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

The data covers only a portion of southeastern Massachusetts. Sandplain Systems are complex mosaics of native grassland and heathland found on dry sandy soils, usually near the coast.

Non-sandplain grasslands that might still have habitat value are included as GR, CGR, or G2. 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).