DC MSHCP Habitat Analysis

In order to calculate the amount of habitat in the Plan area, the DC MSHCP uses a process that the US Fish and Wildlife Service refers to as the Habitat Evaluation Procedure or HEP Model.  HEP modeling provides a systematic and verifiable process that assigns values to various types of habitat for the species being considered.  These values are referred to as Habitat Suitability Indices (HSI) that range between 0 being of no value to 1 being perfectly suited for a particular species.  This removes much of the "opinion-based" analysis that can cause subjectivity in the evaluation of habitat and its changes.

The habitat was analyzed for each of the Covered Species using the Current Conditions map combined with soil data and potential natural community data from the Natural Resources Conservation Service.  Once each of the individual species HSI maps were created they were combined to form the Composite Species HSI map shown here.

This HEP modeling process allows FCCD to quantify (or add up) the amount of habitat present in the county and where it is located within the Plan Area.  As the DC MSHCP is implemented, we can objectively monitor the progress of "maintaining and mitigating" our impacts on the Covered Species by how our Covered Activities and Conservation Practices change the overall HSI values within the Plan Area.