Kansas Natural Heritage Inventory, Kansas Biological Survey USGS/CSS/BIP/Center for Biological Informatics 20100630 vector digital data http://www1.usgs.gov/vip/tapr/taprgeodata.zip doi:10.5066/F7F47M3G The Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve (TAPR) Vegetation Mapping Project was organized and coordinated by the Kansas Biological Survey (KBS) at the University of Kansas, in cooperation with NatureServe, in accordance with the standards set forth by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) - National Park Service (NPS) Vegetation Mapping Program. The TAPR Vegetation Mapping Project was initiated because the preserve protects a nationally significant example of the once vast tallgrass prairie ecosystem. Of the 400,000 square miles of tallgrass prairie that once covered the North American continent, less than four percent remains, primarily in the Flint Hills. Although the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve had been mapped at a coarse level (tallgrass prairie vs. riparian forest area), a more accurate map was needed to break out grassland types, rock outcrops, replanted vegetation, water, and other landmarks to National Vegetation Classification alliance. A unified objective classification, such as outlined in the National Park Service's Vegetative Mapping Program, can become a valuable aid to the preserve for the use in vegetation management, grazing, fire, wetlands, and wildlife monitoring. Since the National Park Service is charged with conserving, protecting, and interpreting the resources of this prairie landscape, an accurate and detailed vegetation map and data layers for a GIS is very useful for management purposes. Common to all vegetation mapping program projects, the three major components of the TAPR Vegetation Mapping Project are vegetation classification, vegetation mapping, and map accuracy assessment. In this report we discuss each of these fundamental components in detail. Map Classe Common Names: 1-Wet Ravine Vegetation 2-Smooth Brome 3-Tallgrass Prairie 4-Cropfields 5-Bur Oak Woodland 6-Weedy 7-Restored Prairie 8-Roadways 9-Rocky Mixed Prairie 10-Developed Land 11-Successional Forest 12-Ponds/Water Bodies The National Vegetation Mapping Program is an interagency initiative established to inventory, classify, describe, and map vegetation in National Park units and other areas across the United States. It is administered by the USGS Center for Biological Informatics and the NPS Natural Resources Information Division, and provides baseline vegetation information to the NPS Inventory and Monitoring Program. The shapefile was imported into a geodatabase by the USGS/CSS/BIP/Center for Biological Informatics. 201006 ground condition Complete None planned Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve and environs -96.610148 -96.489679 38.505113 38.388045 None vegetation association vegetation classification National Park Service vegetation map vegetation alliance vegetation formation None Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve Kansas Chase County Flint Hills None Standardized National Vegetation Classification System vegetation classification alliance community association Kingdom Plantae None None Kelly Kindscher Kansas Natural Heritage Inventory, Kansas Biological Survey Associate Scientist mailing and physical address

2101 Constant Ave.

Lawrence Kansas 66047 USA (785) 864-1529 (785) 864-1537 kindscher@ku.edu Microsoft Windows XP Version 5.1 (Build 2600) Service Pack 3; ESRI ArcCatalog 9.3.1.3000 Examination of the final error matrix (Appendix A) shows an overall accuracy of 92.0%. Only one map class fell below the 80% standard, cropland, due to its low frequency and low sample size. Areas of confusion occurred between similar vegetation types. Confusion occurred between bur oak forest, successional forest, and wet ravine vegetation, which all had significant overlap in species and were sometimes difficult to distinguish from aerial imagery. Unknown Unknown Dataset copied. \\Franklin\D\NPSProject\Tallgrass\Data\GIS\TallgrassPrairie013110_new2KD.mdb 20100330 Dataset copied. \\FRANKLIN\D$\NPSProject\Tallgrass\Data\GIS\TallgrassPrairie013110_new2KD.mdb 20100518 Metadata imported. C:\DOCUME~1\kars\LOCALS~1\Temp\xml2AA.tmp 20100920 Metadata imported. C:\Users\kars\AppData\Local\Temp\xmlC765.tmp 20110413 Metadata imported. D:\Projects\NPS\WorkingFiles\Veg_Poly_old_TAPR.shp.xml 20110414 The shapefile was imported into a geodatabase by the USGS/CSS/BIP/Center for Biological Informatics. 201105 Metadata imported. 201105 Vector G-polygon 568 Universal Transverse Mercator 14 0.999600 -99.000000 0.000000 500000.000000 0.000000 coordinate pair 0.000100 0.000100 meters North American Datum of 1983 Geodetic Reference System 80 6378137.000000 298.257222 TAPR_VegPolys Feature class attribute table National Park Service OBJECTID Internal feature number. ESRI Sequential unique whole numbers that are automatically generated. Shape Feature geometry. ESRI Coordinates defining the features. Poly_ID Unique identifier for each polygon NPS Unique plot code. MapUnit_ID Code used to represent the Map Unit NPS Map unit code. MapUnit_Name Full Map Unit name NPS Map unit association common name. X_Centroid X Coordinate (UTM Easting) of the centroid of the polygon NPS Easting coordinate. Y_Centroid Y Coordinate (UTM Northing) of the centroid of the polygon NPS Northing coordinate. Acres Area (unknown units) ESRI Positive real numbers that are automatically generated. Hectares Perimeter (unknown units) ESRI Positive real numbers that are automatically generated. Shape_Length Length of feature in internal units. ESRI Positive real numbers that are automatically generated. SHAPE_Area Area of feature in internal units squared. ESRI Positive real numbers that are automatically generated. rc_VegPolys_tVegMapInfo Defines relationship between Veg polygons and basic vegetation attributes National Park Service 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/tapr.html Internet Access None 20110414 20110602 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