Final Thoughts

Abstract

The Indiana Natural Heritage Data Center collects and manages biodiversity information concerning rare plants and animals and high-quality natural communities throughout the state. To continually update our knowledge base, our division botanist and ecologists conduct field surveys to locate and monitor these imperiled plants and communities. Additional biologists, conservation groups, and citizen scientists submit species records that are vetted and then managed using the program’s Biotics software. The products of the biodiversity data are used to inform and aid conservation activities throughout the state by public and private entities. One of the ways the data is used is in the DNR environmental regulatory process to help avoid or minimize impacts to significant natural communities, state-ranked species, and nature preserves. NatureServe and county source summary data on plant and insect