A map of westside prairie habitat in the south Puget Sound (SPS) region was developed to elevate the significance of core habitat and corridors that intersect with prairie. The map layer started by using a definition of westside prairie from WDFW’s Priority Habitats and Species program (WDFW 2008). In this definition is a list of prairie-associated soil types, including a subset of soils associated with SPS prairies. These SPS prairie soils were selected as the foundation of the prairie map. To identify the location of these soils we used a soil survey layer derived from the Private Forest Land Grading System and subsequent soil surveys that is available on the Washington Spatial Data server (see WA Soils | Washington State Geospatial Open Data Portal). The SPS soil types were selected from this layer and then clipped to the boundary of the Southern Puget Prairie level IV ecoregion. To ensure our analysis focused on areas with a high probability of existing prairie habitat, rather than those impacted by development or forest encroachment, we employed the Landfire Existing Vegetation Type layer to extract open and undeveloped portions from the prairie soil layer.

A map of westside prairie habitat in the south Puget Sound (SPS) region was developed to elevate the significance of core habitat and corridors that intersect with prairie. The map layer started by using a definition of westside prairie from WDFW’s Priority Habitats and Species program (WDFW 2008). In this definition is a list of prairie-associated soil types, including a subset of soils associated with SPS prairies. These SPS prairie soils were selected as the foundation of the prairie map. To identify the location of these soils we used a soil survey layer derived from the Private Forest Land Grading System and subsequent soil surveys that is available on the Washington Spatial Data server (see WA Soils | Washington State Geospatial Open Data Portal). The SPS soil types were selected from this layer and then clipped to the boundary of the Southern Puget Prairie level IV ecoregion. To ensure our analysis focused on areas with a high probability of existing prairie habitat, rather than those impacted by development or forest encroachment, we employed the Landfire Existing Vegetation Type layer to extract open and undeveloped portions from the prairie soil layer.