This spatial data layer provides an indirect estimate of emergent, scrub-shrub and forested tidal wetland losses for 55 non-lagoonal estuaries spanning the contiguous United States West Coast. Losses are defined as those areas that were tidal wetlands prior to European settlement, but are no longer tidal wetlands today. Losses were estimated by comparing the National Wetland Inventory‘s mapping of current tidal wetlands to the Pacific Marine and Estuarine Fish Habitat Partnership (PMEP)’s West Coast Estuary Extent mapping. The estuary extent layer represents the likely historical extent of tidal wetlands, so areas not identified as current tidal wetlands in the National Wetlands Inventory (NWI) are considered “lost” in this analysis. [...]
