Identified Winter Range for the Bighorn Sheep Habitat Suitability Assessment of the Greater Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area (excluding water criterion): A higher resolution analysis. April, 2002.
National Park Service, Intermountain GIS Program Office. 2002. Identified Winter Range for the Bighorn Sheep Habitat Suitability Assessment of the Greater Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area (excluding water criterion): A higher resolution analysis. April, 2002.. Michelle Gudorf
Public lands in and around Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area, Wyoming and Montana were evaluated to identify winter range habitat suitable to support a minimum viable population of bighorn sheep. Winter range is defined as only southern aspects of slopes 30-90 degrees (135-225 degree aspects) within suitable habitat and less than 25 cm snowpack. The winter range habitat was derived from an analysis of buffered escape terrain (buffered slopes 30-90 degrees), distance from human use areas, effects of natural and manmade barriers to routine movement, and quality of horizontal visibility. (NOTE that distance to perennial water sources- a criterion outlined in the model process- was NOT used in this analysis. Refer to bica_suitable_bighorn_habitat_ww for the analysis using this criterion.) This coverage should be used with additional datasets: 1) BICA_domestic_sheep.e00 which identifies domestic sheep grazing allotments and land areas of concern if located in too close proximity to domestic sheep; 2) BICA_lambing_area.e00 which identifies suitable bighorn sheep lambing habitat; 3) BICA_suitable_bighorn_habitat_nw, which identifies suitable bighorn habitat, and 4) BICA_suitable_bighorn_summer_habitat_nw, which identifies suitable bighorn summer range. This is the second of two analyses. The first analysis was conducted in 1995 and the results are found in the 1999 report issued by NPS and USGS (Singer and Gudorf). This second analysis uses current and improved vegetation data for determining horizontal visibility. This will assist management in determining where to manage vegetation to improve potential bighorn habitat. NOTE: this metadata set was developed in the NBII biological profile, and if imported into ESRI ArcCatalog, the biological profile information will be lost. Maintain along with this dataset, a copy of the metadata (.html or .txt) files found posted on the clearinghouse.
- Type
- Geospatial Dataset
- Authors
- National Park Service, Intermountain GIS Program Office
- Date of Issue
- 2002-04-30
- Publisher
- Michelle Gudorf
- Units
- BICA
- Keywords
- Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area, Bighorn Sheep, habitat evaluation procedure, habitat suitability analysis, lambing habitat, Montana, Mountain Sheep, National Park Service, North America, NPS, Ovis canadensis, potential habitat, Restoration, suitable habitat, summer habitat, United States, United States Geologic Survey, USA, USGS, Wildlife, winter habitat, Wyoming