The following is the current HCP habitat classification coverage provided by the DNR. Erik Holman was the man who did this work at DNR. The map represents the three different habitat classifications that exist within the upper Washougal watershed.

This map was useful for it allowed initial inventories to be set based on habitat classification. It also aided the comparison of percent area to percent volume according to different habitat types.

The following is a detailed description of the Hydrology (HYDRO) coverage provided by the DNR (April 1997). The hydrography layer represents an integrated network coverage (polygons and lines) that holds data on water bodies (open waters, lakes, etc.) and watercourses (rivers, streams, canals, etc.). Forested state, private, and some federal and tribal lands are included in this layer. Adjunct information, in the form of "statewide coverages," also exist such as Water Resource Inventory Areas (WRIA) and USGS Hydrologic Units (USHUB).

This coverage was useful because we were able to use the streams on our field maps for orientation purposes. We were then able to use the streams for creating the riparian buffers, under the HCP guidelines, for our harvest plan. Furthermore, these riparian buffers were used in the SNAP and LMS programs. In these programs, the riparian areas were subtracted from the areas of harvest. They were also assumed to be all habitat and counted towards our required 50% dispersal habitat.

The following is a detailed description of the POCAL coverage provided by the DNR (April 1997). The POCAL data layer combines the spatial delineation and attributes from the POCA layer (Public land survey, upland Ownership managed by DNR, County boundaries, and DNR Administrative boundaries) with DNR resource management activities and land use/cover data. The POCAL layer generally retains POCA data for lands managed by DNR, i.e. the same coverage as LULC. The land use/cover and management activity data themes are documented separately as LULC and ACTIVITY data sets. POCAL attribute data are stored in polygon attribute tables (.pat) and INFO expansion files.

This coverage was useful because we were able to use the POCAL coverage to set up boundaries, section lines, and stand boundaries.

The following is a detailed description of the SOILS coverage provided by the DNR (February 1995). Information for the SOILS data layer was derived from the Private Forest Land Grading system (PFLG) and subsequent soil surveys. PFLG was a five year mapping program completed in 1980 for the purpose of forest land taxation. It was funded by the Washington State Department of Revenue in cooperation with the Department of Natural Resources, Soil Conservation Service (SCS), USDA Forest Service and Washington State University. State and private lands, which had the potential of supporting commercial forest stands, were surveyed. Some Indian tribal and federal lands were surveyed. Because this was a cooperative soil survey project, agricultural and non-commercial forest lands were also included within some survey areas. After the Department of Natural Resources originally developed its geographic information system, digitized soils delineation and a few soil attributes were transferred to the system. Remaining PFLG soil attributes were added later and are now available through associated lookup tables. SCS soils data on agricultural lands also have subsequently been added to this data layer. Approximately 1100 townships wholly or partially contain digitized soils data (2101 townships would provide complete coverage of the state of Washington). SOILS data are currently stored in the Polygon Attribute Table (.PAT) and INFO expansion files.

This coverage was useful because it aided in the analysis of the Shaw-Johnson slope stability issue. Due to the HCP guidelines, the site index was taken from the SOILS coverage for determining how large the riparian buffers should be.

The following is a detailed description of the Transportation (TRANS) coverage provided by the DNR (April 1997). The transportation data layer contains road, trail, railroad and other routes existing within townships containing state and private forest lands in the state of Washington. Limited areas of federal and tribal land are also included. Spatial delineation was digitized by the Department of Natural Resources’ Division of Engineering from 1: 63,360 aerial photography and digitized from USGS 7.5 minute quadrangles by an outside vendor. Data has been collected for complete townships where any major land holdings of interest exist. This translates to approximately 1159 townships.

This coverage was useful because we were able to have all of the active and abandon roads within a six township area. Although there were very few roads in our planning area, we were able to see the ones that were. Then we were able to start designing our new road systems, for our harvest units, by taking off from these roads. The TRANS coverage was also used on our field maps for orientation.

The DNR initially scanned in the 1:4800 contours from the DNR's 1:4800 section maps. For a timber harvest plan, the DNR created a TIN and the Arc cover contours that we needed. From that we were able to create the Lattices (or Grid), the DEM's, and the DTM's.

We received a set of 1968 and a set of 1993 aerial photographs from the DNR. This two sets of photos where taken at a flying height of 12,000 feet. The 1968 photos had some really young vegetation, making it easy to see the landscape. The other set (the 1993 photos) had more vegetation which more resembles the landscape now.

These photos were useful because we used them to help in the analysis with the slope stability issue. The 1968 photos allowed us to look for past slope failures since the landscape had little vegetation. Not only did the landscape have little vegetation but we were also able to draw a connection between what the landscape looks like after a fire and how that will resemble what it will look like after a unit is harvested. The other use was for verifying setting boundaries for clearcuts and rocky areas when setting up harvest units.

We also received a set of 1996 digital ortho photos on compact disc from the DNR. They were of our planning site, which we used in along side of the Aerial photos. We were able to use this as a layer in our field maps for more of a visual. We were also able to use the orthos for verifying setting boundaries for clearcuts and rocky outcrop areas.

The timber cruise data was information that resulted from the 1997 habitat survey. It included plot information only for stands considered to be dispersal habitat. Again this was Erik Holman, a S.W. DNR Biologist, whos main focus was for identifying the area in the W.A.U. for the northern spotted owl dispersal habitat.

This information was not useful on a watershed-wide basis as it was biased towards the productive stands. It was to set initial dispersal habitat inventories and identify old growth stands.

This was given to us by DNR from the Planning and Tracking database. We were then able to bring it up as a coverage in Arc Info that would have DNR's sales like the Miner sale, Prospector Ridge sale, etc. We were then able to plan around these sales in our harvest planning.