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

2. 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

3. Litigation Fees Paid ’03 and ‘04

4. Classification MappingInventory Analysis Components : Building Blocks

5. 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?

6. 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

7. Guiding Principles

8. 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

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

10. 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

11. 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

12. R1-Veg Council

14. Field Data from FVS.kcp

15. 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

16. Tree Dominance Types

17. 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”.

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

19. Sizeclass

20. 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

21. Sizeclass

22. NTG Classes seedling 0.1 – 4.9 5.0 – 9.9 10.0 – 14.9 15.0 – 19.9 20.0 – 24.9 25.0 + Traditional Classes seedling 0.1 – 0.9 1.0 – 4.9 5.0 – 8.9 9.0 – 13.9 14.0 – 20.9 21.0 + Often requires collapsing into fewer classes for broad- and mid- level analysis BA-weighted Average DBH classed as follows:

23. Canopy Cover

24. 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.

25. Canopy Cover

26. 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

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

28. Vertical Structure

29. 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.

30. Vertical Structure

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

36. Stand Classifier Tool Input FVS treelist

37. Stand Classifier Tool

38. Stand Classifier Tool: Multiple Setting Output

39. Stand Classifier Tool: Multiple Cycle Output

40. For more information Region One, Forest and Rangeland Management Staff, Inventory website: http://fsweb.r1.fs.fed.us/forest/inv/classify/index.htm