Habitat Descriptions

This page describes the 16 key habitats identified in the subsection profiles of Minnesota's State Wildlife Action Plan, focusing on the important components of these key habitats, both in terms of habitat quality and features important to the species in greatest conservation need (SGCN) (54kb). The key habitats, organized alphabetically within three major groups, are as follows:

Forests

Forest-Lowland Coniferous	Forest-Lowland Deciduous	Forest-Upland Coniferous
Forest-Upland Deciduous (Aspen)	Forest-Upland Deciduous (Hardwood)	Forest-Upland Deciduous (Oak)

Upland Forest Overview Describes features common to all upland forests.

Open landscape

Prairie	Shoreline - Dune - Cliff/Talus - Rock Outcrop	Shrub - Lowland
Shrub - Upland	Surrogate Grassland

Aquatic

Wetland - Nonforested	Lake - Deep	Lake - Shallow
River - Headwater to Large	River-Very Large

Rivers Overview Describes features common to all rivers.

Habitat description components

• A "crosswalk" to the Native Plant Community classification, for terrestrial plant communities. Aquatic habitats and the anthropogenic grassland habitat do not have a crosswalk as they are not part of the NPC classification.
• Maps showing the distribution of habitat type as a percentage of ECS subsections, both currently and, when available, historically.
• A general description of the key habitat, detailing key plant species, habitat structure, natural processes, and some of the human activities currently changing the habitat.
• Features within the habitat that are important for some example species in greatest conservation need (SGCN). This is not an exhaustive description of all the SGCN that use the habitat, but rather illustrates some elements important to consider for managing each key habitat.
• Examples of specific management options that, if implemented, would benefit SGCN and would improve the function and quality of the habitat. These management actions illustrate possible opportunities and are not exhaustive.

Note that the upland forest and the river habitat types each have a general description that address all of the habitats found in these groups, in addition to the individual descriptions for each of the four types of upland forests, and two main types of rivers. This approach was taken because many of the features important for SGCN are common among all forest types and rivers.