Abstract

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National Park Vegetation Maps: Seeing the Forest and the Trees
Track: Parks and Natural Reserves
Author(s): Joseph Meyer, Peggy Moore, Sylvia Haultain

The National Park Service Vegetation Mapping Program is a cooperative effort to classify, describe, and map vegetation communities in national park units across the United States. This program is an important part of the NPS Inventory and Monitoring Program, which is working to supply managers with basic inventory products for ecosystem monitoring. Vegetation maps also provide tools for managers engaged in resource inventory, land use planning, and ecological investigations. In California, the NPS has partnered with Esri, Aerial Information Systems, NatureServe, and California Native Plant Society to develop map products for National Parks from the mountains to the coast. Recently completed maps are being used for analysis of black bear habitat use, rare plant habitat modeling, fire behavior prediction, wetland assessment, and evaluations of ecosystem change on a multidecadal basis. Through these efforts, the maps are providing exciting new information as well as establishing a baseline for future monitoring.

Joseph Meyer
National Park Service
PO Box 700
El Portal , CA 94318
US
Phone: 209-379-1185
E-mail: joe_meyer@nps.gov

Peggy Moore
U.S. Geological Survey
PO Box 700
El Portal , CA 95318
US
Phone: 209-379-1309
E-mail: peggy_moore@usgs.gov

Sylvia Haultain
National Park Service
47050 Generals Highway
Three Rivers , CA 93271
US
Phone: 559-565-3769
E-mail: sylvia_haultain@nps.gov