Field data for the Vegetation Mapping Inventory Project of Horseshoe Bend National Military Park

This reference is an assemblage of field data collected as part the baseline vegetation inventory for the park unit. Typical files here are vegetation plot data, accuracy assessment data, field photos, PDF showing locations of vegetation plots and accuracy assessment data, and other data for this type. A final map of vegetation communities was created for Horseshoe Bend National Military Park (NMP) to the association level of the National Vegetation Classification System and in a 500-meter (1,640-foot [ft]) buffer zone around the park using the more general Anderson Level II classification. This map represents the vegetation found in the park during 2011, the year the images were acquired. We were provided with the vegetation communities occurring in the park, as determined by NatureServe from ground plots. We overlaid the location of the NatureServe plots on leaf-on color-infrared aerial photographs to determine the image signature of vegetation communities in terms of color, tone, texture, and topographic position. We also conducted our own field surveys to refine and verify photointerpretation. Field work and ground truthing for Horseshoe Bend NMP took place in May and June 2014. Field visits were aimed at giving specific attention to representative habitats, rare and important communities, areas that have been managed, disturbed, or invaded, and plots previously surveyed by NatureServe to collect data on canopy species composition, diagnostic species for the National Vegetation Classification System, and terrain, similar to NatureServe’s “Quick Plot” surveys.