Data Management Plan (Deprecated)

This data set contains sensitive biological resource data for wading birds, shorebirds, waterfowl, raptors, diving birds, seabirds, passerine birds, and gulls and terns in the New York/New Jersey Metro Area, Hudson River, and South Long Island region. Vector polygons in this data set represent bird nesting, migratory staging, wintering sites, and general use areas. Species-specific abundance, seasonality, status, life history, and source information are stored in associated data tables (described below) designed to be used in conjunction with this spatial data layer. This data set is a portion of the ESI data for the the NY/NJ Metro Area, Hudson River, and South Long Island region. As a whole, the ESI data characterize the marine and coastal environments and wildlife by their sensitivity to spilled oil, and include information for three main components: shoreline habitats, sensitive biological resources, and human-use resources. See also the BIRDSPT (Bird Points) data layer for additional bird information.

Process Steps:

• 2015-11-01 00:00:00 - Step 1. Selecting species and data sources. Three main sources of data were used to depict bird distribution and seasonality for this data layer: 1) digital/tabular data sets provided by New York State Department of State (NYSDOS), New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC), Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), Audubon NY, and NJ Audubon; 2) published and unpublished reports; and 3) expert knowledge from resource experts. Bird species are included in this atlas either because of their likelihood of direct or indirect impact by an oil spill or similar incident, their general rarity or imperilment, or their special protection status as threatened or endangered. Migratory or wintering concentration areas, nesting sites and colonies, and protected species are especially emphasized.
• 2015-11-01 00:00:00 - Step 2. Mapping nesting locations and hotspots. Nesting locations for terns, gulls, cormorants, and herons along with breeding locations for piping plovers (state endangered and federally threatened) and other solitary nesting shorebird locations were mapped using digital polygon data obtained from NYSDEC, New York Natural Heritage Program (NY NHP), and NatureServe (NJ). Concentration values were generalized when presented for a range of dates (10-25, or 100s, 1000s, etc.) or left blank when not available. Migratory hotspot locations of terns and shorebirds were mapped using survey data provided by NY Audubon, NY NHP, and NatureServe (NJ). Concentration values, when presented, represent ranges or generalized values. Wading bird hotspot foraging locations and roost sites were mapped using survey data and expert knowledge provided by NJ Audubon and NY Audubon. Concentration values for wading bird foraging and roosting locations indicate high counts. In some instances, general distributions of sensitive species were mapped in association with habitat features using the NYSDOS Significant Coastal Fish and Wildlife Habitats narrative and accompanying digital polygon data.
• 2015-11-01 00:00:00 - Step 3. Special considerations in marshes. Salt and freshwater marshes are ranked as highly sensitive to oiling due to their biological productivity and the tendency for oil to persist based on low relative expose to wind/wave energy and the difficulties associated with human cleanup activities. Marshes are extremely valuable for a suite of bird species in the region including rails, bitterns, and marsh obligate passerines, and should be prioritized for protection wherever they exist. Due to the difficulties of surveying in these areas, and in an effort to highlight specific known nesting occurrences, we only mapped nesting locations from point count surveys (Hudson River region), NY NHP, NatureServe (NJ), and the NYSDOS Significant Coastal Fish and Wildlife Habitats narrative and associated polygon data. General distributions based on habitat associations were not mapped as they have been in the past. Therefore, an absence of a polygon in a region does not mean a species will not be present in the event of a spill. The majority of the Atlantic flyway population of Atlantic Brant and a significant portion of American black ducks overwinter in the marshes fringing the large bays of New York and New Jersey. Particular consideration is given to these key species during region wide aerial surveys as is evident in the atlas data.
