MassGIS 2003 Massachusetts Priority Natural Vegetation Communities : Riverine Natural Community Systems (April 2003)

The data covers only a portion of eastern Massachusetts. Riverine Systems are complex areas defined by the extent of river flooding.

They include floodplain and alluvial forests, riverside marshes and shrub swamps, and brackish and freshwater wetlands along tidal rivers. Ditched, channelized and dammed areas are excluded. This layer is part of the MassGIS Priority Natural Vegetation Communities dataset, which depicts the distribution of the eight natural community systems identified by the Massachusetts Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Program (NHESP) as most critical to the conservation of the Commonwealth's biological diversity (Barbour et al., 1998).