Marbled Murrelet Habitat - Northern Region [ds443]

The purpose of this dataset is to enable DFG scientists to easily screen Timber Harvest Plans (THPs) and other CEQA projects for potentially suitable and known occupied marbled murrelet habitat. The data may also be useful for other purposes.

The Marbled Murrelet Habitat data layer was created by the California Department of Fish and Game to represent occupied and potentially suitable marbled murrelet habitat on the north coast of California (Humboldt, Del Norte, and Mendocino counties). This dataset was compiled from several sources, including public agencies, private timberland data, and publicly available vegetation data. The dataset includes known or assumed occupied habitat, and potentially suitable habitat. Habitat polygons labeled "Occupied" in "MAMU_stat" field have had "occupancy"-type detections during surveys for marbled murrelets in the past. Polygons for which the occupancy status is unknown (labeled "unknown" in "MAMU_stat" field) are considered potentially suitable habitat. Potentially suitable habitat may be both suitable and occupied by nesting marbled murrelets, or may lack some of the features required for marbled murrelet nesting, or, if suitable, may not actually be occupied by nesting marbled murrelets. The data layer was originally meant to cover only Humboldt and Del Norte Counties, and an exhaustive search for Mendocino County data was not done; however, some Mendocino County data are represented. Lack of data in any particular location does not mean that no habitat exists in that location. This dataset should not be used as a definitive source; further investigation of other data sources and ground-checking is advised. Updates to this data layer are welcome; please contact Scott Osborn (sosborn@dfg.ca.gov) or Linda Miller (lmiller@dfg.ca.gov) if you would like to provide information on other known occupied or suitable marbled murrelet nesting habitat in Humboldt, Del Norte, or Mendocino counties.

Scott Osborn, Staff Environmental Scientist, Coastal Timberland Planning, DFG and Linda Miller, Research Analyst II (GIS), Environmental Resource Information Services, DFG

Users should realize that data for this layer were compiled from different sources (see Data Quality section; Process Steps). Data for Mendocino County were obtained late in the process, and may not be as complete as data for Humboldt and Del Norte Counties.