Some degree of habitat loss and fragmentation will be an unavoidable result of Marcellus Shale gas development in New York State. Habitat loss is the conversion of one kind of habitat to another, dissimilar habitat. In the case of Marcellus
Shale drilling in New York, this would mostly involve clearing of forest land for access roads, well pads, and pipelines. Habitat fragmentation occurs when one continuous area of habitat is broken up into smaller pieces, separated by areas
of a different type of habitat.19 Its main components are habitat loss, reduction in the size of patches of the original habitat, and an increase in the distance between individual patches of the original habitat