• 2015-11-01 00:00:00 - Step 4. Waterfowl. Based on consultation with resource experts and due to the large geographic scale at which winter waterfowl surveys are conducted, we mapped winter waterfowl distributions to large waterbodies and adjacent marsh habitat. In an effort to reduce complexity and place an emphasis on the overall number of individuals utilizing a particular region, we chose to only map species that contained 100 or more individuals per survey area. Counts of species that did not meet this threshold within a surveyed area were aggregated together and displayed as wintering “waterfowl.” This method reduces clutter on the map while still placing an emphasis on the regions providing critical over-wintering waterfowl habitat. Smaller non-contiguous habitat within the survey area was noted as providing general distribution habitat to “waterfowl” during the winter season. Qualitative rather than quantitative terms were used to describe the concentration values of these areas. Additional areas providing critical foraging habitat and refuge areas for migrating waterfowl were mapped when data was available. The majority of the wintering and migratory occurrences were mapped using the USFWS Mid-winter Waterfowl Survey, data from NJ Audubon, and the NYSDOS Significant Coastal Fish and Wildlife Habitats narrative and associated polygon data. Nesting locations for resident waterfowl species were obtained from the NYSDEC Breeding Waterfowl Survey, the NY DOS Significant Coastal Fish and Wildlife Habitats narrative and associated polygon data, and some found opportunistically during other regional surveys. Similar to other marsh obligate nesting birds, the difficult nature of surveying in marsh habitat resulted in nesting waterfowl distributions in the area to be underrepresented within the atlas. Resident populations of waterfowl depend heavily on salt and freshwater marshes for breeding and therefore could be present within this habitat during the spring and summer breeding months.
• 2015-11-01 00:00:00 - Step 5. Raptors. Nesting locations for bald eagles (NJ state endangered, NY state threatened), peregrine falcons (state endangered), osprey (NJ state threatened, NY state special concern), and northern harriers (NJ state endangered, NY state threatened) were mapped as points in New Jersey and polygons in New York at the request of the data providers; NatureServe (NJ) and NY NHP. Additionally, breeding locations of the state endangered short-eared owl were mapped as polygons along the southern shore of Long Island, NY. Wintering locations and migratory stopover concentrations were mapped as polygons where appropriate using the NY NHP data and the NYSDOS Significant Coastal Fish and Wildlife Habitats narrative and associated polygon data.
• 2015-11-01 00:00:00 - Step 6. Seabirds. No pelagic seabirds nest within the AOI but certain species are predicted to use the offshore region depicted within the atlas. The general distributions of seabirds off of New York and New Jersey were mapped using models created by researchers at the National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science using the Compendium of Avian Information database. Predictive models of seasonal occurrence were evaluated for inclusion on the map. Distributions were shown on the atlas when abundance was predicted to be higher than one individual per one kilometer pixel. These raster pixels were then converted to vector data and incorporated into coastal (0–1 nautical miles), nearshore (1-2 nautical miles), mid-shore (2-4 nautical miles) or offshore polygons (6-12 nautical miles from shore). Additional high concentration areas were added off of the coast of Long Island using information from the NY DOS Significant Coastal Fish and Wildlife Habitats narrative and associated polygon data and a study conducted by Loring and others 2014.
• 2015-11-01 00:00:00 - Step 7. Special considerations for rare, threatened, and endangered species. Nesting location of rare, threatened or endangered passerines were included as polygons in this atlas even when hydrographically removed from large waterbodies in an effort to make this regional update more usable in an all hazards context. These data were obtained from the NY NHP and NatureServe (NJ) databases and concentration values were set to equal one pair unless otherwise noted in the original data.
• 2015-11-01 00:00:00 - Step 8. Special considerations in creating the BIRDS feature class. The above digital and/or other sources were compiled by the project biologist to create the BIRDS data layer. Depending on the type of source data, two general approaches are used for compiling the data layer: 1) digital data layers are evaluated and used "as is" or integrated with the ESI base map features (ESIP, HYDROP, ESIL) 2) information gathered during initial interviews and from hardcopy sources are compiled and digitized using ESI base map features. See the Lineage section for additional information on the type of source data for this data layer. The ESI, biology, and human-use data are compiled into the standard ESI digital data format. A second set of interviews with participating resource experts are conducted to review the compiled data. If necessary, edits to the BIRDS data layer are made based on the recommendations of the resource experts and digital data are created.

Data can be accessed by downloading the zipped ArcGIS geodatabase from the Download URL (see Distribution Information). Questions can be directed to the ESI Program Manager (Point Of Contact).