Vegetation Classification and Mapping Project Report, Timpanogos Cave National Monument
Coles J, Von Loh J, Wight A, Schulz K, Evenden A. 2009. Vegetation Classification and Mapping Project Report, Timpanogos Cave National Monument. Natural Resource Technical Report. NPS/NCPN/NRTR—2009/210. National Park Service. Fort Collins, Colorado
With the support of the U.S. Geological Survey - National Park Service Vegetation Mapping Program, the Northern Colorado Plateau Inventory and Monitoring Network completed this project to describe and map vegetation at Timpanogos Cave National Monument. This collaborative effort involved project partners engineering-environmental Management, Inc., the Western Region office of NatureServe, and their cooperators. The mapping area is 100 hectares (248 acres), encompassing only the lands within the Monument boundary. Project partners identified plant associations for Timpanogos Cave National Monument and determined how best to map them using 1:12,000-scale, true color orthophotography. The field team collected vegetation and environmental data from 13 vegetation classification plots and 10 observation points. No supplemental fuels data were collected during the project. Fieldwork and mapping were completed in 2007.Analysis of the plot data revealed 13 National Vegetation Classification plant associations or park special vegetation types within the Monument. Four other vegetation types were not documented by plot or observation point data, but were included in the map classes.Vegetation and land use were delineated in the field on base maps of 1:12,000 true-color orthophotography acquired in 2006. On-the-ground delineation was possible because of the small size of the Monument and because every part of the unit is accessible on foot or viewable from relatively close range. Because Timpanogos Cave is a small park, the program standard minimum mapping unit of 0.5 ha was discarded and polygons were delineated to approximately 0.2 ha.A total of 84 map polygons representing 16 natural and semi-natural vegetation map classes were developed for the Timpanogos Cave mapping project. Three land use and two geologic map classes describe 36 polygons within the mapping area. Average polygon size across all map classes is 0.8 ha (2.0 acres). Ten land use/land cover polygons such as roadways and Monument facilities total 0.8 ha (2.0 acres). The vegetation map class with the greatest cover is White fir - Douglas-fir / Gambel Oak - Bigtooth Maple Forest (Map Class # 7) with 7 polygons covering 29.0 ha or 29% of the mapping area.Because many polygons were visited or viewed and delineated in the field, a standard thematic accuracy assessment of the 16 vegetated map classes was not employed.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Coles, Janet; Von Loh, Jim; Wight, Aneth; Schulz, Keith; Evenden, Angie
- Date of Issue
- 2009-04
- Publisher
- National Park Service
- Units
- NCPN , NRSS , TICA
- 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, NCPN Vegetation Mapping Inventory, NVCS, Orthophoto, Plots, U.S. National Vegetation Classification, USNVC, USNVCS, Vegetation Inventory, Vegetation Inventory Report, Vegetation Map Report, Vegetation Mapping, Vegetation Plots