Vegetation inventory, mapping, and characterization, Chiricahua National Monument: Volume I, main report
Studd SE, Black JS, Hubbard JA, Galvin JB, Fallon B. 2025. Vegetation inventory, mapping, and characterization, Chiricahua National Monument: Volume I, main report. Science Report. NPS/SR—2025/251. National Park Service. Fort Collins, Colorado. https://doi.org/10.36967/2308673
The Sonoran Desert Network (SODN) conducted an inventory, classification, and mapping of vegetation communities at Chiricahua National Monument (CHIR) from 2007 to 2011. This report is Volume I of two volumes, summarizing 29 vegetation communities (associations) identified at the monument and providing them within the context of the United States National Vegetation Classification (USNVC), the hierarchical system guiding all National Park Service (NPS) vegetation inventories. Volume II contains the full association descriptions. The project combined existing plot data with new plot-scale and larger-scale ground observations of the dominant species combinations, their abundance, structural characteristics, and landscape traits to develop the dataset from which the classification was derived. Teams also mapped vegetation communities using printed satellite imagery and real-time GPS locations to pinpoint locations and draw boundaries between changing communities. These boundaries were later digitized and became the map. In June 2011, after data collection had been completed, a severe wildfire, Horseshoe Two, impacted nearly all of the monument, resulting in a matrix of lightly to severely burned areas. This event–the only extensive wildfire in the monument since the late 19th century–substantially altered major swaths of the park’s dominant upland plant communities and made it impossible to conduct a meaningful or appropriate post-mapping accuracy assessment. As a result, this map and the vegetation types provide a detailed perspective of pre-fire conditions and serve as a template against which to compare vegetation recovery and restoration following this seminal fire event.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Studd, Sarah; Black, Joseph; Hubbard, J.; Galvin, Jeffrey; Fallon, B.
- Date of Issue
- 2025-03
- Publisher
- National Park Service
- DOI
- 10.36967/2308673
- Units
- CHIR , NRSS , SODN
- Keywords
- Chiricahua mountains, inventory, Madrean, mapping, National Vegetation Classification Standard., native plants, plant communities, vegetation classification, vegetation communities, vegetation inventory, wildfire