The New
Mexico Natural Heritage Program (NHNM) collects data on the biology,
status and location of the state's biological resources. In association
with partners, we accumulate, maintain and provide data on a wide
variety of biological elements in New Mexico. In this sense, we
act as a clearinghouse for information on New Mexico's biological
resources and provide assistance to our partners in making these
data available to the public or available for management or conservation
purposes.
NHNM also maintains a current inventory of the plants and animals
in New Mexico and their most current taxonomy. Furthermore, we
keep track of any legal or informal status applied to them with
respect to rarity or conservation priority by both governmental
and non-governmental agencies.
We also maintain our own ranking system for the state's plants,
animals and communities with respect to their rarity in New Mexico.
While these ranks have no legal status, management agencies and
others use Heritage ranks to trigger changes in legal status and
to determine where to direct resources for further study or conservation
efforts. Management and permitting agencies may also direct consultants
to gather information or take into account impact on elements
for which the Heritage Program has given higher ranks.
In association with the Association for Biological Information,
we influence similar rarity ranks for these elements at the National
and Global scale.
The NHNM maintains a tracking list of about 600 Threatened, Endangered
and Sensitive (TES) animal and plant species of particular concern
or sensitivity in New Mexico. Our tracking list includes vertebrate
and invertebrates, and vascular and non-vascular plants (we are
currently in the process of determining a tracking list for TES
communities). For elements on our tracking list, we actively seek
out all information concerning their occurrences (roughly equal
to populations) in New Mexico and the status or quality of those
occurrences. Information on these TES elements come from a variety
of sources including our own field surveys, published and unpublished
reports, museum collections, data sets from non-profit organizations
and agencies, and the scientific literature.
Information about the biology or status of biological resources
and/or TES elements in New Mexico is normally provided by NHNM
free of charge. There may be a nominal fee to cover the cost of
processing the request and/or for providing a particular output
format. Information about the locations of plants and species
at the level of state, county, watershed, or ecoregion is also
provided free and is available from our Free
Info Search Page. For more precise information about the location
or distribution of TES elements submit
an information request.