- Metric Name:  Northern Goshawk

- Data Vintage:  2021

- Unit Of Measure: Binary, 0 = not suitable, 1 = suitable

The Northern goshawk is a species of special concern to the US Forest Service, but it is not federally, or state listed at the present time and has therefore been identified as a focal species by Region 5 of the US Forest Service. The Northern goshawk is an old forest associate with particular habitat requirements in terms of nest trees, nest stands, and the structure of foraging habitat having open understory conditions to enable foraging maneuvers.- 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.

Suitable habitat for the Northern goshawk is based on CWHR moderate and high suitability habitat for nesting and foraging. CWHR suitability values were used to create a data layer that separately identifies suitable nesting and suitable foraging habitat. Locations that are suitable for both are identified as suitable for nesting (assuming that nesting habitat is more limited). Habitat which meets the following criteria is considered suitable:

--	Suitable foraging vegetation types: WHRTYPE = MHW, LPN, MRI, SCN, DFR, MHC, JPN, SMC, EPN, KMC, ADS, PPN, RFR, WFR

--	Suitable foraging habitat: size/density classes = 4P, 4S, 4M, 4D, 5P, 5S, 5M, 5D, 6 

--	Suitable nesting vegetation types: WHRTYPE = MHW, LPN, MRI, SCN, MHC, JPN, SMC, KMC, PPN, RFR, WFR

--	Suitable nesting habitat: size/density classes = 4M, 4D, 5P, 5S, 5M, 5D, 6 

An additional data layer to identify locations that meet the criteria for a goshawk protected activity center (PAC; 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