Definition: The Western Governor’s Wildlife Council defines “crucial habitat” as places containing the resources (including food, water, cover, shelter and important wildlife corridors) that are necessary for the survival and reproduction of aquatic and terrestrial wildlife and to prevent unacceptable declines, or facilitate future recovery of, wildlife populations; or are important ecological systems with high biological diversity value. The Compiled Crucial Habitat layer can be used to determine areas containing high priority crucial habitat results throughout this analysis. This layer is a result of aggregating all crucial habitat input layers, and can provide an initial overview of whether an area contains crucial habitat or important natural resources for fish and wildlife.
Aggregation method: The Compiled Crucial Habitat layer displays the results of aggregating the Terrestrial Crucial Habitat and Aquatic Crucial Habitat layers. Compiled Crucial Habitat results will indicate the highest priority (or most crucial) result of the two crucial habitat aggregation layers. Any “No Data/Null” areas within the Aquatic Crucial Habitat layer are assessed the results from the Terrestrial Crucial Habitat data input layer.
Priority Rank Definitions
Priority 1: Either the Terrestrial Crucial Habitat or Aquatic Crucial Habitat was found to have a priority rank of 1, which indicates the most crucial habitat results within this analysis. Please see the Terrestrial Crucial Habitat or Aquatic Crucial Habitat documentation for additional details.
Priority 2: The most crucial priority rank of either the Terrestrial Crucial Habitat or Aquatic Crucial Habitat layers is 2, and neither crucial habitat input layer contained a priority level of 1. This is the second most crucial priority rank within this analysis. Please see the Terrestrial Crucial Habitat or Aquatic Crucial Habitat documentation for additional details.
Priority 3: The most crucial priority rank of either the Terrestrial Crucial Habitat or Aquatic Crucial Habitat layers is 3, and neither crucial habitat input layer contained a priority rank of 1 or 2. This is the third highest priority level within this analysis. Please see the Terrestrial Crucial Habitat or Aquatic Crucial Habitat documentation for additional details.
Priority 4: The most crucial priority rank of either the Terrestrial Crucial Habitat or Aquatic Crucial Habitat layers is 4, and neither crucial habitat input layer contained a priority rank of 1 through 3. This is the third least crucial priority rank within this analysis. Please see the Terrestrial Crucial Habitat or Aquatic Crucial Habitat documentation for additional details.
Priority 5: The most crucial priority rank of either the Terrestrial Crucial Habitat or Aquatic Crucial Habitat layers is 5, and neither crucial habitat input layer contained a priority rank of 1 through 4. This is the second least crucial rank within this analysis. Please see the Terrestrial Crucial Habitat or Aquatic Crucial Habitat documentation for additional details.
Priority 6: Both the Terrestrial Crucial Habitat Aquatic Crucial Habitat were found to have a priority rank of 6, or no data available. This is the least crucial habitat rank within this analysis. See the Terrestrial Crucial Habitat or Aquatic Crucial Habitat documentation for additional details.
Input Layer Definitions
Terrestrial Crucial Habitat Rank: Prioritization of the documented areas containing important natural resources for the survival and reproduction of terrestrial wildlife species.
Aquatic Crucial Habitat Rank: Prioritization of the documented areas containing important natural resources for the survival and reproduction of aquatic fish species.
Data Sources: See crucial habitat input layers for additional details. |
