- Safe to remove
- Isolated from the rest of the network and too small on its own to matter — removing it has no effect on connectivity.
- Minimize disturbance
- Part of the connected network, but there's an alternate path around it — removing it isn't ideal, but won't disconnect anything.
- Critical — preserve
- The sole connection between two parts of the habitat network — removing it would cut them off from each other.
- Core habitat
- A large, established habitat area treated as a fixed anchor — not evaluated for removal, not selectable.
- Reconnect isolated core
- A suggested new link between two core-habitat areas that currently have no path to each other at all.
- Near-miss gap
- Two nearby but disconnected groups of vegetation, close enough that a small planting could bridge the gap.