Vegetation - Canada de los Osos Ecological Reserve [ds2943]

As a result, the original database was retained and a copy of that was modified and saved. The modified database was used as an attributes table for the vegetation shape files in the map. Mapping consisted of creating vegetation polygons on the NAIP layer within ARCGIS.

Vegetation at the Alliance level is generally more easily mapped by aerial photo than that described at the Association level. Therefore, it was necessary to ground-truth for purposes of quality control. Certain “mapping rules” were created to maintain consistency when creating polygons.

Trees separated from a larger, woodland stand by greater than two times their canopy width were not included within the larger stand. Similarly, grassland polygons can contain trees that do not appear associated with an adjacent woodland polygon. Trees within grassland forming an apparent savannah community were mapped as a community separate from the extenuating grassland.

If members of that community appeared to merge with adjacent woodland, they were retained in the savannah polygon. Areas of grassland or scrubland surrounded by woodland and less than five meters in width were incorporated into the woodland polygon. The map was prepared for publication in BIOS by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife Vegetation Classification and Mapping Program.