FGDC Vegetation SubcommitteeUpdate to Coordination Group

Marianne K. Burke, Ph.DChair of the Vegetation Subcommittee

Forest Service Research and Development571-733-7972

mburke@fs.fed.us

March 18, 2014

Coordination Group Meeting

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IntroductionThe Mission/Purpose of the Vegetation Subcommittee is: the coordination of terrestrial vegetative data-related activities among Federal agencies and the establishment of a mechanism for the coordinated development, use, sharing, and dissemination of terrestrial vegetation data. Members include: 

•Marianne Burke, USFS•Mike Mulligan, USGS•Gene Fults, NRCS•Don Faber-Langendoen, NatureServe•Scott Franklin, ESA•Alexa McKerrow, USGS•Kristin Snow,

•NatureServe

Cliff Duke, ESAJill Parsons, ESAHarbin Li, USFSRobert Peet,

UNC/ESADave Tart, USFSJohn Dennis, NPSMichelle Cox,

US Navy

•Carol Spurrier, BLM•Nate Herold, NOAA•Karl Brown, NPS•Kathy Goodin, NatureServe•Laurel Gorman, USACE•Elizabeth Middleton,

NASA•Patrick Donnelly, FWS

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NGDA Data Themes and Data Sets

The FGDC Vegetation Subcommittee reports to the Land Use – Land Cover Theme.The following data themes and data sets fall under the purview of the FGDC Vegetation Subcommittee: The National Vegetation Classification Standard. Revised content (types and descriptions) for

eight levels of the NVC hierarchy. VegBank – a permanent archive of the

vegetation plot data.

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Recent Meetings

•Monthly Vegetation Subcommittee Meetings

•Monthly ESA Panel Meetings

•ESA Pilot Peer Review Board Meeting

•Meetings with potential users Interagency Land Management Adaptation Group USFS Forest Inventory and mapping USFS Environmental Threat Assessment Centers

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Recent Developments/Projects

(Subcommittee Administration)Subcommittee MOU is before the partner signatoriesSubcommittee Charter is before the Land Use - Land Cover

Theme Leads for their concurrence.Subcommittee Implementation Plan is almost ready to share

beyond the subcommittee A mapping working group was created to interact with groups using the NVC in mapping.Progress is being made for housing the NVC in a federal agency

USGS is working on database search capability for USNVC Database

FS Data archivist is: providing advice for the planning process for housing the

NVC and related information advocating for housing the NVC by the Forest Service.

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Revised Hierarchy Example

Upper

Level 1 – Formation Class Shrubland & Grassland [mesomorphic]

Level 2 – Formation Subclass Temperate & Boreal Shrubland & Grassland

Level 3 - Formation Temperate Grassland & Shrubland

Mid

Level 4 – Division Great Plains Grassland & Shrubland

Level 5 – Macrogroup Tallgrass Prairie Grassland & Shrubland

Level 6 – Group Tallgrass Mesic Prairie Grassland

Lower

Level 7 – Alliance Big Bluestem – Indian grass Grassland

Level 8 – Association Big Bluestem – Indian grass / Gayfeather Grassland

Recent Developments/Projects(Content Maintenance and Dissemination)

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Recent Developments /Projects(Peer review and evaluation of proposals for revising

content)

The report for the ESA Peer Review pilot has been submitted to USGS for review. Longleaf pine dataset was used as case study

to identify the process and policy decisions specific to reviewing proposed changes to the NVC – nearing completion.

Proposals for revisions will address changes needed at the in the content for the Alliance level.

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Recent Developments/ProjectsThe Hierarchy Revisions Report for Formation Class, Formation Subclass, and Formation (levels 1 to 3) is being published.

Multi-agency report Online and Paper copies Published by the

Forest Service

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Recent Developments/Projects(Collaborations involving use of NVC)

USNVC is being used in for

Vegetation classification in the •Parashant National Monument (BLM), •Lake Mead Natural Recreation Area (NPS) •Grand Canyon National Park (NPS)

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Recent Developments/ProjectsCollaboration using NVC

Forest Service FIA vegetation crosswalkDraft Key to the Eastern Forest

Macrogroups is complete

Final key needs to wait for completion

of final report on the Macrogroups and Groups (TBD by Dec. 2014)

Verification and QAQC is needed.

Plan is to implement NVC in the FIA database

Eventually hope to do crosswalk for Western US Forest and other non-forested types nationally.

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Key for Crosswalking Vegetation Classification

DATA DRIVING THE KEY: Species, their relative importance values, and attributes (hardwood, conifer, etc.)

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NVC will be part of the multi-phase integrated monitoring framework that will be used across the nation

EcosystemIndex Site

Forest Health Indicators

Phase 2 (P2)Forest Inventory

Phase 1 (P1)Remote Sensing

GROUND

Permanent20+ Ecosystem sitesthroughout U.S.

Permanent8,000+ forest plots13 mile (22 km) grid

Permanent125,000+ forest plots3 mile (5 km) grid

Millions of 1 m – 1 km pixels

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Recent Developments/ProjectsCollaborations using NVC

LANDFIRE

Landfire involves vegetation mapping in support of fire and fuels management, and conservation planning.

Products include spatial data that are moderate resolution vegetation maps for the US (current & historic distributions, structural characteristics, fuel loadings, etc).

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Recent Developments/ProjectsCollaborations using NVC

LANDFIREFuture plans: Link plot data labeling for forested and

non-forested areas to NVCS throughoutthe US

Status: Currently initiating a new national mapping effort. Auto-keys will be developed for groups and macro- groups across the U.S.

Benefits: A comprehensive wall-to-wall spatial data for the US to support natural resource planning and

management.

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Recent Developments/Projects(Collaborations involving use of NVC)

Existing Vegetation Classification, Mapping, and Inventory Technical Guide (Ver. 2.0)

Vegetation Subcommittee provided advice on how to ensure that the NVC was crosswalked during land management planning activities on National Forests and Grasslands.

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Recent Developments/Projects(Outreach and education)

A half-day workshop “Applying the U.S. National Vegetation Classification on Military Lands.” was held on March 11, 2014 in Denver CO.

Todd Keeler-Wolf (California Department of Fish and Wildlife) Scott Franklin (Chair, Ecological Society of America Panel on

Vegetation Classification; Associate Professor University of Northern Colorado)

Alexa McKerrow (USGS Core Science Analytics and Synthesis; NVC Implementation Manager)

Jill Petraglia Parsons (Program Manager Ecological Society of America)

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Next Steps - administrative

Submit Charter to Coordination Committee

Finalize implementation plan and share it outside the subcommittee

Finalize how the NVC content will be housed and managed on a federal public facing server.

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Next Steps –outreach to users Interagency Land Management Adaptation Group

Scoping for projects to use NVC.

FS Environment Threat Assessment Centers Sought out NVC as system to use nationwide Plan to have National Forests crosswalk vegetation

categories

FS Ecosystem Management Coordination Subcommittee is providing input for development of

directives for land management planning on the National Forests.

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Next MeetingThe next meeting of the Vegetation subcommittee will be held about March 26, 2014. It will take place via teleconference.

Some of the topics to be discussed at the next meeting include:

Implementation plan. Report on workshop “Applying the U.S. National Vegetation

Classification on Military Lands” Status of the auto key projects Progress on re-homing the NVC and associated information. Report on Peer Review Pilot Project

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Questions?

Marianne Burke, Forest Service R&DPhone – 571-733-7972

mburke@fs.fed.us