North Cascades and Pacific Ranges Ecoregional Assessment Volume 1 – Report
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VOLUME North Cascades and Pacific Ranges 1 Ecoregional Assessment repORT November 2006 North Cascades and Pacific Ranges Ecoregional Assessment Volume 1 – Report Citation: Iachetti, P., J. Floberg, G. Wilhere, K. Ciruna, D. Markovic, J. Lewis, M. Heiner, G. Kittel, R. Crawford, S. Farone, S. Ford, M. Goering, D. Nicolson, S. Tyler, and P. Skidmore. 2006. North Cascades and Pacific Ranges Ecoregional Assessment, Volume 1 - Report. Prepared by the Nature Conservancy of Canada, The Nature Conservancy of Washington, and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife with support from the British Columbia Conservation Data Centre, Washington Department of Natural Resources Natural Heritage Program, and NatureServe. Nature Conservancy of Canada, Victoria, BC. Copyright © 2006 Nature Conservancy of Canada Issued by: Nature Conservancy of Canada #300 – 1205 Broad Street Victoria, British Columbia, Canada V8W 2A4 Email: [email protected] Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data: Cover Design: ISBN 1-897386-05-2 Paul Mazzucca 1. Biological inventory and assessment – North Cascades Vancouver, British Columbia and Pacific Ranges I. Nature Conservancy of Canada. Cover Photo Credits: II. North Cascades and Pacific Ranges Ecoregional Mount Baker, WA; Cheakamus River, BC; Black Assessment, Volume 1 – Report. Includes bibliographical bears, Whistler, BC; Whistler, BC (Dušan Markovic); references. Chatterbox Falls, BC (Tim Ennis). NORTH CASCADES AND PACIFIC RANGES ECOREGIONAL ASSESSMENT VOLUME 1 REPORT North Cascades and Pacific Ranges Ecoregional Assessment November 2006 Prepared by Nature Conservancy of Canada The Nature Conservancy And The W ashington Department of Fish and W ildlife NORTH CASCADES AND PACIFIC RANGESECOREGIONAL ASSESSMENT Ɣ VOLUME 1 Ɣ REPORT Acknowledgements The North Cascades and Pacific Ranges Ecoregional Assessment could not have been undertaken without the generous support of several funding partners. Thank you to The W . Garfield W eston Foundation and the Nature Conservancy of Canada’s British Columbia Region and National Offices, The Nature Conservancy’s W ashington Chapter, and the W ashington Department of Fish and W ildlife (W DFW ). Funding was provided to W DFW through a state wildlife grant from the United States Fish and W ildlife Service. The assessment benefited greatly from the involvement of several people in government and non-governmental agencies. Thank you to Huilin W ang (W DFW ) who did most of the data management and GIS work for the irreplaceability analysis. Thank you to Brad Thompson (W DFW ) for re-analyzing the salmon EDT outputs and for providing advice on how to use this information. Thank you to Gurdeep Singh (BC M inistry of Agriculture and Lands) for his assistance and for providing the Sea-to-Sky Land and Resource M anagement Plan GIS data. Thank you to M arta Donovan (BC Conservation Data Centre) for all of her help with acquiring and interpreting fine-filter data for the BC portion of the ecoregion. Thanks go to Clayton Apps (Aspen W ildlife Research) and Tony Hamilton (BC M inistry of Environment) for providing advice and access to their report and data on grizzly bear habitat effectiveness and connectivity in southwestern British Columbia. Thank you to Jan Henderson and Robin Lesher (M t. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest) for their help defining ecological systems. Thank you to Dave Leversee, Sierra Club of Canada, BC Chapter for providing the forest cover mapping that enabled us to map old growth forest attributes in the terrestrial systems analysis. Thank you to Randall Lewis (Squamish Nation, Environment, Lands and Resources) for his involvement and advice in the process and to the Squamish Nation for welcoming us into their traditional territory for initial meetings and our experts’ workshop. W e are indebted to the many experts who participated in a wide variety of ways throughout the process to bring the North Cascades and Pacific Ranges Ecoregional Assessment to completion. W e have listed the many people who helped us in Appendices 2 and 3. NORTH CASCADES AND PACIFIC RANGESECOREGIONAL ASSESSMENT Ɣ VOLUME 1 Ɣ REPORT North Cascades and Pacific Ranges Ecoregional Assessment Core Team Florence Caplow Terrestrial Fine-filter Plants technical team (WNHP) Kristy Ciruna Freshwater Coarse-filter technical team lead (NCC) Rex Crawford Terrestrial Coarse-filter technical team (WNHP) John Floberg WA technical lead (TNC) Shane Ford Terrestrial Fine-filter Plants technical team lead (BC CDC) Mike Heiner Terrestrial Coarse-filter technical team (TNC) Pierre Iachetti Project Lead (NCC) Gwen Kittel Terrestrial Coarse-filter technical team lead (NatureServe) Jeff Lewis Terrestrial Fine-filter