Habitat & Biodiversity Assessment Tool Acknowledgements

Thank you to our funders for providing the financial support for the development and execution of the Habitat and Biodiversity Assessment Tool (HBAT). This project was undertaken with the financial support of Environment and Climate Change Canada and funded in part by the Government of Canada under the Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership, a federal-provincial-territorial initiative.

The initial blueprint was created by Paul Watson (formerly with the Alberta Environmental Farm Plan), François Blouin, and Robin Bloom (Environment and Climate Change Canada – ECCC) and they were integral to the development of the initial version of HBAT. We are indebted to Jeff Harder (ECCC) who developed the Python script that summarizes the extensive amount of species evidence data at the land parcel level, who assembled data from multiple sources for the first version of HBAT and provided support with subsequent updates. The Canadian Forage and Grassland Association through funding from the Canada Nature Fund improved several tool functionalities, which lead to the 2024 version of HBAT. Thank you to our EFP technicians who continue to provide feedback and suggestions to improve the tool. We are grateful for the team at Pixel Army for their web development knowledge, implementation, skills, and continued patience

A very special thank you to François Blouin, whom without his technical expertise and dedication to the tool development and refinement, this tool would not exist as does today.

We are grateful to the following individuals who participated in the process of ranking species and/or reviewing Beneficial Management Practices (BMPs):

	AgroForestry and Woodlot Extension Society - M. Andre	Alberta Conservation Association, MULTISAR - B.A. Downey	Government of Alberta - B.L. Downey, G. Court, P. Fargey, C. Kemper, S. Robertson, D. Vujnovic, L. Wilkinson
	Alberta Community Bat Program - S.L. Holroyd	Alberta Native Bee Council - L. Neame, L. Wonneck	Government of Canada - R. Bryan, L. Burns, M. Curteanu, B. Dale, S. Davis, D. Ghikas, L. Hamilton, C. Neufeld,
	Alternative Land Use Services - C. Campbell	Ducks Unlimited Canada - J. Paterson	Landwise Inc. - R. McNeil
	Verdue Media - C. Schneider	P. Strankman

We thank the following individuals who contributed their scientific knowledge and suggestions for BMP development, ranking and compatibility assessment and for tool improvements:

• Alberta Conservation Association – B.A. Downey
• Government of Canada - B.C. Dale
• Government of Alberta, Environment and Protected Areas - D. Johns
• University of Saskatchewan - J.F. Wilmshurst

Special thanks to the following individuals who contributed to the evaluation, communication, and educational components of the tool and habitat and biodiversity training of our EFP technicians and staff:

• Canadian Wildlife Federation – C. Callaghan
• Canadian Forage and Grazing Association – C. MacLeod
• Five Gallon Creative – K. Songer
• Freelancer – F. Blouin
• Freshly Pressed – G. Alvarez, D. McNeill, C. Witschi
• National Wildlife Federation – J. Espenshade
• Government of Alberta – D. Johns
• Government of Canada – R. Bloom
• Tributary Consulting – B. McWherter
• University of Alberta – S. Anders, P. Boxall, S. Van Wyngaaden

Lea Craig-Moore, Robert F. Foster, Aaron Bell, Syd Cannings, Sheila Colla, Cory Sheffield were instrumental in pointing us to key individuals and data sources. With much appreciation, we acknowledge that data that underpins the Habitat and Biodiversity Assessment Tool have been generously provided in the spirit of collaborative conservation science by:

