You are here:
LEVEL III AND IV ECOREGIONS OF WASHINGTON
Description:
Ecoregions denote areas of general similarity in ecosystems and in the type quality, and quantity of environmental resources. This map depicts revisions and subdivisions of ecoregions, that was compiled at a relatively small scale (Omernik 1987). Compilation of this map, performed at the larger 1:250,000 scale, was part of a collaborative project between the United States Environmental Protection Agency, National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory (NHEERL)- Corvallis, OR., the U.S. Forest Service, Nat Resources Conservation Service, Washington State Department of Natural Resources and the Oregon Natural Heritage Program. The ecoregions and subregion are designed to serve as a spatial framework for environmental resource management. The most immediate needs by the states are for developing reg biological criteria and water quality standards, and for setting managemen goals for nonpoint-source pollution. Explanation of the methods used to de the ecoregions are given in Omernik (1995), Griffith et al. (1994), and Gallan et al. (1989). This map is a draft product of one of a few regional interagency collaborative projects aimed at obtaining consensus between the EPA, the NRCS, and the USFS regarding alignments of ecological regions.