Look for complete geospatial metadata in this layer's associated xml document available from the download link * Metric Name: California Spotted Owl Territory Suitability * Tier: 2 * Data Vintage: 2021 * Unit Of Measure: A range of values that indicates suitability; from -1 meaning not suitable at all, to +1 meaning most suitable. * Metric Definition and Relevance: California spotted owl is continuously distributed on the western slope of the Sierra and inhabits elevations ranging from roughly 1,000 to over 7,000 feet.t is a Region 5 Forest Service “Sensitive Species” and a “Management Indicator Species” (representing late seral closed canopy coniferous forest). In February of 2023 the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued a proposal to list two distinct population segments (DPSs) of the California spotted owl ( _Strix occidentalis occidentalis_ ) under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended (Act). That proposal is still pending. A conservation assessment for California spotted owl was conducted by Region 5 of the U.S. Forest Service in 2017 (Gutiérrez, Manley, and Stine 2017). This was followed by the development of a conservation strategy to guide habitat management on National Forest System Lands (USDA Forest Service 2019). The conservation strategy for the California spotted owl in the Sierra Nevada aims to balance the need to conserve essential habitat elements around sites occupied by California spotted owls, while simultaneously restoring resilient forest conditions at the landscape scale (USDA Forest Service 2019). The USDA Forest Service designates a 300-acre protected activity center (PAC) around each known nesting (reproduction) area or activity center. PACs are a USFS land allocation designed to identify, protect, and maintain high-quality California spotted owl nesting and roosting habitat around active sites. Territorial owls typically defend a geographic area consistently used for nesting, roosting, and foraging, containing essential habitat for survival and reproduction. The USDA Forest Service calls for an area of 1,000 acres in the central Sierra Nevada around core use areas, including the associated protected activity center, with a minimum of 400 acres of suitable habitat. This metric captures the suitability, on a pixel by pixel basis, of a given location to support the needs of a suitable territory for California spotted owls within the 1,000 acres around each pixel. * Creation Method: CWHR classifications are based on a combination of the F3 model for canopy cover, F3 size class and vegetation data. The vegetation data integrated the F3 forest type class with the National Land Cover Database (NLCD) and CALVEG type to include a variety of tree, shrub, grassland, and water dominated habitats. Species are considered present, and habitats considered suitable for each 30m cell for which the canopy cover-size-vegetation combination have been deemed suitable for the reproduction of that species in the California Wildlife Habitat Relationship database. Habitat which meets the following criteria is considered suitable: * Suitable vegetation types: WHRTYPE = PPN, SMC, RFR, DFR, MHC, MHW, SMC, WFR, RDW, KMC MRI and BOP * Suitable foraging habitat: size/density classes = 4M, 4D * Suitable nesting habitat: size/density classes = 5M, 5D, 6 CWHR high suitability values have been used to create separate data layers which identify suitable nesting and suitable foraging habitat. These data have been combined to create the identified “suitable habitat” layers. The California spotted owl territory suitability metric (“territory”) evaluates the 1000 ac around each 30m pixel to determine if it meets minimum habitat requirements to support a territory. The nesting habitat requirement is 300 ac within a 1000-ac circular area, and is represented by CWHR habitat types 4M, 4D, 5M, 5D, and 6. Foraging habitat requirement was an additional 300 ac (600 total) within the 1000-ac circular area and was represented by CWHR habitat types 3M and 3D, as well as the nesting habitat types. An additional data layer to identify locations that meet the criteria for a protected activity center (PAC), which is 300 acres of suitable nesting habitat in a contiguous block has been provided with the operational data layers – see PAC layer. 2019 to 2021 Update: Adjustments for 2021 canopy cover and size class were made and then integrated to represent CWHR habitat attributes – see CWHR section below for adjustment details. * Credits: * Forest type designation (FORTYPE) from Forest Vegetation Simulator (FVS) F3; 2021 * National Land Cover Database (NLCD); 2019 * Existing Vegetation (CALVEG), Region 5, MARS Team; 2016 * California Department of Fish and Wildlife CWHR version 9.0 (CDFW); 2014