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Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife biologists have developed a suite of habitat assessment tools. One of these ranks relative habitat value across a whole county or watershed. The Local Habitat Assessment (LHA) methodology produces a color-coded map that is easy to interpret and use to inform local land use planning initiatives at a variety of scales. The ranking is based on knowledge of animal locations and indicators of habitat quality and impact, such as the condition of vegetative cover, road density, and the presence of development. For planning subareas or smaller watersheds, measuring up to several tens of square miles, the LHA focuses on the habitat needs of representative species, allowing finer definition of those parts of the landscape better suited for development and those better suited for continued emphasis on habitat. See the Lewis County page for an example of a Subarea LHA.
Habitat Program personnel have collaborated with several counties to produce LHA maps for whole counties, watersheds, or smaller sub-areas. To see the work for a specific county, click on the links in the panel to the left. All maps show highest value habitat in dark green, grading to dark purple as the lowest value habitat. Priority Habitats and Species areas, shown in orange, also have the highest value.
Related Information links:
Fact Sheet
Discussion Paper
For more details about the tools, or interest in production of an LHA, please contact:
John Jacobson,
Spatial Data Specialist
Habitat Program
Email: john.jacobson@dfw.wa.gov
(360) 902-2479
(360) 902-2946 FAX
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