Western North American Naturalist Volume 65 Number 3 Article 1 7-28-2005 A comprehensive ecological land classification for Utah's West Desert Neil E. West Utah State University Frank L. Dougher Utah State University and Montana State University, Bozeman Gerald S. Manis Utah State University R. Douglas Ramsey Utah State University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/wnan Recommended Citation West, Neil E.; Dougher, Frank L.; Manis, Gerald S.; and Ramsey, R. Douglas (2005) "A comprehensive ecological land classification for Utah's West Desert," Western North American Naturalist: Vol. 65 : No. 3 , Article 1. Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/wnan/vol65/iss3/1 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Western North American Naturalist Publications at BYU ScholarsArchive. It has been accepted for inclusion in Western North American Naturalist by an authorized editor of BYU ScholarsArchive. For more information, please contact
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[email protected]. Western North American Naturalist 65(3), © 2005, pp. 281–309 A COMPREHENSIVE ECOLOGICAL LAND CLASSIFICATION FOR UTAH’S WEST DESERT Neil E. West1, Frank L. Dougher1,2, Gerald S. Manis1,3, and R. Douglas Ramsey1 ABSTRACT.—Land managers and scientists need context in which to interpolate between or extrapolate beyond discrete field points in space and time. Ecological classification of land (ECL) is one way by which these relationships can be made. Until regional issues emerged and calls were made for ecosystem management (EM), each land management institution chose its own ECLs. The need for economic efficiency and the increasing availability of geographic informa- tion systems (GIS) compel the creation of a national ECL so that communication across ownership boundaries can occur.