The Northeast Information Node web site gives users-educators, resource managers, researchers, and the general public-easy access to the data resources and analysis tools they need to better understand, utilize, and protect the environmental resources of this region.

NIN's scope is broad: from cataloging the health of New York City's urban ecology to helping researchers and public officials build sustainable practices for the forests of Maine. The Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN), a center within the Earth Institute at Columbia University, is the lead partner for the development and management of the node. Some of our featured partners include:

• University of Connecticut at Storrs, Invasive Plant Atlas of New England (IPANE)
  The Invasive Plant Atlas of New England (IPANE) seeks to create a comprehensive Web-accessible database of invasive and potentially invasive plants in New England continually updated by a network of professionals and trained volunteers. The NBII Northeast Information Node (NIN) is working with IPANE to host their online invasive species information system.
   
• Wildlife Trust
  The strategic direction of the Wildlife Trust is to improve humankind's ability to save nature and protect ecological health in a world increasingly fragmented and dominated by humans. Internationally, the Wildlife Trust sees its most critical role in areas of the world where rapidly growing human populations put wildlife species at great risk, and where professional resources for conservation activity are limited.
   
• Columbia University, Center for Environmental Research & Conservation
  The principal ecology and biodiversity unit of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, the Center for Environmental Research and Conservation (CERC) has as its mission to prepare the next generation of environmental leaders and to find long-term solutions to combat the loss of biological diversity and natural resource depletion, while meeting the needs of a growing worldwide human population. The NBII Northeast Information Node and CERC have collaborated to develop the New York Area Biodiversity Research and Conservation Database (NYBD).
   
• Vermont Monitoring Cooperative
  The Vermont Monitoring Cooperative (VMC) serves Vermont by developing an improved understanding of long-term trends, annual conditions, and interdisciplinary relationships between the physical, chemical, and biological components of Vermont's forests. The VMC promotes coordination of multi-disciplinary environmental monitoring and research activities among federal, state, university, and private-sector agencies that have common interests in the long-term health, management, and protection of our forests.

Enjoy exploring the Northeast Information Node of the NBII!