National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior Natural Resource Stewardship and Science Lewis and Clark National Historic Park Vegetation Classification and Mapping Project Report Natural Resource Report NPS/NCCN/NRR—2012/597 ON THE COVER Benson Beach, Cape Disappointment State Park Photograph by: Lindsey Koepke Wise Lewis and Clark National Historic Park Vegetation Classification and Mapping Project Report Natural Resource Report NPS/NCCN/NRR—2012/597 James S. Kagan, Eric M. Nielsen, Matthew D. Noone, Jason C. van Warmerdam, and Lindsey K. Wise Oregon Biodiversity Information Center Institute for Natural Resources – Portland Portland State University P.O. Box 751 Portland, OR 97207 Gwen Kittel NatureServe 4001 Discovery Dr., Suite 2110 Boulder, CO 80303 Catharine Copass National Park Service North Coast and Cascades Network Olympic National Park 600 E. Park Avenue Port Angeles, WA 98362 December 2012 U.S. Department of the Interior National Park Service Natural Resource Stewardship and Science Fort Collins, Colorado The National Park Service, Natural Resource Stewardship and Science office in Fort Collins, Colorado, publishes a range of reports that address natural resource topics. These reports are of interest and applicability to a broad audience in the National Park Service and others in natural resource management, including scientists, conservation and environmental constituencies, and the public. The Natural Resource Report Series is used to disseminate high-priority, current natural resource management information with managerial application. The series targets a general, diverse audience, and may contain NPS policy considerations or address sensitive issues of management applicability. All manuscripts in the series receive the appropriate level of peer review to ensure that the information is scientifically credible, technically accurate, appropriately written for the intended audience, and designed and published in a professional manner. This report received informal peer review by subject-matter experts who were not directly involved in the collection, analysis, or reporting of the data. Data in this report were collected and analyzed using methods based on established, peer-reviewed protocols and were analyzed and interpreted within the guidelines of the protocols. Views, statements, findings, conclusions, recommendations, and data in this report do not necessarily reflect views and policies of the National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior. Mention of trade names or commercial products does not constitute endorsement or recommendation for use by the U.S. Government. This report is available from The North Coast and Cascades Network website (http://science.nature.nps.gov/im/units/nccn/reportpubs.cfm) and the Natural Resource Publications Management website (http://www.nature.nps.gov/publications/nrpm). Please cite this publication as: Kagan, J. S., E. M. Nielsen, M. D. Noone, J. C. van Warmerdam, L. K. Wise, G. Kittel, and C. Copass. 2012. Lewis and Clark National Historic Park vegetation classification and mapping project report. Natural Resource Report NPS/NCCN/NRR—2012/597. National Park Service, Fort Collins, Colorado. NPS 405/117805, December 2012 ii Contents Page Figures............................................................................................................................................. v Tables ............................................................................................................................................ vii Appendices ..................................................................................................................................... ix Executive Summary ....................................................................................................................... xi Acknowledgments......................................................................................................................... xii Acronyms ..................................................................................................................................... xiii Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 1 The National Park Service Vegetation Inventory Program ..................................................... 1 Lewis and Clark National Historical Park Vegetation Inventory Mapping Project ................ 1 The National Vegetation Classification Standard .................................................................... 2 Study Area ...................................................................................................................................... 5 Location and Brief History ...................................................................................................... 5 Project Extent ........................................................................................................................... 7 Landscape Setting .................................................................................................................... 7 Previous Studies..................................................................................................................... 13 Usefulness of Previous Work to this Effort ........................................................................... 13 Vegetation Classification .............................................................................................................. 15 Classification Methods .......................................................................................................... 15 Field Data Collection ........................................................................................................ 15 Data Analyses and Results..................................................................................................... 16 Classification Discussion ....................................................................................................... 23 Classification Summary ......................................................................................................... 24 Vegetation Mapping...................................................................................................................... 25 iii Contents (continued) Page Methods ................................................................................................................................. 25 Preliminary Segmentation ................................................................................................. 25 Training Data Collection................................................................................................... 28 Map Classification ............................................................................................................ 30 Post-Processing Map Development .................................................................................. 34 Mapping Results .................................................................................................................... 37 Mapping Discussion .............................................................................................................. 45 Accuracy Assessment ................................................................................................................... 47 Methods ................................................................................................................................. 47 Field Data Collection ........................................................................................................ 47 Data Analyses ................................................................................................................... 48 Results.................................................................................................................................... 49 Discussion .............................................................................................................................. 51 Literature Cited ............................................................................................................................. 53 iv Figures Page Figure 1. Locations and names of Lewis and Clark National Historical Park and State Park units. ....................................................................................................................................... 6 Figure 2. Spruce forest at Fort Clatsop blown down by a major wind storm event in 2007................................................................................................................................................. 8 Figure 3. A mature, undisturbed spruce forest at Cape Disappointment. ...................................... 8 Figure 4. Historical vegetation cover of the northwest Oregon coast. ........................................... 9 Figure 5. Historical vegetation cover of the Cape Disappointment area in southwest Washington. .................................................................................................................................. 10 Figure 6. Historical vegetation cover at Ecola State Park. ........................................................... 11 Figure 7. Remnant dune prairie at Sunset Beach. ........................................................................ 12 Figure 8. Dune at Fort Stevens dominated by non-native European beachgrass. ........................ 12 Figure 9. Rose spiraea wetland