Sagebrush Cover Mapping for Greater Sage-Grouse Conservation
Summary
Benefits to this proposal for the LCCs and FWS, sage-grouse researchers, and agencies responsible for managing and monitoring sage-grouse populations and habitat include: Leveraging economies of scale to facilitate mapping of sagebrush cover across a large landscape that would be impossible without the existing Grass/Shrub Mapping Project given the funds requested in this proposal. Exploitation of ongoing research and mapping science to meet the direct management need for a consistent sagebrush mapping product in which stakeholders of all interests can use as a base for their own applications. The combination of new technologies (Landsat 8 and WorldView-2 (WV2)) with partner funding contributions to increase sample sizes (NGA [...]
Summary
Benefits to this proposal for the LCCs and FWS, sage-grouse researchers, and agencies responsible for managing and monitoring sage-grouse populations and habitat include:
Leveraging economies of scale to facilitate mapping of sagebrush cover across a large landscape that would be impossible without the existing Grass/Shrub Mapping Project given the funds requested in this proposal.
Exploitation of ongoing research and mapping science to meet the direct management need for a consistent sagebrush mapping product in which stakeholders of all interests can use as a base for their own applications.
The combination of new technologies (Landsat 8 and WorldView-2 (WV2)) with partner funding contributions to increase sample sizes (NGA purchase of high resolution satellite imagery and BLM field sampling) with maturing mapping science developed by USGS will result in much higher mapping accuracies and thus higher quality products than we could achieve in isolation.