• ABMI: Predicted relative abundance maps were provided by the Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute (ABMI, www.abmi.ca). We would like to thank all ABMI staff involved in the collection and dissemination of these data.
• Alberta Conservation Information Management System (ACIMS). 2022. Online data accessed (15 November 2023). Alberta Environment and Parks, Edmonton, Alberta.
• Alberta Conservation Information Management System (ACIMS). 2018. Online data accessed (7 December 2018). Alberta Environment and Parks, Edmonton, Alberta.
• Alberta endangered pine recovery implementation team
• Alberta Environment and Protected Areas (formerly Alberta Environment and Parks)
• Alberta Environment and Sustainable Resource Development. 2014. A Guide to Endangered and Threatened Species, and Species of Special Concern in Alberta. Version 1. Alberta Environment and Sustainable Resource Development, Edmonton, AB. 84 pp.
• Birds Canada. 2018a. Mission Monarque. Data accessed from NatureCounts, a node of the Avian Knowledge Network, Birds Canada. Available: http://www.naturecounts.ca/.  Accessed: 16 August 2023.
• Birds Canada. 2018b. iButterfly. Data accessed from NatureCounts, a node of the Avian Knowledge Network, Birds Canada. Available: http://www.naturecounts.ca/.  Accessed: 16 August 2023
• Birds Canada. 2018c. Wildresearch Nightjar Survey. Data accessed from NatureCounts, a node of the Avian Knowledge Network, Birds Canada. Available: http://www.naturecounts.ca/.  Accessed: 16 August 2023
• BirdLife International and Handbook of the Birds of the World (2018) Bird species distribution maps of the world. Version 2018.1. Available at http://datazone.birdlife.org/species/requestdis
• Bumble Bee Warch: We thank Bumble Bee Watch for supplying data. We would also like to thank all of the volunteer participants who gathered data for the project.
• The Cornell Lab of Ornithology
• The Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC)
• The Eastern Irrigation District
• eBird Basic Dataset. Version: EBD_relAug-2023. Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Aug 2023
• eBird Basic Dataset. Version: EBD_relMay-2017. Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. May 2017.
• Environment and Climate Change Canada
• GBIF.org (4 October 2023) GBIF Occurrence Download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.mswd9q
• GBIF.org (4 October 2023) GBIF Occurrence Download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.x82xvt
• GBIF.org (4 October 2023) GBIF Occurrence Download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.gzyqgb
• GBIF.org (11th March 2019) GBIF Occurrence Download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hiwzxg
• GBIF.org (12th March 2019) GBIF Occurrence Download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.btjiqy
• GBIF.org (12th March 2019) GBIF Occurrence Download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.aauueq
• GBIF.org (12th March 2019) GBIF Occurrence Download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.ng4jni
• GBIF.org (12th March 2019) GBIF Occurrence Download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.grs56y
• GBIF.org (12th March 2019) GBIF Occurrence Download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.a5hppg
• GBIF.org (12th March 2019) GBIF Occurrence Download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.qfuuht
• GBIF.org (12th March 2019) GBIF Occurrence Download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.zazvsm
• GBIF.org (12th March 2019) GBIF Occurrence Download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.zrgkol
• GBIF.org (12th March 2019) GBIF Occurrence Download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.pcbqu6
• GBIF.org (12th March 2019) GBIF Occurrence Download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hyazqh
• GBIF.org (12th March 2019) GBIF Occurrence Download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.mkpmrf
• The Government of The Northwest Territories
• iNaturalist
• MULTISAR
• NatureServe. 2023. NatureServe Network Biodiversity Location Data accessed through NatureServe Explorer [web application]. NatureServe, Arlington, Virginia. Available https://explorer.natureserve.org/.
• NatureServe. 2018. NatureServe Network Biodiversity Location Data accessed through NatureServe Explorer [web application]. NatureServe, Arlington, Virginia. Available https://explorer.natureserve.org/.
• NatureServe. 2017. NatureServe Network Biodiversity Location Data accessed through NatureServe Explorer [web application]. NatureServe, Arlington, Virginia. Available https://explorer.natureserve.org/.
• IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature), Conservation International & NatureServe. 2021. Anaxyrus cognatus. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2023-1
• NatureServe and IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) 2007. Crotalus viridis. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2023-1
• Patterson, B. D., G. Ceballos, W. Sechrest, M. F. Tognelli, T. Brooks, L. Luna, P. Ortega, I. Salazar, and B. E. Young. 2007. Digital Distribution Maps of the Mammals of the Western Hemisphere, version 3.0. NatureServe, Arlington, Virginia, USA. URL: https://www.natureserve.org/products/digital-distribution-maps-mammals-western-hemisphere
• Prescott D., Wells M., and L. Best. 2019. Survey of bumblebees in central Alberta - 2018. Alberta Environment and Parks - Species at Risk program. Occurrence dataset https://doi.org/10.5886/ntpd1n accessed via GBIF.org on 2019-03-04.
• USGS and IUCN 2016. Vulpes velox. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2016-3.
• WildResearch: We thank WildResearch for supplying BC Nightjar Survey data, and all of the volunteer citizen scientists who gathered data for the project.
• The Xerces Society, Wildlife Preservation Canada, York University, University of Ottawa, The Montreal Insectarium, The London Natural History Museum, BeeSpotter. 2019. Data accessed from Bumble Bee Watch, a collaborative website to track and conserve North America’s bumble bees. Available here. Accessed: 19 March 2019.

Occurrence data and species distribution models were also contributed by the following individuals:

Data Contributors	Data Contributors	Data Contributors	BIObus 2010
Meagan Dyck	R. E. Owen	John Acorn	Barb Faull
N. Page	L. Allen	Paul Galpern	T. Pike
K. Anderson	David Gummer	Dave Prescott	Gary Anweiler
Sage Handler	Genevieve Rowe	Jared Barnsdale	Chris Hohm
B.C. Schmidt	Erin Bayne	O. Jensen	W. Smith
Lincoln Best	Sarah Johnson	V. Snable	C. Bird
N. Kondla	Joy Stevens	C. Bradley	Tod Lawton
Mike Tate	L. Burns	C. Lockerbie	T. Thormin
cnorton5	D. Macaulay	J. Troubridge	Sheila Colla
David McKenzie	D. Vujnovic	Lea Craig-Moore	M. Meijer
C. Wallis	Medea Curteanu	D. Mou	Troy Wellicome
Steve Davis	Garry Neufeld	S. Westworth