Vegetation Characterization Products Now Available for Capitol Reef National Park

USGS-National Park Service (NPS) Vegetation Characterization Program (VCP) documentation for Capitol Reef National Park has been completed and is available on the VCP Web site . Products include aerial photography - graphic of orthophoto mosaic, spatial orthophoto data, and flightline index; project report - photointerpretation key, vegetation descriptions, vegetation key, photos of map class, and accuracy assessment; field data - graphic of field plots, field database, physical descriptive for plots and species list for plots; geospatial vegetation information - graphic of vegetation communities, geodatabase and field photos; accuracy assessment information - graphic of accuracy assessment points, and contingency matrix; metadata, and a link to NPS information about Capitol Reef National Park. The goal of the VCP is to classify and map the vegetation communities of National Parks that have a natural resource component. Complete documentation is currently available for fifty park units and two U.S. Fish and Wildlife refuge units. The VCP is managed by the USGS Center for Biological Informatics in cooperation with the NPS Inventory and Monitoring Program. The USGS Vegetation Characterization effort includes the management and upkeep of the VCP protocols, Web-based access to the standards, and the Web-based access to NPS Vegetation Characterization program finished products. (Theresa Singh, Houston, TX, 936-271-5324)

(Photo: Capital Reef National Park - is 98,650 ha (243,768 acres), and is located in south-central Utah, approximately 4.8 km (3 miles west of the park) is Torrey and 88 km (55 miles to the east) is Hanksville.)