VEGETATION CLASSIFICATION
AND MAPPING AT
APPOMATTOX COURT HOUSE
NATIONAL HISTORICAL PARK, VIRGINIA

Technical Report NPS/NER/NRTR—2008/125

Karen D. Patterson

Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation
Division of Natural Heritage
217 Governor Street, 3rd Floor
Richmond, VA 23219

June 2008

U.S. Department of the Interior
National Park Service
Northeast Region
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
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Summary

Accurate and up-to-date vegetation maps are recognized by the National Park Service (NPS) Inventory and Monitoring Program as one of twelve basic data sets for every national park with significant natural resources. The National Park Service (NPS) and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) have put forth standards and protocols for classification and mapping of vegetation communities on NPS lands. The USGS-NPS Vegetation Mapping Program recognizes the United States National Vegetation Classification (USNVC) as the standard vegetation classification to be used in these mapping projects.

Vegetation data collected from seven national parks in Virginia were combined with over 2,000 existing plot samples from throughout the Mid-Atlantic Piedmont and Coastal Plain and used to refine the USNVC for the mid-Atlantic region. This classification was used to map and describe the vegetation at the seven national parks in Virginia.

This report documents the classification and mapping of vegetation at Appomattox Court House National Historical Park. Twenty map classes representing seventeen USNVC associations, two nonstandard, park-specific vegetation classes, and two Anderson Level II land-use categories were used to map the 705 ha (1,743 ac) park. Vegetation map classes were determined through extensive field reconnaissance, data collection, and analysis. Leaf-off aerial photography from 2000 served as the base map and field sampling was conducted from 2002–2004. Spatial data was digitized onscreen over digital orthophoto mosaics created from scanned color infrared, stereo pair 1:6,000 scale aerial photography using a 0.5 hectare minimum mapping unit.

Cultural map classes cover 40% (283.2 ha [699.9 ac]) of the park and include the Anderson landuse categories and other man-made or maintained areas in the park. Early successional or transitional vegetation covers 36% of the land in the park (251.3 ha [620.9 ac]). Seven map classes representing late successional vegetation cover just over 24% of the land in the park (169.4 ha [418.5 ac]) and can be broadly characterized based on different environmental settings as upland forests (four map classes) and forested wetlands (three map classes).

A vegetation map of Appomattox Court House National Historical Park was created following the USGS-NPS Vegetation Mapping Program protocols. Vegetation map classes were crosswalked to the Natural Communities of Virginia and to the USNVC in order to provide a regional and global context for the park’s vegetation. All vegetation polygons on the map were surveyed either as part of the initial mapping effort or during accuracy assessment and their classification verified on the ground. One hundred and eighty-seven randomly selected accuracy assessment sampling points were collected throughout the park and used to assess the thematic accuracy of the map. The Kappa Index for the final vegetation map was 80.9±5%, with an overall accuracy of 84%.

A field key to the map classes and detailed descriptions for map classes or vegetation associations within a map class were developed to assist with field recognition and classification. Additional products associated with this project include: leaf-on and leaf-off orthophoto mosaics, database of vegetation plot data and accuracy assessment data, digital photos of vegetation associations, and spatial data files for the vegetation map, plot sample points, and accuracyassessment sample points with associated Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC)- compliant metadata.

Products for Appomattox Court House National Historical Park and similar national park vegetation mapping projects can be accessed at the USGS-NPS Vegetation Mapping Program website: http://biology.usgs.gov/npsveg/.

Keywords: vegetation association, vegetation classification, vegetation mapping, Appomattox Court House National Historical Park.

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The body of the report

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Appendix A through Appendix I--Inner Piedmont/Lower Blue Ridge Basic Mesic Forest

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Appendix I--Successional Tuliptree Forest to end