heritage Atlas).

Updates are generally due to the following factors:

• changes to the MESA species list and observation occurrences
  • species are added or removed from the list
  • new observations are accepted into our database
  • areas mapped from old observations (greater than 25 years) are removed
• latest research about habitat utilization
• evaluation of regulatory outcomes
• improved aerial photographs