Research


Scope and Content Note

This series consists of a wide variety of maps and overlays of New York State's wildlife management areas, used by various units within the Department of Environmental Conservation's Bureau of Wildlife. The maps, which aided in wildlife conservation and management efforts, represent, at best, an ad hoc collection that were used during a variety of wildlife programs. While these are likely not complete sets of maps, and they lack some context having been separated from textual program files, many of the maps are identifiable as part of distinct projects. Some of these projects include ones centered on the Cicero Swamp timer rattlesnake, bog turtles and tiger salamanders, the Jones Beach Tern colony, and the albino deer at the Seneca Army Depot.

This series also contains sketches of experimental pens, deer corral, and traps, as well as habitat inventories, wetland studies, and black and white aerial photographs created by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).

B2704-20: This accretion consists of maps related to the Herp Atlas Project. This ten-year survey began in 1990 and continued through the end of 1999. It was designed to document the geographic distribution of 50 species of amphibians and reptiles in New York State. The survey information was used to monitor changes in reptile and amphibian populations, guiding habitat and wildlife management decisions. Also included are inventories of big game species, habitat observations, and a small collection of photographs documenting the management of the black bear population in the 1950s.