Forest structural stages for all ownerships within the Western Oregon Plan Revision (WOPR) area for year 2036. 25 meter pixels are classified as either unclassified/non-forest, stand establishment, young, mature, or structurally complex forest. Classification of BLM lands are derived from the WOPR OPTIONS models. Classification of non-BLM lands are derived from the Ecoshare Plant Series Groups, IVMP (Interagency Vegetation Mapping Project) and LSOG (Late-Successional Old-Growth) products developed for the NWFP (Northwest Forest Plan) Effectiveness Monitoring report.
BLM: (Bureau of Land Management) WOPR: Western Oregon Plan Revision) PRMP: (Proposed Resource Management Plan) SS: (Structural Stages) IVMP: (Interagency Vegetation Management Project) LSOG: (Late Stage Old Growth) USFS: (Forest Service) ODF: (Oregon Department of Forestry) FRAGSTATS: (Spatial pattern analysis program for quantifying landscape structure) FEMAT: (Forest Ecosystem Management Assessment Team) FEIS: (Final Environmental Impact Statement) FOREST STRUCTURAL STAGES Forests are classified in the analysis using the following four-stage structural classification system: Stand establishment - Forests that approximate the early-successional conditions that follow disturbances, such as timber harvesting or wildfires. This classification is subdivided based on whether or not the stand establishment forest includes trees (structural legacies) from the previous forest. Young - Forests that approximate the small conifer forests described in the FEMAT Report and Northwest Forest Plan. This classification is subdivided, like stand establishment, based on whether or not the young forest includes trees (structural legacies) from the previous forest. Mature - Forests that are defined similarly to the mature forests described in the FEMAT Report and Northwest Forest Plan. This classification is subdivided based on whether the forest has a single canopy layer or multiple canopy layers. Structurally complex - Forests that approximate the old-growth forests described in many analyses (e.g., the medium/large conifer multi-story forests of the FEMAT Report and the large, multi-storied older forests of the Late-Successional Forest Monitoring Report). The structural stages for all lands other than the BLM-administered lands are classified using data from the Interagency Vegetation Mapping Project (IVMP), which uses satellite imagery to classify attributes of forest vegetation. See WOPR Final EIS Appendix B - Forest Structure and Spatial Pattern. Moeur et al. (2005) discuss the accuracy of mapping forest vegetation from IVMP data and conclude that it provides the best practice for classifying forest vegetation across all ownerships in a region (Moeur et al. 2005, pp. 18-30, 108, 109, 123-128). Those discussions are incorporated by reference. The BLM-administered lands are classified for both the current and future conditions based on the OPTIONS model outputs rather than IVMP data. For analyses across all ownerships, the four classes of structural stages defined above are reduced to three classes-combining structurally complex and mature, which is equivalent to late-successional forest in other analyses. The IVMP data cannot reliably distinguish between mature and structurally complex forests (Spies 2006; Moeur et al. 2005, pp. 103-104). This analysis will refer to this combined class as mature & structurally complex forest. INTERAGENCY VEGETATION MAPPING PROJECT (IVMP) Existing vegetation mapping for the planning area was based on the Interagency Vegetation Mapping Project (IVMP), which provides maps of existing vegetation, canopy cover, size, and cover type for the entire range of the Northern Spotted Owl using satellite imagery from Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM). The LSOG Monitoring Report contains detailed descriptions of the IVMP data and evaluations of IVMP map accuracy (Moeur et al. 2005, pp. 18-30, 108-109, 123- 128). Those descriptions and evaluations are incorporated here by reference. The IVMP was initiated in 1998 under joint program management and funding by the Bureau of Land Management-Oregon and the Forest Service-Region 6. The project's goal was to provide consistent spatial data for monitoring older forests within the portions of the Plan area in Washington and Oregon. The IVMP mapped existing vegetation in the nine physiographic provinces in Washington (Eastern and Western Cascades, Olympic Peninsula, and Western Lowlands) and Oregon (Eastern and Western Cascades, Coast Range, Willamette Valley, and Klamath Mountains). The IVMP modeling approach combined remotely sensed satellite imagery (25-m Landsat TM), digital elevation models, interpreted aerial photos, and inventory information collected on the ground to classify existing vegetation. Landsat scenes used in the IVMP project ranged from fall 1992 through summer 1996. Of the 17 scenes, 2 were acquired in 1992, 1 each in 1994 and 1995, and 13 in 1996. A regression modeling approach was used to predict vegetation characteristics from this Landsat data. Inventory plot data were used as reference information for IVMP model building and accuracy assessment. Almost 10,000 plots were used for model building and testing, and another 2,800 plots were held out for an independent accuracy assessment. These data came primarily from Current Vegetation Survey (CVS) plots maintained by Forest Service-Region 6 and Bureau of Land Management-Oregon on Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management lands in Washington and Oregon, and from Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) plots administered by Pacific Northwest Research Station on nonfederal lands. The LSOG raster dataset is derived directly from the IVMP raster datasets. All IVMP map data and supporting documentation are available online at: http://www.or.blm.gov/gis/projects/ivmp.asp All LSOG map data and supporting documentation are available online at: http://www.reo.gov/monitoring/lsog-overview.shtml PLANT SERIES GROUPS Plant series data was obtained from the Ecoshare program through REO. The plant series data was intersected with the Forest Operations Inventory Units on a majority rules basis to classify each forest stand. The initial classification were assessed against 4th and 5th field hydrologic units and Organon variant to determine a final series grouping. OREGON FOREST LAND CHANGE MAP This raster dataset describes the location and rate of disturbance on forest land caused by timber harvesting and fire. The product was originally produced for western Oregon by the US Forest Service (USFS) and Oregon State University (OSU) utilizing Landsat imagery transformed into Tasseled Cap and other image derivatives and the Simultaneous Image Differencing method. Image segmentation was applied to the difference image for use in post-classification modeling. The same procedure was later used by Sanborn on behalf of the Oregon Department of Forestry to identify changes at years 2002 and 2004. For further detail on structural stage please look at these links to the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS): Ch 2 Forest Structure and Spatial Pattern, Page 202: http://www.blm.gov/or/plans/wopr/final_eis/files/Volume_1/Vol_I_Chpt_3_Sec_1.pdf Appendix R - Vegetation Modeling, Page 716: http://www.blm.gov/or/plans/wopr/final_eis/files/Volume_4/Volume_IV_App_R.pdf
