BC Species & Ecosystems Explorer
BC Species & Ecosystem Explorer (BCSEE) provides information for over 22,000 plants, animals and ecological communities in BC.
- Learn about the species and ecological communities in BC
- Generate lists based on your chosen criteria
- Find out what potentially occurs in your area of interest
May 2021 update! Read about the changes here
We want to hear from you! Please send your feedback to cdcdata@gov.bc.ca
Generate lists by group, conservation status, legal designation, area and more.
The following YouTube video is based on the previous version of BCSEE , however most instructions still apply. An updated video will be available soon.
Quick Search:
- Select a "Quick Search” – this allows you a ‘one-click’ search for records in BC. You cannot change or add any other criteria.
Other Search Options: Mix and match the search criteria below to narrow your search (pick one or many options):
- Search by Name and/or Group
- Search by Conservation Status or Legal Designation
- Search by Area:
- Draw a user-defined area of interest
- Upload a shapefile (zipped to include all associated files)
- Pre-defined layers (choose by map or list)
- Other Search Options
Results: You have a number of options on the results page including:
- View basic rank and status information for resulting species and ecological communities
- Change the sort order and the number of rows and columns shown on page
- View CDC Mapped Locations (Occurrences) if available
- View reports including:
- summary and conservation status reports
- reports from other databases
- best management practices
- other related references
- Export results details to downloadable table.
Find out where data for species and ecological communities comes from:
Every year (usually in the spring), conservation status and taxonomy information is reflects any updates (G-Ranks, S-Ranks, B.C. List Status). The following updates are made on an as-needed basis:
- Addition of new species or ecological communities
- Taxonomic and/or name changes, including species codes
- COSEWIC status (updates twice a year)
- Federal Species at Risk Act legal status
- Range updates (used in generating area of interest results)
- Species and ecological community summary reports and conservation status reports
- CDC mapped locations (Occurrences) (updated daily)
Find more information about taxonomic and status updates:
- October 2020: update from http to https
- July 2020: Read about the enhancements here