A Reclamation team uses the newest remote sensing and Geographic Information System techniques as well as old-fashioned field work to provide critical data on natural resources to the National Park Service.

In an ambitious cooperative effort, the bureau's Remote Sensing and Geographic Information Group is helping to develop a spatial database for vegetation and producing digital and hardcopy maps that can be used to classify and describe the vegetation resources of 250 NPS units. The multi-year partnership works with the U.S. Geological Survey's Biological Resources Division and other public, non-profit, and private groups as part of a National Biological Information Infrastructure project.

Based at the Denver Federal Center in Lakewood, Colorado, the Reclamation unit hosts one of the largest state-of-the-art laboratories in the Rocky Mountain region, with a staff of 16 government scientists and 10 contract employees. All products produced by the project meet National Mapping Accuracy Standards at 1:24,000 scale, and the vegetation is mapped to conform to the Federal Geographic Data Committee's National Vegetation Classification Standard.

The data can be used in applications that are critical to the daily operation of NPS sites, including planning, environmental education, fire management, and wildlife habitat modeling. With baseline information, changes in park environment can be readily mapped and the ramifications of these changes can be quickly documented and studied.

Preparing the spatial databases and maps is an intensive, time-consuming process. But because the information is available on the USGS website, state parks, local agencies, and others are becoming interested in the process. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service conducts two pilot studies using the same methodology for two national wildlife refuges in Colorado.

"I am excited about the opportunity to apply the program standards to our refuges," said Tom Owens, program coordinator for the USGS Center for Biological Informatics. "It will be a challenge to classify the highly managed vegetation of refuges, but it is a necessary next step in the growth of our program."

The time and effort invested in producing these databases will pay large dividends by facilitating on-the-ground management and agency cooperation across administrative boundaries. In a world that changes so quickly, it is imperative that cooperative efforts continue to provide the information that managers need to protect resources.

For more information on the vegetation mapping project, visit http://biology.usgs.gov/npsveg. For more on Reclamation's Remote Sensing and Geographic Information Group, visit http://www.rsgis.

do.usbr.gov. For the National Vegetation Classification Standard see http://www.fgdc.gov/standards/status/sub21.html.

Trudy Meyer is a GIS Specialist with Reclamation's Remote Sensing and Geographic Information Group, located in Denver, Colorado.