Vegetation Information for the DESO Vegetation Inventory Project
Whelan KR, Patterson JM, Vargas RM, Atkinson AJ. 2009. Vegetation Information for the DESO Vegetation Inventory Project. Natural Resource Technical Report. NPS/SFCN/NRTR—2009/240
De Soto National Memorial (DESO) was created in 1948 to commemorate the 1539 landing of Hernando de Soto. De Soto National Memorial and the adjacent Riverview Pointe Preserve are part of the Shaw’s Point Archaeological District which comprises a large prehistoric coastal village site that was inhabited by Florida Indians from about 356 B.C. to A.D. 110. The native vegetation consists primarily of mangroves, beaches, hammock, and pines. The majority of the park is comprised of wetlands (mangroves and associated shoreline mostly) that are intimately tied to the Manatee River and Tampa Bay. De Soto National Memorial provided $5,900 funded by the Natural Resources Preservation Program (NRPP), Small Parks (Project Management Information System [PMIS] project number 105225), to the NPS South Florida / Caribbean Network (SFCN) to create a vegetation map of De Soto National Memorial (26 acres) and the adjacent Riverview Pointe Preserve (11 acres) in 2007. This report documents the steps involved in creating the De Soto National Memorial vegetation map. The De Soto National Memorial vegetation map was made in UTM, NAD 83, zone 17N coordinates with a minimum mapping unit of 400m2. Aerial imagery from January 2007 and LIDAR imagery from 2003 were used for initial polygon development. These polygons were further refined with field data from December 2007 and June 2009. The final vegetation map has a total of 21 mapping classes and 56 polygons. Map class descriptions are provided in Appendix B with some modifications to the Rutchey et al. (2006, v. 5/22/2007) vegetation key and classification provided in Appendix F. Photos of map classes are provided in Appendix C. A list of species encountered during the field assessment is provided in Appendix D. Maps are provided in Appendix E. Data were collected for 70 field points as well as additional points delineating 0.57 miles of drainages. Nineteen (19) shell mound polygons were created from data collected during this project and a previous effort by Daniel Stephens (DESO NPS). Eighty-four percent (84%) of the polygons had vegetation plot data collection and the remainder were visually confirmed.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Whelan, Kevin; Patterson, Judd; Vargas, Rachel; Atkinson, Andrea
- Date of Issue
- 2009-09
- Units
- DESO , VMI
- Keywords
- Accuracy Assessment, Aerial Photography, alliances, Associations, community association, Digital Orthophoto, Digital Spatial Database, DOQ, DOQQ, Field Data, flight line, GIS, GPS, habitat mapping, Inventory Projects, Landcover, Landscape, National Park, National Park Service Inventory, National Vegetation Classification Standard, National Vegetation Classification System, NVCS, Orthophoto, Plots, U.S. National Vegetation Classification, USNVC, USNVCS, Vegetation Inventory, Vegetation Inventory Report, Vegetation Map Report, Vegetation Mapping, Vegetation Plots