Accuracy Assessment of Vegetation Maps in NCR Parks
A joint project of NatureServe and the National Park Service, National Capital Region. NatureServe has completed an Accuracy Assessment of the mapping of plant communities in 11 parks in the National Capital Region. An Accuracy Assessment tells park managers the level of confidence they can have that a Plant Community is correctly mapped. The plant communities were classified in 2008 and mapped by Natureserve through a partnership with the National Capital Region, NPS Vegetation Inventory Program, and the Virginia, Maryland and West Virginia Natural Heritage Programs. The maps were completed in 2012. NCR plant communities are classified at the Association level of the United States National Vegetation Classification, which is the NPS standard. Additionally, each park with a surrounding 0.5-mile buffer was mapped according to the Ecological Systems classification. This effort resulted in mapped locations of 112 Associations and 24 Ecological Systems across 11 NCR parks. These products provide resource managers with a robust classification of their plant communities within the regional landscape, and maps which will help them understand the distribution of plant communities within their parks. Workshops will be held at parks to demonstrate uses of the classification, field keys, and maps of plant communities.
