CaliforniaSpottedOwl NestingBinary

California spotted owl (Strix occidentalis occidentalis) is a subspecies of spotted owl that occurs within the Sierra Nevada and Coast Range forests of California, including within the Lake Tahoe region. It is also known the occur on the Nevada side of Lake Tahoe as well as in the adjacent eastern slope of the Carson Range, albeit in lower numbers. It has been petitioned for listing under the Endangered Species Act and is currently under review. Comprehensive habitat modeling studies for spotted owl in the state of Nevada, in particular, are lacking. We used LIDAR data to generate multi-scale habitat models to assess the scale of selection and forest structure variables and generate predictive maps of both occurrence and nesting.