Broad Ecosystem Inventory Wildlife Habitat Ratings Interpretations for Birds

The Broad Ecosystem Inventory (BEI) Classification provides broad regional information about the distribution of ecosystems throughout the province and the value of these ecosystems to wildlife. This is done in order to facilitate the use of wildlife information in broad provincial and regional land and resource planning initiatives. Broad Ecosystem Units are mapped based on imagery of the provincial land base generally captured at a scale of 1:250,000. BEI mapping represents forest conditions from approximately 1995 to 2000.

The BEI Classification was used to produce wildlife habitat capability and suitability mapping following Provincial Wildlife Habitat Ratings (WHR) Standards (Resource Inventory Committee 1999). Habitat classifications were based on BEI units. BEI units were evaluated and rated to determine the habitat potential (capability) and current habitat conditions (suitability) for selected dry forests and grassland birds within each seral stage within each Broad Ecosystem Unit (and related site modifier variation) within the framework of Ecosections and Biogeoclimatic Sub-zone/Variants for their ability to supply the species’ necessary life requisites. The data represented by the habitat capability and suitability maps for this project was obtained from a team consisting of a bird species expert, a habitat expert, and a data manager. A regional expert review was conducted in September 2002 involving Species at Risk Biologists, Habitat Biologists, and Wildlife Biologists from the Cariboo, Thompson, Okanagan Regions.

Datasets available for download

• BC Geographic Warehouse Custom Downloadoracle_sde
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• Report: Habitat Assessment for Dry Forest and...PDF
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• BEI
• Barrows Goldeneye
• Bobolink
• Brewers Sparrow
• Broad Ecosystem Inventory
• Cassins Finch
• Columbian...
• Common Poorwill
• Ecosystem Classification
• Ecosystem Mapping
• Flammulated Owl
• Grasshopper Sparrow
• Gray Flycatcher
• Lark Sparrow
• Lewiss Woodpecker
• Long-billed Curlew
• Long-eared Owl
• Mountain Bluebird
• Nashville Warbler
• Prairie Sharp-tailed Grouse
• Pygmy Nuthatch
• Rough-legged Hawk
• Sage Thrasher
• Sharp-Tailed Grouse
• Short-eared Owl
• Swainsons Hawk
• Timberline Sparrow
• WHR
• Western Bluebird
• Western Meadowlark
• Western Screech-Owl
• Wildlife Habitat Ratings
• Williamsons Sapsucker
• birds
• dry forests
• grasslands
• habitat capability
• habitat modelling
• habitat suitability

Additional Info

• Maturity Level 1 (46%)
• Maturity Level 2 (38%)
• Maturity Level 3 (0%)
• Maturity Level 4 (10%)
• Maturity Level 5 (0%)
• Maturity Level 6 (0%)

Field	Value
Last Updated	October 19, 2025, 23:25 (UTC)
Created	October 19, 2025, 23:25 (UTC)
Domain / Topic Domain or topic of the dataset being cataloged.
Title Title for the Dataset.	Broad Ecosystem Inventory Wildlife Habitat Ratings Interpretations for Birds
Description A description of the dataset.	The Broad Ecosystem Inventory (BEI) Classification provides broad regional information about the distribution of ecosystems throughout the province and the value of these ecosystems to wildlife. This is done in order to facilitate the use of wildlife information in broad provincial and regional land and resource planning initiatives. Broad Ecosystem Units are mapped based on imagery of the provincial land base generally captured at a scale of 1:250,000. BEI mapping represents forest conditions from approximately 1995 to 2000. The BEI Classification was used to produce wildlife habitat capability and suitability mapping following Provincial Wildlife Habitat Ratings (WHR) Standards (Resource Inventory Committee 1999). Habitat classifications were based on BEI units. BEI units were evaluated and rated to determine the habitat potential (capability) and current habitat conditions (suitability) for selected dry forests and grassland birds within each seral stage within each Broad Ecosystem Unit (and related site modifier variation) within the framework of Ecosections and Biogeoclimatic Sub-zone/Variants for their ability to supply the species’ necessary life requisites. The data represented by the habitat capability and suitability maps for this project was obtained from a team consisting of a bird species expert, a habitat expert, and a data manager. A regional expert review was conducted in September 2002 involving Species at Risk Biologists, Habitat Biologists, and Wildlife Biologists from the Cariboo, Thompson, Okanagan Regions.
Tags / Keywords Keywords/tags categorizing the dataset.	BEI Barrows Goldeneye Bobolink Brewers Sparrow Broad Ecosystem Inventory Cassins Finch Columbian... Common Poorwill Ecosystem Classification Ecosystem Mapping Flammulated Owl Grasshopper Sparrow Gray Flycatcher Lark Sparrow Lewiss Woodpecker Long-billed Curlew Long-eared Owl Mountain Bluebird Nashville Warbler Prairie Sharp-tailed Grouse Pygmy Nuthatch Rough-legged Hawk Sage Thrasher Sharp-Tailed Grouse Short-eared Owl Swainsons Hawk Timberline Sparrow WHR Western Bluebird Western Meadowlark Western Screech-Owl Wildlife Habitat Ratings Williamsons Sapsucker birds dry forests grasslands habitat capability habitat modelling habitat suitability
Format (CSV, XLS, TXT, PDF, etc) File format of the dataset.
Dataset Size Dataset size in megabytes.
Metadata Identifier Metadata identifier – can be used as the unique identifier for catalogue entry
Published Date Published date of the dataset.	2022-01-17
Time Period Data Span (start date) Start date of the data in the dataset.
Time Period Data Span (end date) End date of time data in the dataset.
GeoSpatial Area Data Span A spatial region or named place the dataset covers.

