The Texas Ecological Assessment Protocol (TEAP) is a screening level assessment tool created by a working group of the Texas Environmental Resource Stewards (TERS). The TEAP divides nineteen individual measures into three main layers: diversity, rarity, and sustainability. This feature class represents the composite of these three layers. The results from the diversity, rarity, and sustainability layers are summed to create the composite grid with scores potentially ranging from 3 to 300. The higher scores represent areas that may be of a higher ecological importance.TERS was established in July 2002 to seek greater Federal and State interagency collaboration on identifying and supporting joint priorities, particularly regarding transportation issues. Leaders from participating agencies (see Supplemental Information) jointly identified common interests and target activities for collaborative ecosystem management, thereby benefitting each agency. Common interests and uses included identification of highest priority natural resources areas (wetland, aquatic, terrestrial) for avoidance, mitigation, or potential compensation or restoration; "streamlining" of regulatory processes; early assistance with National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) planning; and analysis of cumulative impacts. TERS participants also identified uses for the TERS ecological assessment within each agency's mission. The vision, as developed by the TERS executives, included the following actions: Improve mutual understanding; Use collective knowledge to support decisions-making; and Strive for synergism. The TERS approach to achieving this vision was to use an ecosystem approach to organize strategies that achieve effective and measurable environmental results, and jointly communicate the results to the public. The initial goals of TERS were to identify high priority ecological areas, potential mitigation areas, and streamline the regulatory processes. The TEAP is part of the first goal: the ecological assessment and identification of priority ecological resources in the state of Texas. Please refer to the 2005 report ( http://nepis.epa.gov/Exe/ZyPURL.cgi?Dockey=P100BLAF.txt) for more details on TERS and the TEAP.