Pennsylvania Natural Heritage Program 20070712 vector digital data http://www1.usgs.gov/vip/alpo/alpoplot.zip Pennsylvania Natural Heritage Program 20061231 document doi:10.5066/F7N877Q7 Location of vegetation sampling plots used to collect data for vegetation classification and mapping at Allegheny Portage Railroad National Historic Site. In this data set, the X, Y coordinates for one plot have been altered to protect rare plant species that could be vulnerable to collection. To identify locations of plots from which data was collected to use in the classification and mapping efforts at Allegheny Portage Railroad National Historic Site. 20061231 20061231 Complete None planned Allegheny Portage Railroad National Historic Site -78.858729 -78.451388 40.469325 40.350584 none plot vegetation community classification vegetation association map National Park Service National Park Service Theme Category Thesaurus Allegheny Portage Railroad National Historic Site none Pennsylvania Allegheny Portage Railroad National Historic Site National Park System Unit Name Thesaurus Allegheny Portage Railroad National Historic Site National Park System Unit Code Thesaurus ALPO None Standardized National Vegetation Classification System vegetation classification alliance community association Kingdom Plantae none none Pennsylvania Natural Heritage Program Ecologist mailing and physical address

208 Airport Drive

Middletown Pennsylvania 17055 USA (717) 948-3962 (717) 948-3957 Pennsylvania Natural Heritage Program, Western Pennsylvania Conservancy Microsoft Windows XP Version 5.1 (Build 2600) Service Pack 2; ESRI ArcCatalog 9.1.0.780 ESRI point geometry Each plot is represented by one point. All points fall within the mapped polygons. The number and distribution of vegetation plots was determined according to the USGS/NPS Vegetation Mapping protocols. The protocol suggests that each vegetation association should have been sampled at least three times in order to capture the naturally occurring variation within the park. If each of the vegetation cover types represented only one association in Allegheny Portage Railroad National Historic Site, the minimum number of plots needed would have been 34. This assumed that areas labeled with modified Anderson level II categories would not be sampled, and that for cover types with less than three polygons, one plot would be placed in each polygon. However, it is more likely that some cover types represent multiple associations. Alternatively, a few of the vegetation cover types assigned to the map may actually represent a single association. This occurs because of significant variation in vegetation structure and leaf phenology caused by past land use, natural resource management, and environmental setting. Regardless, the vegetation cover type map is a useful guide to determine the intensity, distribution, and location of vegetation sampling. Based on the cover type map, our initial reconnaissance of the park, and vegetation mapping efforts at other parks, we estimated that 80 plots was the approximate number needed to sufficiently capture the range of vegetation types. Eighty polygons representing different aerial photograph signatures and vegetation cover types were then selected for sampling. Plot sampling was conducted in August 2005. The diversity of vegetation types, especially within the Deciduous Forest cover type, was less than originally estimated, and therefore, only 77 plots were sampled in total. All vegetation types were sampled over a range of environmental variables. One vegetation cover type, Temporarily Flooded Mixed Evergreen - Deciduous Forest, was not sampled because it's one mapped polygon was primarily outside the park's boundary and it contained a mosaic of two forest types already adequately sampled. 20050630 Vegetation plots shapefile The vegetation plots shapefile was altered to create a shapefile suitable for public distribution. The X, Y coordinates for one plot that contains a rare plant species that could be vulnerable to collection were rounded as follows: the coordinate value was rounded up if the last three digits = 000-499; the coordinate value was rounded down if the last three digits = 500-999. A field named "crd_alt" was added to the shapefile attribute table; the value for this field is "no" if the plot coordinates have not been altered and "yes" if the plot coordinates were altered. 20070711 Vector Entity point 77 Universal Transverse Mercator 17 0.999600 -81.000000 0.000000 500000.000000 0.000000 coordinate pair 0.000064 0.000064 meters North American Datum of 1983 Geodetic Reference System 80 6378137.000000 298.257222 alpo_veg_plots_2005_public attributes from shapefile table Pennyslvania Natural Heritage Program FID Internal feature number. ESRI Sequential unique whole numbers that are automatically generated. Shape Feature geometry. ESRI Coordinates defining the features. PLOT_CODE unique plot identification code Investigator NPS four letter park code plus unique number crd_alt Field used to indicate whether X, Y coordinates for the plot have been altered to protect a rare species that could be vulnerable to collection NCSU yes The X, Y coordinates for the plot have been altered. NCSU no The X, Y coordinates for the plot have not been altered. NCSU UTM_X Easting coordinate of site location. USGS Easting coordinate added using XTools Pro. UTM_X Northing coordinate of site location. USGS Northing coordinate added using XTools Pro. USGS/CSS/Core Science Analytics and Synthesis USGS-NPS Vegetation Characterization Program Coordinator mailing and physical address

Denver Federal Center, Building 810, MS 302

Denver Colorado 80225 (303) 202-4220 303-202-4219 gs-b-npsveg@usgs.gov Downloadable Data The U.S. Geological Survey and the National Park Service shall not be held liable for improper or incorrect use of the data described and/or contained herein. These data and related graphics (if available) are not legal documents and are not intended to be used as such. The information contained in these data is dynamic and may change over time. The data are not better than the original sources from which they were derived. It is the responsibility of the data user to use the data appropriately and consistent within the limitations of geospatial data in general and these data in particular. Any related graphics (if available) are intended to aid the data user in acquiring relevant data; it is not approriate to use the related graphics as data. The U.S. Geological Survey and the National Park Service gives no warranty, expressed or implied, as to the accuracy, reliability, or completeness of these data. It is strongly recommended that these data are directly acquired from an U.S. Geological Survey and National Park Service servers and not indirectly through other sources which may have changed the data in some way. Although these data have been processed successfully on a computer system at the U.S. Geological Survey, no warranty expressed or implied is made regarding the utility of the data on another system or for general or scientific purposes, nor shall the act of distribution constitute any such warranty. This disclaimer applies both to individual use of the data and aggregate use with other data. It is also strongly recommended that careful attention be paid to the contents of the metadata file associated with these data. Mention of trade names or commercial products in this metadata report does not constitute endorsement or recommendation for use by the U. S. Department of the Interior, U. S. Geological Survey and National Park Service. HTML http://www.usgs.gov/core_science_systems/csas/vip/parks/alpo.html Internet Access None 20070712 20100511 USGS/CSS/Core Science Analytics and Synthesis USGS-NPS Vegetation Characterization Program Coordinator mailing and physical address

Denver Federal Center, Building 810, MS 302

Denver Colorado 80225 (303) 202-4220 303-202-4219 gs-b-npsveg@usgs.gov FGDC Biological Data Profile of the Content Standard for Digital Geospatial Metadata FGDC-STD-001.1-1999 http://www.usgs.gov/core_science_systems/csas/metadata/index.html