Northern spotted owl (NSO) habitat for all ownerships within the Western Oregon Plan Revision (WOPR) area for year 2006. 25 meter pixels are classified as either Non-Habitat, Dispersal Habitat, Nesting Habitat, or Non-Capable. Classification of BLM lands are derived from the WOPR OPTIONS models. Classification of non-BLM lands are cross-walked from the WOPR Forest Structural Stages raster datasets.
BLM: (Bureau of Land Management) WOPR: (Western Oregon Plan Revision) PRMP: (Proposed Resource Management Plan) NSO: (Northern Spotted Owl) IVMP: (Interagency Vegetation Mapping Project) LSOG: (Late Stage Old Growth) CVS: (Current Vegetation Survey) FIA: (Forest Inventory Analysis) This analysis addresses those portions of the planning area that are habitat-capable with respect to providing habitat conditions potentially used by northern spotted owls, excluding areas that cannot support habitat (e.g., because of soil limitations) or will not support owl nesting (e.g., because of high elevation) (see Lint 2005, Figure 3-7). SUITABLE HABITAT for the northern spotted owl (which supports nesting, roosting and foraging) was described by Thomas et al. (1990, p. 164) as multi-layered, multispecies canopy dominated by large (greater than 30 inches diameter at breast height) conifer overstory trees, and an understory of shade-tolerant conifers or hardwoods; a moderate to high (60 to 80%) canopy closure; substantial decadence in the form of large, live conifer trees with deformities such as cavities, broken tops, and dwarf mistletoe infections; numerous large snags; ground cover characterized by large accumulations of logs and other woody debris; and a canopy that is open enough to allow owls to fly within and beneath it. Although subsequent research has refined this definition, it remains valid2 (Courtney et al. 2004, Chapter 5). DISPERSAL HABITAT for the northern spotted owl, which supports owl movement and survival (but not typically nesting), is comprised of forest stands with an average trunk diameter of at least 11 inches (when measured at a person’s breast height); an average canopy closure of at least 40 percent; and structural components, such as snags and coarse woody debris, that support prey species (Thomas et al. 1990, pp. 27-29 and Appendix J and Courtney et al. 2004, Chapter 5). The BLM, in cooperation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, developed the quantitative definitions of northern spotted owl habitats (i.e., the stand attributes that the BLM used to classify each stand as non-habitat, dispersal habitat or suitable habitat) shown in Table 88 of the Draft EIS (USDI BLM 2007, pp. 287-288). Habitat data for BLM-administered lands came from BLM operations inventory data and the BLM OPTIONS model3. Data for private, state and other federal lands came from 1996-vintage Interagency Vegetation Mapping Project (IVMP) data, which were updated using 2002 and 2004 data on clearcuts and stand-replacement fires. INTERAGENCY VEGETATION MAPPING PROJECT (IVMP) Existing vegetation mapping for the planning area was based on the Interagency Vegetation Mapping Project (IVMP), which provides maps of existing vegetation, canopy cover, size, and cover type for the entire range of the Northern Spotted Owl using satellite imagery from Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM). The LSOG Monitoring Report contains detailed descriptions of the IVMP data and evaluations of IVMP map accuracy (Moeur et al. 2005, pp. 18-30, 108-109, 123- 128). Those descriptions and evaluations are incorporated here by reference. The IVMP was initiated in 1998 under joint program management and funding by the Bureau of Land Management-Oregon and the Forest Service-Region 6. The project's goal was to provide consistent spatial data for monitoring older forests within the portions of the Plan area in Washington and Oregon. The IVMP mapped existing vegetation in the nine physiographic provinces in Washington (Eastern and Western Cascades, Olympic Peninsula, and Western Lowlands) and Oregon (Eastern and Western Cascades, Coast Range, Willamette Valley, and Klamath Mountains). The IVMP modeling approach combined remotely sensed satellite imagery (25-m Landsat TM), digital elevation models, interpreted aerial photos, and inventory information collected on the ground to classify existing vegetation. Landsat scenes used in the IVMP project ranged from fall 1992 through summer 1996. Of the 17 scenes, 2 were acquired in 1992, 1 each in 1994 and 1995, and 13 in 1996. A regression modeling approach was used to predict vegetation characteristics from this Landsat data. Inventory plot data were used as reference information for IVMP model building and accuracy assessment. Almost 10,000 plots were used for model building and testing, and another 2,800 plots were held out for an independent accuracy assessment. These data came primarily from Current Vegetation Survey (CVS) plots maintained by Forest Service-Region 6 and Bureau of Land Management-Oregon on Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management lands in Washington and Oregon, and from Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) plots administered by Pacific Northwest Research Station on nonfederal lands. The LSOG raster dataset is derived directly from the IVMP raster datasets. All IVMP map data and supporting documentation are available online at: http://www.or.blm.gov/gis/projects/ivmp.asp All LSOG map data and supporting documentation are available online at: http://www.reo.gov/monitoring/lsog-overview.shtml PLANT SERIES GROUPS Plant series data was obtained from the Ecoshare program through REO. The plant series data was intersected with the Forest Operations Inventory Units on a majority rules basis to classify each forest stand. The initial classification were assessed against 4th and 5th field hydrologic units and Organon variant to determine a final series grouping. NSO HABITAT SUITABILITY NSO habitat suitability was modeled using BioMapper (v3.1) software (Hirzel 2004). BioMapper is a recently developed software package that contains GIS and statistical tools designed to build habitat suitability models and maps using species-presence-only data. The model performs an ecological niche factor analysis that compares ecological conditions that correspond with species presence to conditions across the entire area being analyzed. The suitability statistic is based on the similarity of the biotic and abiotic characteristics of a habitat-capable map unit (pixel) to the characteristics of sites inhabited by territorial owls. Habitat suitability ranges from 0-100. A value close to zero signifies that an individual map unit has little in common with the conditions found where territorial owls are present, and those with values close to 100 have much in common with sites having territorial owl presence. For the WOPR analysis, areas with No Data values from this dataset (areas not capable of supporting suitable habitat) are classified as Non-Capable on non-BLM lands. Further information on this product can be found at: http://www.reo.gov/monitoring/northern-spotted-owl-overview.shtml OREGON FOREST LAND CHANGE MAP This raster dataset describes the location and rate of disturbance on forest land caused by timber harvesting and fire. The product was originally produced for western Oregon by the US Forest Service (USFS) and Oregon State University (OSU) utilizing Landsat imagery transformed into Tasseled Cap and other image derivatives and the Simultaneous Image Differencing method. Image segmentation was applied to the difference image for use in post-classification modeling. The same procedure was later used by Sanborn on behalf of the Oregon Department of Forestry to identify changes at years 2002 and 2004.
