White-tailed Jackrabbit Habitat Concentration Areas, Washington Columbia Plateau

Apr 3, 2023 (Last modified Jun 29, 2023)
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Description:

White-tailed jackrabbit (Lepus townsendii) is a candidate species in Washington. Once abundant and broadly distributed across the bunchgrass communities of eastern Washington, the white-tailed jackrabbit is now rare and sparsely distributed due to the loss, degradation, and fragmentation of habitat and possibly disease and competition with black-tailed jackrabbits.


Habitat concentration areas (HCAs) are defined as significant habitat areas that are expected or known to be important for focal species based on survey data or habitat association modeling(WHCWG 2012). HCAs provide locations from which to model linkages.

 
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    Data Provided By:
    Washington Wildlife Habitat Connectivity Working Group (WHCWG)
    Content date:
    not specified
    Citation:
    White-tailed jackrabbit, Lepus townsendii (LETO)
    Contact Organization:
    Spatial Data Management Unit, Wildlife Program, Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife
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    Use Constraints:
    DATA BACKGROUND: The Washington Wildlife Habitat Connectivity Working Group (WHCWG) produced these data which represent a regional analysis that portrays conditions at a regional scale. Applying these data at finer, more local scales is likely to increase uncertainty in terms of accuracy and applicability for local land use decisions. However, for the scale at which they were developed, these products are state-of-the-art, peer-reviewed representations of landscape variables and connected habitat networks. The WHCWG expended great effort to compile the best GIS data within constraints imposed by data development costs, available compilation sources, and available staff resources. Inherent in any dataset used to develop graphical representations, are limitations of accuracy as determined by, among others, the source, scale and resolution of the data. The products and data from this analysis convey a wealth of information relevant to conservation of Washington's wildlife and though they represent the state of the art, they rely on imperfect data, knowledge, and assumptions. We strongly suggest that readers thoroughly understand our methods and the limitations of those methods prior to applying our results. The data user should note Chapter 2 and appendices in the WHCWG Columbia Plateau report. See metadata Credits for the report. SOURCE DATA YEAR: The GIS base layers input to linkage modeling were developed from a wide variety of sources compiled over the years generally from 1999 to 2010. We would like to specify a GIS base layer compilation year for users of the connectivity data; however, the wide range of base layer compilation dates complicates such a specification. For example, land cover / land use, a major base layer, was mapped from Landsat imagery acquired from 1999 to 2003. This layer was subsequently modified by the WHCWG Columbia Plateau Ecoregion project using land cover / land use sources as recent as 2010. Likewise, transportation data were primarily obtained from the 2010 Census TIGER roads and housing density data were generated from the 2000 Census dataset. The data user should be aware that some areas experiencing rapid change over the last decade may not be captured in the modeling effort. APPROPRIATE SCALE OF USE: The raw GIS data obtained by the WHCWG Columbia Plateau project were compiled from a wide range of compilation source scales. The GIS data were post-processed at a 30 m x 30 m cell size (except housing density which had a native cell size of 100 m x 100 m). These data were compiled to 90 m x 90 m cell size prior to connectivity modeling. Given the wide ranging source scales and post-processing we do not recommend application of linkage data at scales larger than 1:100,000.
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    Tags:
    pacific northwest, idaho, usa, habitat concentration area, focal species, columbia plateau ecoregion, wildlife habitat connectivity, washington, oregon
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