Vector datasets of CWHR range maps are one component of California Wildlife Habitat Relationships (CWHR), a comprehensive
information system and predictive model for California's wildlife. The CWHR System was developed to support habitat conservation
and management, land use planning, impact assessment, education, and research involving terrestrial vertebrates in California.
CWHR contains information on life history, management status, geographic distribution, and habitat relationships for wildlife
species known to occur regularly in California. Range maps represent the maximum, current geographic extent of each species
within California. They were originally delineated at a scale of 1:5,000,000 by species-level experts and have gradually been
revised at a scale of 1:1,000,000. For more information about CWHR, visit the CWHR webpage (https://www.wildlife.ca.gov/Data/CWHR).
The webpage provides links to download CWHR data and user documents such as a look up table of available range maps including
species code, species name, and range map revision history; a full set of CWHR GIS data; .pdf files of each range map or species
life history accounts; and a User Guide.
Citation
Title Savannah Sparrow Range - CWHR B499 [ds1655]
publication Date
2016-02-01
presentationForm
mapDigital
other Citation Details
These are the same layers as appear in the CWHR System software. Citation for the CWHR System is as follows: California Department
of Fish and Wildlife California Interagency Wildlife Task Group. [DATE downloaded]. CWHR version [insert version number X.X]
personal computer program. Sacramento, CA.
cited responsible party
-
originator
organisation Name
California Department of Fish and Wildlife
Range maps of California's regularly-occurring vertebrates were digitized as GIS layers to support the predictions of the
CWHR System software, which allows users to query for wildlife species meeting a set of location and habitat conditions. Presently,
they are used to help generate a tabular location database for the system software. Outside the system software, the GIS layers
are used to support species richness assessments for statewide conservation planning.
Resource language:
eng; USA
Resource progress code:
completed
Resource Maintenance Information
maintenance or update frequency:
asNeeded
Constraints on resource usage:
Constraints
Use limitation statement:
Constraints on resource usage:
Legal Constraints
use constraint:
otherRestrictions
Other constraints
Use Constraints: None.
Constraints on resource usage:
Legal Constraints
Access Constraints
otherRestrictions
Other constraints
Access Constraints: None
Spatial representation type code:
vector
Processing environment:
Native Dataset Environment: Microsoft Windows 7 Version 6.1 (Build 7601) Service Pack 1; Esri ArcGIS 10.4.0.5524
Resource extent
Geographic Extent
Geographic Bounding Box
westBoundLongitude
-124.506123
eastBoundLongitude
-113.497863
northBoundLatitude
42.068568
southBoundLatitude
32.423674
Temporal Extent
2016-02-01
Additional information on resource:
The following information describes, and should always accompany, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife's California
Wildlife Habitat Relationship System (CWHR) species distribution data. The data is organized into folders according to major
taxonomic groups in CWHR. Each species is represented by a single shapefile and is named according to its 4 digit alpha-numeric
CWHR ID code. The file lookup.xls contains a record for each species including its CWHR ID, scientific name, common name,
and range map revision history (available for download at https://www.wildlife.ca.gov/Data/CWHR). Each layer contains the
following attributes: a SHAPE_NAME or CWHR ID code, species scientific and common name, and a season code. Season codes include
S for summer-only, W for winter-only, and Y for yearlong. A few species have a migration-only stopover location mapped and
represented with an M. The CWHR System software contains species predictions for migration-only locations, yet most of these
are not mapped. The CWHR species range maps are continually being reviewed and updated as new animal occurrence data becomes
available, especially in digital format. While the original maps were digitized from 1:5,000,000 scale depictions of range,
a major revision effort started in 1995 to have maps reviewed and delineated by species-level experts at a scale of 1:1,000,000.
Maps dated later than 1995 are therefore much more detailed and precise in their representation of a species' range. Increasingly,
species-level experts and CWHR staff have made every effort, where justified by the distribution of known species observations
or known habitat associations, to represent a species' range with standard polygons of major geographic features in California
such as mountain ranges, valleys, buffered river corridors, and ecological subsections of California. The smallest units of
the "Ecological subregions of California: section and subsection descriptions" (Miles and Goudy, 1997. USDA Forest Service
Report No. R5-EM-TP-005) capture areas with very similar soils, vegetation, precipitation, geology, climate, and geography.
In cases where a population of a species is known to be isolated, its point location is buffered to a minimum radius of 2
miles. CWHR range data can be used together with vegetation maps and CWHR habitat suitability ranks to create habitat suitability
maps for species using the CWHR BioVIEW program. Habitat suitability scores and the BioView program are available through
the CWHR software, which is available for free download at https://www.wildlife.ca.gov/Data/CWHR. Note that habitat suitability
ranks were developed based on habitat patch sizes >40 acres in size, and are best interpreted for habitat patches >200 acres
in size. For further information, see the CWHR User's Guide and FAQ at https://www.wildlife.ca.gov/Data/CWHR.
point of contact
-
pointOfContact
individual Name Melanie Gogol-Prokurat
organisation Name
California Department of Fish and Wildlife
position Name Conservation Analysis Unit Coordinator
notes: This metadata was automatically generated from the FGDC Content Standard for Digital Geospatial Metadata standard (version
FGDC-STD-001-1998) using the 2012-06-20T17:21:00 version of the FGDC RSE to ISO 19115-2 transform.
Metadata contact
-
pointOfContact
individual Name CWHR Program, Biogeographic Data Branch
organisation Name
California Department of Fish and Wildlife