Puget Sound Intertidal Habitat Inventory; Puget Sound Ambient Monitoring Program, 1996 (NCEI Accession 9900221)

Puget Sound's intertidal areas provide habitat for species of commercial, recreational, biotic, and aesthetic value. Habitat is a critical ecosystem component -- it provides living space for permanent and transitory species, and supports primary production, food webs, and other ecosystem functions. Accurate information on the quality and quantity of intertidal habitats is important to monitoring and sustaining the health of Puget Sound.

This CD-ROM contains Intertidal Habitat Inventory information collected by the Nearshore Habitat Program in the Washington State Department of Natural Resources' (DNR) Aquatic Resources Division. The program is part of an ongoing project to monitor the Puget Sound nearshore environment through the Puget Sound Ambient Monitoring Program (PSAMP). During the summer of 1996 and 1997, approximately 230 miles of shoreline were surveyed from the Northern Skagit County border southward to the north fork of the Skagit River, and northern Whidbey Island in Island County.