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Is the data used to make the map available?

Much of the data used to make the map is from public sources, although it has since undergone extensive processing. In the future, we'd like to release what we can, however we are under-staffed and curently focused on setting up a proper web map service and distributing the paper maps. If you'd like to help out with these or other tasks, please feel free to contact us.

Why did/didn't you include … on the map?

It's possible we don't know about your favorite feature, tell us. There are also many features that we could not fit onto the paper/PDF version of the map. The upcoming web map will include everything we know about, as well a variety of other related information.

We had to make many choices regarding what was and was not shown on the map, below you'll find explanations about some of these decisions. See also Cambridge Greenmap - Experimental Design, Selection and Classification in "Improving the Cartographic Quality and Design of Greenmaps."

Backyard Habitat

The National Wildlife Federation runs the Backyard Habitat program to promote wildlife friendly landscaping. We elected to highlight these features—despite their being relatively few in the area—since the NWF gave us our first grant, and because we like the idea of promoting urban wildlife and native planting.

Dry Cleaners

Conventional dry-cleaning uses hazardous petro-chemicals like "perc", however, in recent years a number of "environmentally friendly" alternatives have become available. The Cambridge Greenmap only includes cleaners using one of these technologies, supercritical CO₂. Details behind this decision are coming soon.

Vegetarian Restaurants

We did not include Chinese and Indian restaurants in the list, as we feel that they are fairly obvious dining options, and their inclusion would have simply cluttered the map.

What is/are … ?

Potential Vernal Pools

The Natural Heritage & Endangered Species Program documents the locations of several types of habitat, including vernals pools. Vernal pools are an important habitat or amphibians and other wildlife, and PVPs are sites that share many of the characteristics of vernal pools, but have not yet been verified as suitable habitats.

Rare Species

The Division of Fisheries and Wildlife maintains a list of known rare species sitings by town. View the Cambridge rare species list. Note:

However, many rare species are difficult to detect even though they are present, and Natural Heritage does not conduct methodical species surveys in each town on a consistent basis. Therefore, the fact that the 'Most Recent Obs' for a species may be several years old should not lead to the interpretation that the species no longer occurs in a town.