Species and Ecological Communities Profiles

While the SCCP's species and ecological community profiles are a great place to start, there are numerous other online sources with recent and in-depth information that may be helpful.

The websites below contain current information on:

• At-risk designation and listing rankings
• Additional in-depth species descriptions
• Recorded locations
• Best management practices

Species and ecological communities found in BC are assessed and classified in different 'at-risk' categories at a provincial and Canada-wide level by the following:

• Province of BC’s BC Conservation Data Centre lists species and ecological communities.
• Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) is a national body that assesses and designates species status across Canada.
• Federal Government lists species at risk and their critical habitats through the Species at Risk Act (SARA) across Canada.

A species found in British Columbia can have different conservation status rankings depending on which system is used. The BC Conservation Data Centre (BC CDC), the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC), and the Species at Risk Act (SARA) each assess species separately, using different criteria and processes. As a result, a species might be considered at risk under one system but not under another, or it might have different levels of concern across these listings.

An basic definition of an ecosystem is that it is a community of living organisms interacting with each other and with their physical environment (such as soil, water, and climate) as a system.
An ecological community, as per the BC Conservation Data Centre and NatureServe, is a defined set of interacting species tied to recurring physical conditions, usually recognized by dominant plants and characteristic habitat features. In BC, the most common ecological communities are based on the Vegetation Classification component of the Biogeoclimatic Ecosystem Classification, which focuses on the terrestrial plant associations of B.C.'s native plants.

Terrestrial Species at Risk Critical Habitat Data

Aquatic Species at Risk Critical Habitat Data

To access candidate unpublished Critical Habitat spatial data, Environment and Climate Change Canada requires a data sharing agreement to be signed. Contact the Canadian Wildlife Service Regulatory Affairs unit at ec.ep.rpy-sar.pyr.ec@canada.ca for more information.

On the South Coast, the City of Abbotsford and the City of Surrey both include Critical Habitat layers on their interactive webmaps.

You can also add Critical Habitat layers to the BC Conservation Data Centre's iMap.

The previous version of the SCCP website contained additional species and ecological community profiles. This new version will continue to grow with more profiles being added over time. If there is a particular profile of a species at risk that you would like to see added, please let us know. If you are looking for some information from our old website that you can't find, reach out so that we can find it for you.