Animals technical team lead (WDFW) Dušan Markovic GIS/Data Management technical team lead (NCC) Dave Nicolson Suitability Index technical team lead (NCC) Sairah Tyler Freshwater Fine-filter Animals technical team lead (NCC) George Wilhere WDFW representative (WDFW) North Cascades and Pacific Ranges Ecoregional Assessment Advisors Kara Brodribb Manager, Conservation Planning, NCC National Office, Ontario Leslie Brown Communications, TNC, Washington Maggie Coon Director of External Affairs, TNC, Washington Steve Farone Northwest Ecoregional Applications Manager, TNC, Washington Jan Garnett Regional Vice-President, NCC, British Columbia Mark Goering GIS Coordinator, TNC, Washington Elizabeth Gray Director of Conservation Science, TNC, Washington John Riley Chief Science Officer, National Director Conservation Strategies, NCC National Office, Ontario Elizabeth Rodrick Land Conservation Section Manager, WDFW Peter Skidmore Aquatic Ecologist, TNC, Washington Tom Swann Associate Regional Vice-President, NCC, British Columbia David Weekes Washington State Director, TNC, Washington Andy Weiss Senior Technologist, TNC, Washington NORTH CASCADES AND PACIFIC RANGES ECOREGIONAL ASSESSMENT Ɣ VOLUME 1 Ɣ REPORT Table of Contents EXECUTIVE SUMMARY.......................................................................................................VIII CHAPTER 1 – INTRODUCTION...............................................................................................1 1.1 Ecoregion Overview .............................................................................................2 1.1.1 Biogeographical setting............................................................................3 1.1.2 Socioeconomic Environment.....................................................................5 1.1.3 Land Ownership and Management............................................................9 1.2 Biodiversity Highlights of the North Cascades Ecoregion .................................... 10 1.3 Ecoregion Boundary ........................................................................................... 12 1.3.1 Terrestrial Ecosections.......................................................................... 14 1.3.2 Freshwater Ecological Drainage Units................................................... 14 1.3.3 AssessmentUnits.................................................................................... 15 CHAPTER 2 –ASSESSMENT PROCESS...............................................................................16 2.1 Identify Conservation Targets............................................................................. 16 2.2 Assemble Information on the Locations of Targets .............................................. 16 2.3 Set Goals for Each Target................................................................................... 17 2.4 Rate Conservation Suitability of Different Portions of the Ecoregion .......................................................................................................... 18 2.5 Assemble Terrestrial and Freshwater Portfolios................................................... 18 2.6 Refine and Overlay the Portfolios ....................................................................... 19 2.7 Expert Review ................................................................................................... 19 2.8 Prioritization of Portfolios.................................................................................. 19 CHAPTER 3 – TARGETS ......................................................................................................20 3.1 Terrestrial Targets.............................................................................................. 20 3.1.1 Coarse-filter Targets.............................................................................. 20 3.1.1.1 TerrestrialEcological Systems................................................ 20 3.1.1.2 Rare Plant Association Targets................................................ 22 3.1.1.3 Ecological Systems and Other Coarse- filter Criteria.......................................................................... 23 3.1.1.4 Target Representation............................................................. 23 3.1.1.5 Riparian Ecological Systems.................................................... 25 3.1.1.6 Stratifying Matrix-forming Systems (Ecological Land Units).......................................................... 25 NORTH CASCADES AND PACIFIC RANGES ECOREGIONAL ASSESSMENT Ɣ VOLUME 1 Ɣ REPORT PAGE i 3.1.1.7 Old-growth Forest................................................................... 25 3.1.1.8 Minimum Dynamic Area (MDA) ............................................... 25 3.1.1.9 Setting Goals .......................................................................... 26 3.1.1.10