Combined Habitat and Cover Types for Grand Teton National Park

GIS Specialist Grand Teton National Park

This coverage presents polygon information describing the vegetative landscape of Grand Teton National Park and the John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Memorial Parkway. It employs two classification concepts: habitat type and cover type, both of which were identified in the field and in subsequent aerial photo interpretation in the lab. Habitat types, as defined by Steele et al. are named after the climax plant community that would develop on that site after sufficient passage of time. Two species are used in the name: (1) a species with broad ecological tolerance that dominates the climax community and (2) a species with more specific requirements that indicates the particular place in environmental space that the habitat type occupies. Only forested habitat types are represented in the coverage. Cover types, as described by Mattson and Despain, reflect not only the influence of the soils and climate of a site, but the time since the last disturbance, such as fire. Following such an event, vegetation progresses through a series of plant communities (seral communities) toward the climax community. This process (succession) can be divided into the following classes called cover types: recently disturbed, early, mid, late, and climax stages. (Despain). Only the forested cover types have been developed and are presented here, with attributes coded to reflect the noted successional stage.