Field	Value
Access category Type of access granted for the dataset (open, closed, service, etc).
License License used to access the dataset.	Open Government Licence - British Columbia
Limits on use Limits on use of data.
Location Location of the dataset.	https://catalogue.data.gov.bc.ca/dataset/broad-ecosystem-inventory-wildlife-habitat-ratings-interpretations-for-birds
Data Service Data service for accessing a dataset.
Owner Owner of the dataset.	Ecosystems
Contact Point Who to contact regarding access?	Tony Button
Contact Point Email The email to contact regarding access?	[email protected]
Publisher Publisher of the dataset.
Publisher Email Email of the publisher.
Author Author of the dataset.
Author Email Email of the author.
Accessed At Date the data and metadata was accessed.

Field	Value
Identifier Unique identifier for the dataset.
Language Language(s) of the dataset
Link to dataset description A URL to an external document describing the dataset.
Persistent Identifier Data is identified by a persistent identifier.
Globally Unique Identifier Data is identified by a persistent and globally unique identifier.
Contains data about individuals Does the data hold data about individuals?
Contains data about identifiable individuals Does the data hold identifiable data about individual?
Contains Indigenous Data Does the data hold data about Indigenous communities?
Portal Type Platform type of the source portal.

Field	Value
Version Version of the datatset	None
Source Source of the dataset.	None
Version notes Version notes about the dataset.
Is version of another dataset Link to dataset that it is a version of.
Other versions Link to datasets that are versions of it.
Provenance Text Provenance Text of the data.	BEI originated in 1985 as Preliminary Biophysical Mapping produced to meet strategic level planning and wildlife conservation needs. In the early 1990’s this mapping was renamed Broad Ecosystem Inventory. During the 1990s BEI was mapped a number of times due to improved imagery, changes in ecological classifications, and faulty data produced by various mapping contractors. BEI reflects forest seral stages as was present from 1995 to 2000. BEI incorporated versions of two other provincial ecosystem classifications – Ecoregion Classification and Biogeoclimatic Ecosystem Classification - that were current during the 1995-2000 period. BEI also used Ministry of Forest’s MapGen Forest Cover (generalised forest cover) product to inform BEI mapping. MapGen’s Growth Type Group was used to provide information on the primary and secondary tree species characterizing forest cover polygons, as well as the extent of those species combinations. MapGen Forest Cover’s Projected Age Class was also used to provide forest age class data useful in helping to determine the seral stages described in BEI polygons. Contours from NTS 1:250,000 topographic maps provided a good representation of slope steepness and aspect in complex areas with high relief, for the mapping of slope/aspect class polygons for BEI unit modifiers. Contour patterns also indicated landforms, which helped to delineate landform-based BEI unit polygons. Soil maps were used to provide information on soil texture, soil moisture, and because they are usually on a topographic base, they also provided information related to topography and landform. Terrain maps were used and proved to be especially helpful in the mapping of landform-based BEI habitat polygons. Terrain maps also depicted texture, and slope, permitting mapping of texture and slope-based BEI polygons as defined for BEI unit modifiers. BEI dry forests and grasslands bird habitat mapping was based on data obtained from a team consisting of a bird species expert, a habitat expert, and a data manager. A regional expert review was conducted in September 2002 involving Species at Risk Biologists, Habitat Biologists, and Wildlife Biologists from the Cariboo, Thompson, Okanagan Regions. The final data sets from these regional review sessions were inputted into MS Excel spreadsheets, then reviewed by the provincial habitat correlator, and inputted into the BEI Oracle based system which calculated capability-suitability values and applied these values to the BEI mapping for a spatial product. The dry forests and grasslands bird mapping has not been revised since approximately 2002 so this mapping reflects regional knowledge of species habitat relationships as of that time period.
Provenance URL Provenance URL of the data.
Temporal resolution Describes how granular the date/time data in the dataset is.
GeoSpatial resolution in meters Describes how granular (in meters) geospatial data is in the dataset.
GeoSpatial resolution (in regions) Describes how granular (in regions) geospatial data is in the dataset.

Field	Value
Indigenous Community Permission Who holds the Indigenous Community Permission. Who to contact regarding access to a dataset that has data about Indigenous communities.
Community Permission Community permission (who gave permission).
The Indigenous communities the dataset is about Indigenous communities from which data is derived.

Field	Value
Number of data rows If tabular dataset, total number of rows.
Number of data columns If tabular dataset, total number of unique columns.
Number of data cells If tabular dataset, total number of cells with data.
Number of data relations If RDF dataset, total number of triples.
Number of entities If RDF dataset, total number of entities.
Number of data properties If RDF dataset, total number of unique properties used by the triples.
Data quality Describes the quality of the data in the dataset.
Metric for data quality A metric used to measure the quality of the data, such as missing values or invalid formats.

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