Founded in 1982, the Pennsylvania Natural Heritage Program (PNHP) gathers and manages information regarding the status and location of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s[1] rare species and habitats and native natural communities.
PHNP's goal is to build, maintain, and provide accurate and accessible ecological information needed for conservation, development planning and natural resource management.
[5] One important initiative within the Heritage Program is the County Natural Heritage Inventory, which conducts county-wide inventories of threatened and endangered species as well as important natural areas.
In addition, PNHP will return to counties and perform updates to ensure that county inventory data remains relatively current.
The PNHP has approximately 50 staff among the four partner programs, including botanists, vertebrate and invertebrate zoologists, aquatic and terrestrial ecologists, data managers and GIS specialists as well as environmental review staff.