Use of Regional Forest Vegetation Mapping For Analyzing Endangered
Species Habitat
By Russell G. Congalton, Lincoln Cannon, Micheal Golden, and James Schriever

Oregon's model Forest Practices Act regulates forest management activities to protect and ensure the long-term productivity of Oregon's forests. Historically, the FPA has focused on regulating site activities such as logging, stream buffers, and reforestation. Increasingly, however, forestry issues are being addressed in the public policy arena at a broader landscape level, dealing with the "cumulative effects" of forest management activities across ownership and geographical boundaries. These issues include ecosystem management, biological diversity, watershed/basin management, wildlife habitat (salmon, spotted owl, etc.), and land-use (urban, agricultural, forest) planning. While it is anticipated that resource managers will increasingly be dealing with forestry issues at a landscape level, the lack of consistent and reliable data has continued to be an impediment to demonstrating the effectiveness of Oregon's FPA and making well-informed landscape level policy decisions.
    To address these concerns, on 26 January 1996, the Board of Directors of the Oregon Forest Industries Council (OFIC, an association representing Oregon's industrial forestland owners) made a historic decision, unanimously approving funding for a western Oregon mapping project to develop a consistent and reliable database describing forest conditions across western Oregon.
    This project, the largest special project ever undertaken by OFIC, was also supported by the governor's office, the Oregon State Department of Forestry (ODF), and the Oregon Small Woodlot Association (OSWA). The project utilized satellite image processing techniques to develop a regional-scale forest vegetation geographic information systems (GIS) database that spans all ownership and land allocations in western Oregon. The work on this project was contracted to Pacific Meridian Resources with offices in Portland, Oregon, by the OFIC. Working from the baseline information developed for the project, one initial example of the value and use of such information is in addressing the important policy issue of endangered species (i.e., northern spotted owl) habitat.
    The combined acreage of OFIC landowner cooperators and ODF lands across Oregon's Westside Forests is approximately 4.5 million acres. These cooperators were able to provide detailed information regarding vegetative conditions across their ownership. In addition, Pacific Meridian Resources has extensive experience mapping the remaining federal and private lands for both ODF and the USDA Forest Service. This combined experience coupled with thousands of field sites resulted in improved efficiency and the opportunity to provide one of the largest, most complete, and accurate forest databases ever developed across the region.
    Early in the project it was determined that classification of Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) satellite imagery provided several unique advantages for developing current vegetative conditions across the region. The primary goal associated with image classification was establishing a consistent, accurate, spatially explicit, and reliable estimate of current vegetative (baseline) conditions across western Oregon forests. In addition, it was important to insure that monitoring procedures could be implemented in a timely (annually) and cost effective manner.
    The development of the vegetative GIS database for Oregon's Westside Forests was accomplished through the integration of existing data, extensive field reconnaissance and inventory, aerial photo interpretation, and Landsat TM satellite image classification techniques. The methods associated with this project were divided into the following sections: 1) Development of an appropriate classification scheme, 2) Image classification to produce the map, 3) Review and editing of the draft map, and 4) Validation or accuracy assessment of the final map. Maps were produced for vegetation type, forest crown closure, and for owl habitat.

Conclusions
As human populations continue to grow, so do the pressures on our natural resources and systems. This trend has manifested itself through the multitude of issues facing natural resource land managers. Some of these issues include cumulative effects, ecosystem management, biological diversity, threatened and endangered species, and sustained yield requirements. One result has been a growing shift in the focus of forest practices, applications, and regulations from the stand to the landscape level.
    The OFIC Western Oregon Vegetative Mapping Project was carried out in response to numerous regional analyses and proposed regulations that have been developed within the region. These analyses and proposed regulations were often performed with inconsistent and/or incomplete vegetative data across federal and state ownership, and poor information on vegetative conditions on private forestland. The primary objective of this project was to develop a comprehensive, accurate, seamless, consistent, and detailed digital baseline vegetative GIS database for Oregon's Westside Forests. This database was initially used to quantify spotted owl habitat. However, this data set will also provide OFIC and ODF with information needed to proactively assess and monitor landscape conditions and to develop and evaluate solutions dealing with issues pertaining to future forest practices, issues, and regulations at various spatial scales across all ownerships for Oregon's Westside Forests. It is an important step in ensuring the Oregon Forest Practices Act will continue to protect and enhance Oregon's forest resources now and in the future.

About the Authors:
Lincoln Cannon is the director of Forest Resources and Taxation for Oregon Forest Industries Council. James Schriever is vice president and chief operating officer for Pacific Meridian Resources. Dr. Russell Congalton is a proffessor at the University of New Hampshire int eh Department of Natural Resources. In addition, Dr. Congalton is the chief scientist for Pacifice Meridian Resources. Michael Golden is the remote sensing manager at Pacific Meridian Resources' Portland office.

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