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The aggregated CLIP 4.0 Resource Priorities include five priority levels depicting conservation significance for protecting biodiversity, landscape attributes, and high quality surface water resources at the statewide scale. It is a combination of the Biodiversity, Landscapes, and Surface Water Resource Priorities models based on the following criteria: Priority 1: Priority 1 for any of the three Resource Categories, or Priority 2 for ALL three Resource Categories. Priority 2: Priority 2 for any of the three Resource Categories, or Priority 3 for ALL three Resource Categories. Priority 3: Priority 3 for any of the three Resource Categories. Priority 4: Priority 4 for any of the three Resource Categories. Priority 5: Priority 5 for any of the three Resource Categories. Unlike the Resource Priorities models, the Aggregated CLIP model does take into account overlap across resource types to promote some areas to Priorities 1 and 2. Wherever a location meets criteria for more than one priority class, the highest priority is assigned. Although all priority levels have significance, based on expert consensus the most important priorities are CLIP Priorities 1 and 2. CLIP Priority 3 can be considered moderate priority at the statewide scale. CLIP Priority 4 includes areas that still have resource significance but are the lower ranked areas for many of the CLIP core data layers. CLIP Priority 5 primarily includes broader watersheds with relevance from a cumulative impact perspective for protecting important watersheds identified in the Significant Surface Waters core data layer. |