VEGETATION CLASSIFICATION
AND MAPPING AT
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON NATIONAL MONUMENT, VIRGINIA

Technical Report NPS/NER/NRTR—2008/100

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 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 Booker T. Washington National Monument. Ten map classes, representing seven USNVC associations, one nonstandard park-specific vegetation class, and two Anderson Level II land-use categories were used to map the 97-ha (239-ac) park. Vegetation map classes were determined through extensive field reconnaissance and data collection and analysis. The vegetation map classes were based on 2002 aerial photography and 2002 field sampling. 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-ha minimum mapping unit.

Four cultural map classes covered 35% (32 ha [79 ac]) of the park: Cultural Meadow; Other Urban or Built-Up Land; Transportation, Communications, and Utilities; and White Pine Plantation. Early successional or transitional vegetation covers approximately 31% (28 ha [69 ac]) of park land: Successional Virginia Pine Forest; Successional Tuliptree Forest; and Dense Hardwood Regeneration. The remaining 34% (31 ha [77 ac]) of the park are later successional forests: Acidic Oak - Hickory Forest; Basic Mesic Forest; and Piedmont / Mountain Floodplain Forest.

A vegetation map of Booker T. Washington National Monument was created following the USGS-NPS Vegetation Mapping Program protocols. These vegetation associations 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. A field key to the map classes and detailed descriptions for each 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, digital photos of vegetation associations, and spatial data files for the vegetation map and plot sample points with associated Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC)-compliant metadata.

Products for Booker T. Washington National Monument 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, Booker T. Washington National Monument

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