BEACONs has developed a suite of software and ArcGIS tools to support research and conservation planning in the boreal.

Benchmark Builder 

The Benchmark Builder is a user-friendly software application, developed in C# .NET framework, to assist conservation planners with the design of ecological benchmarks. It explicitly incorporates hydrologic connectivity for the integration of aquatic and terrestrial conservation planning. The Benchmark Builder constructs ecological benchmarks using a deterministic construction algorithm that aggregates catchments to a user-defined size and intactness.

Ranker

Ranker is an R-based tool for constructing and ranking candidate reserve networks. Ranker uses statistical dissimilarity metrics to rank a suite of candidate reserve networks according to their ability to represent a set of biophysical criteria. Representation is measured by comparing distributions of attributes inside the candidate network against the rest of the study area using statistical dissimilarity metrics.

CONSERV 

CONSERV is a landscape simulation model designed to evaluate the long-term efficacy of reserves. CONSERV was developed using Visual Basic 6 and is based on previous simulation models derived to explore boreal forest and species dynamics under different management scenarios (e.g., FEENIX).

GIS Toolbox 

The BEACONs' toolbox is a set of ArcGIS tools and Python scripts for preparing input data for and processing data output from the Benchmark Builder and Ranker.