Another basic component for decisions on land and water resources planning and management is information on how an organism uses its environment, how it reproduces, where it goes to find shelter, and other aspects of survival and maintenance. This section gives some resources applicable to the majority of the United States. There are many local and regional sources of information that can be tapped as well.
States are producing a great deal of valuable information, much of it becoming available on the Web. For example, the staff of the James Ford Bell Museum of Natural History has produced a Web site for fishes of Minnesota with species accounts and occurrences: http://www.gen.umn.edu/faculty_staff/hatch/fishes/. The Biota Information System of New Mexico http://151.199.74.229/states/nm.htm includes species accounts relevant to New Mexico and Arizona. State-developed information may be available by accessing the individual home pages for state agencies. A list emphasizing the fish and game departments in other states can be reached from the California Department of Fish and Game: http://www.dfg.ca.gov/html/links_st.html.
Information in this section of EMRIS is organized by Species and Communities. While the largest amount of information is on species, increased attention is being paid to communities. From the state agency pages, searches for community information will usually lead to the Natural Heritage Program, Conservation Department, Nongame, Natural Resources, and similar organizations.