Data Management Plan (Deprecated)

These feature classes reside within the BIOLOGY Feature Data Set of the Lake Erie - 2022 ESI Geodatabase. It contains vector polygons and points representing BIRDS data for Lake Erie.

The study area includes the United States portion of Lake Erie, covering the coastal portions of Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York from the Michigan/Ohio border to the west to the New York/Canada border to the east. This data set contains sensitive biological resource data for wading birds, shorebirds, waterfowl, raptors, diving birds, passerine birds, and gulls and terns in Lake Erie. Vector polygons in this data set represent bird nesting, migratory staging, and wintering sites.

Species-specific abundance, seasonality, status, life history, and source information are stored in associated data tables (described in Entity Attribute Overview below) designed to be used in conjunction with this spatial data layer. This data set is a portion of the ESI data for Lake Erie.

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.

Bounding box for the Great Lakes Lake Erie study region.

Process Steps:

• 2022-08-01 00:00:00 - Two main sources of data were used to depict bird distribution and seasonality for the BIRDS and BIRDSPT data layers: 1) personal interviews with resource experts from the University of Minnesota, Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR), New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC), Pennsylvania Natural Heritage Program (PNHP), U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), and Audubon Great Lakes and 2) numerous published and unpublished reports and datasets. Shorebirds, diving birds, gulls, terns, raptors, marsh birds, and waterfowl -- Survey data on locations of breeding, migrating, and/or wintering shorebirds, diving birds, gulls, terns, raptors, marsh birds, and waterfowl were provided by various agencies via shapefiles, spreadsheets, primary literature, and expert local knowledge, and was supplemented with information from eBird. In general, data from the various data sources were compiled and either mapped to habitat, park or refuge, or specific locations, per expert recommendations. Colonial waterbird nesting areas -- Numerous resource experts and agencies provided data sets and expert knowledge to facilitate mapping colonial nesting birds. The primary data set used was The Fourth Decadal U.S. Great Lakes Colonial Waterbird Survey (2007-2010) generated by Cuthbert and Wires from the University of Minnesota -- Twin Cities (2013). In addition, USFWS (Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge Complex) provided data from surveys conducted on West Sister Island National Wildlife Refuge (1991-2018). Additional data were provided by USFWS Division of Migratory Birds (2012 survey data) and ODNR (1991-2021). The majority of nesting colony locations were mapped as polygons. A few nest site points were included. Nesting concentrations were reported as maximum nest or nesting pair counts ("Up to XX nests" or "Up to XX pairs"). Species mapped using colonial waterbird datasets included: black-crowned night-heron, cattle egret, common tern, double-crested cormorant, great blue heron, great egret, herring gull, little blue heron, and ring-billed gull. Federally listed birds -- Piping plover (FE, SE) were mapped using nest locations provided by the University of Minnesota and ODNR and critical habitat boundaries provided by USFWS. Red knot (FT) were mapped everywhere piping plover occurs, per expert knowledge. Note that locations of nesting, wintering, and/or migratory sites, species composition within polygons, and particularly concentration values, are based on a compilation of observations made over multi-year periods and are not meant to accurately reflect 'current' conditions in the case of an event. Survey limitations and adjustments in protocols over the years, changes in shoreline geomorphology, weather, and other ecological factors contribute to the condition of nesting colonies and migratory or other bird concentrations at any given time. Also, note that bird concentrations vary throughout the multi-month nesting, migratory, and wintering periods listed in the seasonality table. Please contact local resource experts in the event of a spill or if data are to be used for any reason other than spill planning or response. BIRDSPT - Ohio sandhill crane pairs and common tern nesting were provided by ODNR. Colonial gull nesting sites were provided by the University of Minnesota. New York bald eagle nest sites were provided by NYSDEC. Contact these agencies for more information concerning these databases.
• 2022-08-01 00:00:00 - Depending on the type of source data, three general approaches are used for compiling these data layers: 1) information gathered during initial interviews and from hardcopy sources are compiled onto U.S. Geological Survey 1:42,000 topographic quadrangles and digitized; 2) hardcopy maps are digitized at their source scale; 3) digital data layers are evaluated and used "as is" or integrated with the hardcopy data sources. 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 and BIRDSPT data layers are made based on the recommendations of the resource experts, and final hardcopy maps 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).