Classification of the Vegetation Alliances and Associations of the Northern Sierra Nevada Foothills, California Volume 1 of 2 – Introduction, Methods, and Results By Anne Klein Josie Crawford Julie Evens Vegetation Program California Native Plant Society Todd Keeler-Wolf Diana Hickson Vegetation Classification and Mapping Program California Department of Fish and Game For the Resources Management and Policy Division California Department of Fish and Game Contract Number: P0485520 December 2007 This report consists of two volumes. This volume (Volume 1) contains the project introduction, methods, and results, as well as literature cited, and appendices. Volume 2 includes descriptions of the vegetation alliances and associations defined for this project. This classification report covers vegetation associations and alliances attributed to the northern Sierra Nevada Foothills, California. This classification has been developed in consultation with many individuals and agencies and incorporates information from a variety of publications and other classifications. Comments and suggestions regarding the contents of this subset should be directed to: Anne Klein Julie Evens Vegetation Ecologist Senior Vegetation Ecologist California Dept. of Fish and Game California Native Plant Society Sacramento, CA Sacramento, CA <[email protected]> <[email protected]> Todd Keeler-Wolf Senior Vegetation Ecologist California Dept. of Fish and Game Sacramento, CA <[email protected]> Copyright © 2007 California Native Plant Society, 2707 K Street, Suite 1 Sacramento, CA 95816, U.S.A. All Rights Reserved. Citation: The following citation should be used in any published materials that reference this report: Klein, A., J. Crawford, J. Evens, T. Keeler-Wolf, and D. Hickson. 2007. Classification of the vegetation alliances and associations of the northern Sierra Nevada Foothills, California. Report prepared for California Department of Fish and Game. California Native Plant Society, Sacramento, CA. Restrictions on Use: Permission to use, copy and distribute these data is hereby granted under the following conditions: 1. The above copyright notice must appear in all documents and reports; 2. Any use must be for informational purposes only and in no instance for commercial purposes; 3. Some data may be altered in format for analytical purposes, however the data should still be referenced using the citation above. Any rights not expressly granted herein are reserved by the California Native Plant Society (CNPS). Except as expressly provided above, nothing contained herein shall be construed as conferring any license or right under any CNPS copyright. Information Warranty Disclaimer: All data are provided as is without warranty as to the currentness, completeness, or accuracy of any specific data. The absence of data in any particular geographic area does not necessarily mean that species or ecological communities of concern are not present. CNPS hereby disclaims all warranties and conditions with regard to these data, including but not limited to all implied warranties and conditions of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement. In no event shall CNPS be liable for any special, indirect, incidental, consequential damages, or for damages of any kind arising out of or in connection with the use of these data. Because the data supporting this is continually being updated, it is advisable to check for data and classification revisions at least once a year after receipt. i ABSTRACT The following report describing the vegetation of the northern Sierra Nevada Foothills was completed by the California Native Plant Society (CNPS) for the California Department of Fish and Game (CDFG). CDFG contracted with CNPS to identify the range of vegetation types in the northern Foothills by collecting field samples across the region in 2005 and 2006. The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) rewarded CNPS two sequential grants to involve volunteers in collecting vegetation samples across the Sierra Nevada Foothills in the same timeframe. Additional field samples collected in the study area by collaborators were used to develop this inventory. The northern Foothills region, here defined by the two northern subsections of the Sierra Nevada Foothills Section of the USDA Ecological Subregions of California (Miles and Goudey 1997), includes 2.48 million acres of land, with approximately 15% under public ownership and 85% under private ownership. Vegetation sampling by means of the CNPS Relevé and Rapid Assessment Protocols was used to obtain a total of 710 Relevés and 1691 Rapid Assessments, which were used to develop a quantitative classification based on cluster and indicator species analyses. The resulting classification describes vegetation types according to the National Vegetation Classification System, which is now the state standard. A total of 57 vegetation alliances and 8 semi-natural types were identified, which included an additional 156 defined plant associations and 3 sub-alliances. The rarity of these vegetation types was ranked by the CDFG Senior Ecologist. ii PROJECT STAFF AND COLLABORATORS Project Staff This classification project was completed by a team of CNPS and CDFG Vegetation Ecologists, a grant-funded Training Coordinator hired through the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF), contract-funded field staff, and GIS analysts. The following lists the basic roles of the staff involved. Project management and oversight: Julie Evens (CNPS) and Todd Keeler-Wolf (CDFG). Database management, field sampling coordination, and GIS support: Anne Klein (CNPS) NFWF Training Coordinator: Josie Crawford (CNPS) GIS analysis: Kristi Fien and Eric Kauffman (CDFG) Field data collection, data entry, and plant identification: Team Leaders – Mark Bibbo, Edward Kentner, and Jeanne Taylor (CNPS) Vegetation Assistants – Rachel Brush, Stella Cousins, Nick Jensen, Arren Mendezona, and Jaime Ratchford (CNPS) NFWF Training Coordinator – Josie Crawford Vegetation Ecologists – Julie Evens, Diana Hickson, Anne Klein, Todd Keeler-Wolf, and Carol Witham Database query development: Anne Klein and Julie Evens Vegetation classification, description, key development, report preparation and editing: Josie Crawford, Julie Evens, Anne Klein, Diana Hickson and Todd Keeler-Wolf. Rarity ranking of vegetation types: Todd Keeler-Wolf Collaborators Contributing Additional Vegetation Data to this Project California Native Plant Society, Bureau of Reclamation Peoria Wildlife Area (data from 2003) Environmental Science Associates, Consulting Firm Melanie Gogol-Prokurat, University of California, Davis, and CDFG Ayzik Solomeshch, University of California, Davis Carol Witham, Private Consultant Eric Wood, Humboldt State University and CDFG iii TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................................................1 METHODS...........................................................................................................................................1 Study Area................................................................................................................................... 1 Site Selection .............................................................................................................................. 2 Figure 1. Map representing the four subsections included in the larger Sierra Nevada Foothills Ecological Section (M261), as described by the US Forest Service Ecological Subregions (Miles and Goudey 1997)............................................................................................................ 3 Figure 2. Map showing the CDFG and NFWF project areas with intersecting counties. The CDFG study area includes the northern Sierra Nevada Foothills region.................................... 3 Field Sampling............................................................................................................................. 4 Vegetation Classification and Key...............................................................................................5 Figure 3. Locations of field survey points within the northern Sierra Nevada Foothills. ............ 6 Description Writing, Standards, and Definitions.......................................................................... 9 RESULTS..........................................................................................................................................11 Basic Species and Vegetation Data.......................................................................................... 11 Table 1. Noteworthy plant taxa including their common name, CNPS listing (CNPS 2007), and number of county occurrences when recorded in vegetation surveys during 2005-2006. ....... 12 Classification Analyses ............................................................................................................. 16 Figure 4. Example diagram showing the arrangement of samples from the cluster analysis in a subset of relevés found on serpentine and gabbro substrates ................................................. 18 Figure 5. Example diagram showing the same portion of the same cluster analysis as in Figure 4, but with finer grouping levels................................................................................................. 19 Table 2. Final vegetation classification from the northern Sierra Nevada Foothills, California. Alliances and Associations are nested within