Current Distribution of Sagebrush and Associated Vegetation in the Western United States (excluding NM and AZ), 2002

Abstract: The map includes the current distribution of 10 sagebrush vegetation types from eastern WA, OR, and CA, through central CO, and eastern WY and MT. It used readily available data on vegetation, elevation, and soil characteristics to depict regional vegetative patterns, placing emphasis on sagebrush vegetation, but also including 49 other land cover themes. Thematic consistency was established through a "crosswalk" of land cover categories from each map source (see broadsageXwalk.xls). In several instances, existing knowledge of sagebrush habitat characteristics was combined with elevation and soil characteristics to provide greater thematic precision for sagebrush vegetation than was included in source material. In other instances, minor edits of source material were completed, based on local expert knowledge. A 90-meter grid is used for the map, but source material included 30 to 90-meter grids and 1:24,000 and 1:100,000 polygon coverages.

The grid codes in this cover link to a table which links to a standard vegetation classification, based on the National Vegetation Classification System (NVCS). These NVCS vegetation types are mostly alliances, and all have alliance descriptions available from the NatureServe public web site (www.natureserve.org). The vegetation names, codes and the names from the source data are incuded in the attached table, which is in the form of an Excel spreadsheet, broadsageXwalk.xls. There is also a MS Word metadata document, describing the details of the creation of the cover, called broadsage metadata.doc.