Pacific Northwest Coast Ecoregional Assessment Prepared by The Nature Conservancy Nature Conservancy of Canada and Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife August 2006 Recommended Citation: Vander Schaaf, D., G. Wilhere, Z. Ferdaña, K. Popper, M. Schindel, P. Skidmore, D. Rolph, P. Iachetti, G. Kittel, R. Crawford, D. Pickering, and J. Christy. 2006. Pacific Northwest Coast Ecoregion Assessment. Prepared by The Nature Conservancy, the Nature Conservancy of Canada, and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. The Nature Conservancy, Portland, Oregon. For questions regarding the conservation assessment contact the lead author at: The Nature Conservancy, 821 SE 14th Avenue, Portland, OR 97214, (503) 802-8100. Photo: Barkley Sound, Vancouver Island. Acknowledgements The authors wish to acknowledge the interest and participation of many individuals, organizations and agencies in the development of the Pacific Northwest Coast Ecoregional Conservation Assessment. This very long endeavor has had sustained support from our own organizations and substantial help from NatureServe, the Oregon Natural Heritage Information Center, the Washington Natural Heritage Program, and the British Columbia Conservation Data Centre who allowed a number of employees to make significant contributions. These people include: Claire Bronson (TNC) – CD production; Mary Finnerty (TNC) – cartography; Steve Farone (TNC) – goal and site summaries; Tracy Horsman (TNC) – aquatics; Jeff Lewis (WDFW) – wildlife; Rachel Neugarten (TNC), Melissa Roy-Hart (TNC), Karen Mallin and Susan Healy – report production; Elizabeth Roderick, John Pierce and Timothy Quinn (WDFW) – technical guidance; Huilin Wang (WDFW) – GIS. The project has also benefited from the participation of many other scientists and conservation experts as team members and expert reviewers of portions of this project. These people are listed within the appropriate chapters of this document and we want to acknowledge their willingness to answer our questions and freely give their time when it was requested. Several agencies provided substantial support to the marine conservation aspect of this project including the Washington Department of Natural Resources, Nearshore Habitat Program; the Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife, Nearshore Marine Program; and the British Columbia Ministry of Sustainable Resource Management. The Nature Conservancy received direct support from a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Coastal Services Center grant for the development of several key portions of the marine conservation plan. The Nature Conservancy of Canada received funding support from their National Office Challenge Fund, the Weston Foundation and the Donner Canada Foundation. And lastly, a State Wildlife Grant from US Fish & Wildlife Service supported WDFW staff in this project. TABLE OF CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY .........................................................................................................IX PREFACE..............................................................................................................................XII CHAPTER 1 – INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................. 1 1.1 Introduction ...............................................................................................................1 1.1.1 Conservation Assessment for the Pacific Northwest Coast Ecoregion ...................................................................................................1 1.1.2 Previous Conservation Plans in the Ecoregion..............................................2 1.2 Ecoregion Overview ...................................................................................................3 1.2.1 Geographic Setting ......................................................................................3 1.2.2 Ecoregional Sections ...................................................................................5 1.2.3 Section Descriptions ....................................................................................5 1.2.4 Marine Ecosection Description ..................................................................12 1.3 Assessment Team and Assessment Process ................................................................13 1.3.1 Ecoregional Assessment Team....................................................................13 1.3.2 Ecoregional Assessment Process ................................................................14 1.3.3 Integrating Terrestrial, Freshwater, and Marine Analyses ..........................16 1.4 Strengths and Limitations of This Assessment ...........................................................17 CHAPTER 2 – TERRESTRIAL CONSERVATION TARGETS................................................. 19 2.1 Plant Community and Ecological System Targets.......................................................19 2.1.1 Technical Team .........................................................................................19 2.1.2 Selecting Coarse-Filter Targets .................................................................19 2.1.3 Selecting Rare Plant Community Targets....................................................23 2.1.4 Plant Association and Ecological Systems Data Representation ..........................................................................................23 2.1.5 Target Representation................................................................................25 2.1.6 Data Gaps .................................................................................................25 2.1.7 Setting Goals.............................................................................................26 2.1.8 Expert Review............................................................................................29 2.2 Plant Species Fine Filter Targets...............................................................................29 2.2.1 Technical Team .........................................................................................29 2.2.2 Selecting Fine Filter Target Species...........................................................29 2.2.3 Assembling and Organizing Data ...............................................................30 PNW Coast Ecoregional Assessment • page i 2.2.4 Target Representation................................................................................30 2.2.5 Data Gaps .................................................................................................31 2.2.6 Setting Goals.............................................................................................31 2.2.7 Expert Review............................................................................................32 2.3 Animal Species Fine Filter Targets............................................................................32 2.3.1 Technical Team .........................................................................................32 2.3.2 Selecting Target Species ............................................................................32 2.3.3 Assembling and Organizing Data ...............................................................34 2.3.4 Target Representation................................................................................35 2.3.5 Data Gaps .................................................................................................35 2.3.6 Setting Goals.............................................................................................36 2.3.7 Expert Review............................................................................................36 CHAPTER 3 – FRESHWATER CONSERVATION TARGETS................................................. 38 3.1 Technical Team........................................................................................................38 3.2 Selecting Conservation Targets and Collecting Target Data .......................................38 3.2.1 Defining Ecological Drainage Units...........................................................38 3.2.2 Selecting Conservation Targets ..................................................................40 3.2.3 Coarse Filter Targets − Freshwater Systems ..............................................40 3.2.4 Fine Filter Targets ....................................................................................44 3.2.5 Expert Review............................................................................................45 3.3 Data Gaps ................................................................................................................46 3.4 Setting Goals............................................................................................................46 3.4.1 Goals for Freshwater Coarse Filter Targets ...............................................46 3.4.2 Goals for Freshwater Species Targets ........................................................47 CHAPTER 4 – NEARSHORE MARINE CONSERVATION TARGETS..................................... 48 4.1 Marine Biodiversity Assessment ...............................................................................48 4.2 Technical Teams ......................................................................................................48 4.3 Selecting and Representing Nearshore Marine Targets ...............................................49 4.3.1 Coarse Filter Targets ................................................................................49 4.3.2 Fine