Nearshore Habitat Images

Images of nearshore habitat are currently available for four areas of Hood Canal:  Northeast Hood Canal, Southeast Hood Canal, Northwest Hood Canal and Port Townsend.  A technical report describing how the imagery was collected and analyzed is also available.  We anticipate making more nearshore habitat images available in the future within lower Hood Canal (the “Hook”) and in Southwest Hood Canal.

These images have been developed as part of a larger study that includes a survey of shoreline development in Hood Canal and the Eastern Strait of Juan de Fuca (see “Shoreline Alterations…” report also available at this website), and an assessment of nearshore eelgrass habitat relative to nearshore development (report to come later). The images, collected in the early summer of 2000, are here made available as a “snapshot” in time, detailed description of the nearshore habitat.

To access the technical report, “Assessment of Estuarine and Nearshore Habitats for Threatened Salmon Stocks in the Hood Canal and Eastern Strait of Juan de Fuca, Washington State, Focal Areas 1-4” by R.J. Garono and R. Robinson in cooperation with Charles Simenstad,  Click Here   Technical Report.

Instructions for the downloading and use of the nearshore habitat imagery data are as follows:

(1)   If you have access to the ESRI software, ArcGIS, ArcInfo, or ArcView with Spatial Analyst, download the following zipped folder: “CASI_vegetation_grids“.  The folder contains grid format data and metadata for all the focal areas.

(2)   If you do not have access to any of these ESRI software products you will need to download and install ESRI’s free data viewer, ArcExplorer.  This free software will allow you to view the nearshore habitat imagery as described below.  To download ArcExplorer and instructions for its use go to:

http://www.esri.com/software/arcexplorer/index.html

             Once you have downloaded and installed ArcExplorer, the next steps are to:

(a)   Download the following zipped folder  to a directory on your computer where you want to store the data: “CASI_vegetation_shapefiles”  This folder includes an ArcExplorer “project” entitled Casiveg.AEP along with shapefiles for all the focal areas, streams, shorelines and places.  An AreExplorer “project” is used to access the images.  You can use the “project” included in the folder or create your own ArcExplorer “project”.

(b)   To use the included “project”, double click on the file Casiveg.AEP and it will automatically start ArcExplorer and load the “project”.  After the “project” loads we recommend expanding it to full screen on your monitor.  These are large files so it may take some time to load and redraw the shapefiles, so be patient.

Once the “project” loads, you can zoom in for a closer view of the imagery data.  The Arc Explorer instructions will help explain what you can do with the data and software.  If you make changes to the “project” that you are not satisfied with then simply do not save them when you close the “project”.

These nearshore habitat images would not have been possible without the contributions of the following people:

Ralph Garono and Rob Robinson, Earth Design Consultants; Charles “Si.” Simestad, Univ. of Washington; Herbert Ripley, Hyperspectral Data International; George Dockray, Ecotrust; Ted Labbe, Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe; Alan Carter Mortimer, Steve Todd and Chris Weller, PNPTC; a large and dedicated group of volunteers that assisted in collecting field data at the time the imagery flights were made.