Get natural heritage information
Get information about Ontario’s species of conservation concern, plant communities, and wildlife concentration areas.
The Natural Heritage Information Centre (NHIC)
The Natural Heritage Information Centre:
- maintains a list of over 18,000 plants, animals and lichens in Ontario
- tracks the locations and conditions of over 2,800 species, plant communities and wildlife concentration areas
These data are used to assist with conservation, planning and research activities.
Access available information
There are a number of ways you can access information maintained by the Natural Heritage Information Centre.
Please note that an absence of information does not mean that a location has no species of conservation concern (including species at risk), plant communities or wildlife concentration areas. These data are not a substitute for site visits.
The Natural Heritage Information Centre has removed sensitive information from publicly available natural heritage datasets and generalized the locations of occurrences of species, plant communities and wildlife concentration areas to a 1 kilometre grid.
View map with natural heritage information
Some data are available through the Make-A-Map: Natural Heritage Areas application. This application allows users to view an online map with natural heritage information.
Data managed by the Natural Heritage Information Centre are in a single map layer called the NHIC 1-kilometre grid.
Zoom to the location in your area of interest and select one or more squares to identify:
- species of conservation concern (including species at risk)
- plant communities
- wildlife concentration areas
Make-A-Map: Natural Heritage Areas application
Geographic Information System data
Natural heritage areas
Use the datasets available through the Ontario Geohub, if you need area boundaries for provincially designated natural heritage areas such as:
- Areas of Natural and Scientific Interest (ANSI)
- Canadian Heritage River System
- Conservation Reserve Regulated
- Crown Land Use Policy Atlas (CLUPA)
- provincial protected areas
- federal protected areas
- natural heritage values area
- Provincial Park Regulated
- wetlands
- wilderness areas
Species of conservation concern (including species at risk), plant communities and wildlife concentration areas
To access these data:
- Download the complete file geodatabase or complete shapefile version of the Provincially Tracked Species 1-kilometre grid from the Ontario Geohub. These versions contain both a spatial layer and data table. The geodatabase is ready to use. If you choose the shapefile, you will need to link the spatial layer to the table; use the relate function in GIS to do this. Use the OGF_ID field in the spatial layer and the PROV_TRK_SPECIES_1KM_GRID_ID field in the table.
- Alternative file formats are available for download. Please note that both the Provincially Tracked Species 1-kilometre grid spatial layer and the related PROV_TRK_SPECIES_GRID_DETAIL table are required to interact with the data.
If you are unable to use the geodatabase or shapefile to access information, contact the Natural Heritage Information Centre for an alternative data format.
Access detailed data
Detailed data include:
- precise locations
- biological information
- names of restricted species
Restricted species are commercially exploited or sensitive to disturbance; these species could be harmed if data aren’t stored and shared securely.
Detailed data are distributed to individuals and agencies that require them to:
- inform resource management
- inform land use plans
- advance scientific studies
- advance the understanding of natural heritage
To access sensitive or detailed data on biodiversity, you will need a Sensitive Data Use Licence. To get a licence, you must:
- demonstrate a legitimate need to know
- complete data sensitivity training
Email the Natural Heritage Information Centre or phone us at
Data sensitivity training
Topics covered include:
- introduction to the Natural Heritage Information Centre
- introduction to species, plant community and wildlife concentration area data
- how to access Natural Heritage Information Centre data
Email the Natural Heritage Information Centre to access this training.
Licensed users of sensitive or detailed data
As a licensed user of sensitive or detailed biodiversity data, you must follow the ministry's guidelines for displaying these data described in the Sensitive Data Location Standards (Word).
Species lists
The Natural Heritage Information Centre maintains species lists for Ontario and uses international standards for taxonomy and nomenclature. The all species lists (Excel) spreadsheet contains lists of all species in the database, including species of conservation concern (tracked species). It contains lists for major taxonomic groups, such as:
- birds
- butterflies
- fishes
- mammals
- moths
- vascular plants
Each list is displayed on a separate tab. Download and open the spreadsheet, then view the list you’re interested in by clicking on its tab.
If you are unable to use these species list files to access information, contact the Natural Heritage Information Centre for an alternative data format.
- all species (Excel)
- wildlife concentration areas list (Excel)
- plant communities list (Excel)
Biodiversity atlases
Biodiversity atlases compile, map and display occurrence information for plant and animal species. The Natural Heritage Information Centre contributes data and expertise to these atlases, and they return observation data.
- Atlas of the Breeding Birds Of Ontario
- Atlas of the Mammals of Ontario
- iNaturalist
- Islands of Life – a Biodiversity and Conservation Atlas of the Great Lakes Islands
- Ontario Butterfly Atlas
- Atlas of Ontario Odonata (This atlas is temporarily unavailable online. If you need data from this atlas, please contact us.)
Reference centre
The Natural Heritage Information Centre has a reference centre in Peterborough. If you would like to access any information from the following collections, please contact us to make an appointment.
Herbarium
The Natural Heritage Information Centre herbarium houses a collection of over 11,000 dried and mounted plants, including bryophytes and vascular plants. Biologists use specimens for a variety of purposes, like helping to identify plants collected in the field.
Insect collection
The Natural Heritage Information Centre maintains a small insect collection, currently with an emphasis on Ontario Odonata (dragonflies and damselflies) and Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths).
It also contains specimens from many other insect orders (such as beetles, true bugs, flies, bees and wasps).
Reference library
The reference library houses information on species, plant communities and wildlife concentration areas in Ontario.
The collection includes reports on Ontario’s natural heritage at various scales.
Information is available in hardcopy and digital files.