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

The data covers only a portion of eastern Massachusetts. Pine Barrens Systems are a mosaic of pitch pine and scrub oak, with heath and grassy openings, located on nutrient-poor, acidic, drought-prone soils.

This datalayer can be used with the Pine Barrens Community Systems (UMass) datalayer which is separate and covers portions of the towns of Plymouth, Kingston, Bourne, Carver, and Wareham, Massachusetts. 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).