Development of a Vegetation Classification System for the Northern Region Doug Berglund Renee Lundberg Renate Bush

Vegetation Analysis Support Needs: Broad & Mid-level Northern Region Overview Integrated Restoration and Protection Strategy Forest plan revision and amendments Ecosystem Assessment at the Watershed Scale Post-fire assessments Forest-wide cumulative effects analysis Ultimately all of this is to support project planning and informed decision making

Litigation Fees Paid ’03 and ‘04

Classification MappingInventory Analysis Components : Building Blocks

Vegetation classification, mapping, and inventory Integration of these related processes to communicate information. Vegetation classification What is it? Vegetation mapping Where is it? Vegetation inventory How much is there?

Mapping Inventory Classification Map Feature Design Tabular Inventory Compilation Supply Labels Technology & resource limited Supply plot data Spatial Inventory Compilation Spatially associate plots Generalize map units Estimate abundance Vegetation classification, mapping, and inventory

Guiding Principles

FGDC National Vegetation Classification: applicable over extensive areas repeatable consistent [between map and inventory] mutual exclusive and exhaustive categories hierarchical, aggregatable based on dominant or uppermost stratum  mappable

Guiding Principles Existing Vegetation Classification and Mapping Technical Guide Canopy Cover Dominance Type Size Vertical Structure

Guiding Principles Practical - useful to those “practitioners”. Simple, easy to understand – line officers Can make calls in the field with minimal data Applicable to current data collection attributes

R1-Veg Council Veg Council Classification  Builds on lessons learned from previous mapping efforts  R1 Silviculturists, Fire Ecologists, Wildlife Biologists and RMRS Scientists  Field workshop: Bitterroot, Lolo, IPNF

R1-Veg Council

Field Data from FVS.kcp

R1-Veg Council Classification Veg Council Classification  Evaluated different classifiers,  expecting to choose 1: Describe, FVS, others  Consensus of expert opinion  None of the classifiers had the “right” answers  Developed new algorithms

Tree Dominance Types

Elemental Dominance # each species individually is > 20% of attribute A. Single most abundant species > 60% of attribute * ……… List single species A. Single most abundant species < 60% of attribute…..……. Go to B B. 2 most abundant species > 80% of attribute # ………………List 2 species B. 2 most abundant species < 80% of attribute # ……....……. Go to C C. 3 most abundant species > 80% of attribute # ……………….List 3 species C. 3 most abundant species < 80% of attribute # ……..……….Go to D D. Shade intolerant species attribute > shade tolerant species attribute… IMIX D. Shade intolerant species attribute < shade tolerant species attribute…......TMIX * attribute = BA, if basal area > 20 ft 2 ; otherwise TPA, if trees per acre > 100; if BA <20 and TPA < 100 TPA, classify as “none”.

Elemental Dominance 847 elemental dominance types: requires aggregation into dominance “groups” for broad- and mid-level analysis

Sizeclass

2Common Methods BA-Weighted Average DBH = Sum (DBH x BA) / Total BA QMD = square root (sum of DBH 2 / total trees) or diameter of tree of average BA

Sizeclass

NTG Classes seedling 0.1 – – – – – Traditional Classes seedling 0.1 – – – – – Often requires collapsing into fewer classes for broad- and mid- level analysis BA-weighted Average DBH classed as follows:

Canopy Cover

Definitions: Canopy cover is the proportion of the forest floor covered by the vertical projection of the tree crowns. Canopy closure is the proportion of the sky hemisphere obscured by vegetation when viewed from a single point.

Canopy Cover

Use: Increasingly used attribute  Wildlife models  Fire behavior models Mapping: Substitute attribute for basal area in Dominance and Size classification. FVS-model:  Need to collect more field data – EM Variant  Need to validate models

Canopy Cover Often requires collapsing into fewer classes for broad- and mid-level analysis Canopy cover classed as follows:

Vertical Structure

Based on proportion of total basal area in the following sizeclasses. There are 5 possible vertical structure classes: 1 = single story, 2 = two-story, 3 = three-story, C = continuous, none = insufficient ba/tpa found on the plot/stand. Initially, every plot/stand is classified as having 1 layer of vertical structure.

Vertical Structure

Stand Classifier Tool Runs on any FVS tree list data Consistent way to compare over time

Stand Classifier Tool Input FVS treelist

Stand Classifier Tool

Stand Classifier Tool: Multiple Setting Output

Stand Classifier Tool: Multiple Cycle Output

For more information Region One, Forest and Rangeland Management Staff, Inventory website: