Portland State University PDXScholar Institute for Natural Resources Publications Institute for Natural Resources - Portland 10-31-2011 Historical Vegetation of Central Southwest Oregon, Based on GLO Survey Notes : Final Report to USDI Bureau of Land Management, Medford District O. Eugene Hickman John A. Christy Portland State University Let us know how access to this document benefits ouy . Follow this and additional works at: http://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/naturalresources_pub Part of the Natural Resources and Conservation Commons, and the Soil Science Commons Citation Details Hickman, O. Eugene and John A. Christy. 2011. Historical Vegetation of Central Southwest Oregon Based on GLO Survey Notes. Final Report to USDI Bureau of Land Management. Medford District, Oregon. 124 pp. This Technical Report is brought to you for free and open access. It has been accepted for inclusion in Institute for Natural Resources Publications by an authorized administrator of PDXScholar. For more information, please contact [email protected]. HISTORICAL VEGETATION OF CENTRAL SOUTHWEST OREGON, BASED ON GLO SURVEY NOTES Final Report to USDI BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT Medford District October 31, 2011 By O. Eugene Hickman and John A. Christy Consulting Rangeland Ecologist Oregon Biodiversity Information Center Retired, USDA - NRCS Portland State University 61851 Dobbin Road PSU – INR, P.O. Box 751 Bend, Oregon 97702 Portland, Oregon 97207-0751 (541, 312-2512) (503, 725-9953) [email protected] [email protected] Suggested citation: Hickman, O. Eugene and John A. Christy. 2011. Historical Vegetation of Central Southwest Oregon Based on GLO Survey Notes. Final Report to USDI Bureau of Land Management. Medford District, Oregon. 124 pp. ______________________________________________________________________________ 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS SUMMARY ........................................................................................................................................................................ 4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................................................................... 5 INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................................................................. 7 SW OREGON PRE-GLO SURVEY HISTORY ....................................................................................................................... 7 THE GENERAL LAND OFFICE, ITS FUNCTION AND HISTORY............................................................................................ 10 Transition to Southern Oregon ................................................................................................................................. 10 SW Oregon GLO Survey Program ........................................................................................................................... 11 PROJECT OBJECTIVES ...................................................................................................................................................... 12 PRODUCTS ....................................................................................................................................................................... 12 Viewing GLO Data and Project Deliverables .......................................................................................................... 12 STUDY AREA .................................................................................................................................................................. 13 BLM FUNDED PROJECT .................................................................................................................................................. 13 OSU PROJECT AND COMBINED STUDY AREA ................................................................................................................. 16 ENVIRONMENTAL SETTING ............................................................................................................................................. 17 Ecological Divisions ................................................................................................................................................. 17 Geology .................................................................................................................................................................... 20 Topography .............................................................................................................................................................. 20 Climate ..................................................................................................................................................................... 21 Soils .......................................................................................................................................................................... 24 THE GLO SURVEY SYSTEM AND RECORDS ......................................................................................................... 26 LOCAL SURVEY PROCEDURE .......................................................................................................................................... 26 GLO RECORDS ............................................................................................................................................................ 27 Bearing or Witness Tree Data .................................................................................................................................. 27 Section Line Measurements, Intercepts and References ........................................................................................... 27 Descriptions of Section Lines ................................................................................................................................... 28 General Description of Townships ........................................................................................................................... 28 Township Plat ........................................................................................................................................................... 28 COMMENTS REGARDING THE USE AND INTERPRETATION OF GLO RECORDS ................................................................. 28 METHODS AND PROCEDURES ................................................................................................................................. 30 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................................................... 30 PREPARATION OF ACCESS DATABASE ............................................................................................................................. 32 Overview ................................................................................................................................................................... 32 Township Table Preparation .................................................................................................................................... 32 Line Table Preparation ............................................................................................................................................ 32 Completed Line Tables ............................................................................................................................................. 33 PREPARATION OF HISTORICAL VEGETATION MAPS ........................................................................................................ 33 Overview ................................................................................................................................................................... 33 Development of Fine-Scale Map Units (Vegetation Subclasses) .............................................................................. 33 Development of Coarse-scale Map Units (Vegetation Classes) ............................................................................... 34 Forest. ..................................................................................................................................................................................... 35 Woodland. ............................................................................................................................................................................... 35 Savanna. .................................................................................................................................................................................. 35 Shrubland. ............................................................................................................................................................................... 35 Prairie. ..................................................................................................................................................................................... 35 2 RESULTS: GLO SURVEY, PRODUCTS AND DISCUSSION .................................................................................. 36 SOUTHWEST OREGON GLO SURVEYS ............................................................................................................................. 36 Surveyors 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