The first General Status assessments for New Brunswick were completed in 2000. These assessments included all of the vertebrate species known to occur in the province, as well as small, but relatively well-known, groups of invertebrates (butterflies) and plants (ferns and orchids).
As we continue to add new groups for assessment, there is more likely to be groups for which we don’t have much information or expertise to determine the ranks. Therefore, the ranks for these species are usually categorized as “Status Undetermined”, a list of all the species in that group which are known to occur in New Brunswick is produced.
Table 1 summarizes the number of species that have been assessed in New Brunswick for each taxonomic group during each reporting period from 2000 to 2015. The total number of species assessed in the province has increased significantly from 700 species in 2000 to over 9,300 in 2015. This total is just under one third of the estimated 30,000 species that occur in New Brunswick.
Table 2 summarizes the number of species by conservation status rank. Most species in New Brunswick are considered to be secure; however, a greater proportion of species have an unknown status as we continue to assess more of the lesser-known groups.
When the General Status Wild Species reports are published, the conservation status ranks for New Brunswick species are also made available on the Atlantic Canada Conservation Data Centre web site, in addition to the national General Status and the NatureServe Explorer websites.
The conservation status ranks produced by the General Status program are not legally binding or do not have legal ramifications. However, they are used to guide conservation planning decisions, such as determining locations of protected areas or guiding land development proposals. The ranks also help determine priorities for individual species which require a more detailed, comprehensive assessment by the New Brunswick Committee on the Status of Species at Risk (NB COSSAR).