New Mexico Environmental Review and Conservation Planning Tool

New Mexico Environmental Review Tool (ERT) is an interactive web-based conservation planning and environmental review application developed through a partnership between the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish (NMDGF), Natural Heritage New Mexico, and NatureServe. The tool serves dual purposes: providing public access to conservation planning information through its Explorer feature, which displays wildlife management areas, important wildlife habitats from the Crucial Habitat Assessment Tool, and Conservation Opportunity Areas identified in the State Wildlife Action Plan; and offering registered users the ability to submit proposed projects for comprehensive environmental review. The review process evaluates potential impacts to state and federally listed threatened and endangered species, as well as other wildlife of conservation interest, within project vicinities, while providing guidance for maintaining and enhancing affected wildlife populations and habitats. The ERT utilizes both actual occurrence data from Natural Heritage New Mexico Biotics and predicted animal habitat distribution models from the Gap Analysis Project to inform its reports, though it emphasizes that the tool should supplement rather than replace field surveys and site-specific species occurrence determinations.