Jeb Bjerke, California Department of Fish and Wildlife 20220912 vector digital data https://www.wildlife.ca.gov/Data/BIOS https://filelib.wildlife.ca.gov/Public/BDB/GIS/BIOS/Public_Datasets/3000_3099/ds3020.zip Joshua tree is a visually distinctive plant found in California’s Mojave Desert and adjacent areas. The unique silhouette and tall stature of Joshua tree relative to typical surrounding vegetation make it one of the most recognizable native plants of California deserts. There are two species of Joshua tree in California, western Joshua Tree (Yucca brevifolia) and eastern Joshua tree (Yucca jaegeriana). Eastern Joshua tree (Yucca brevifolia ssp. jaegeriana) distribution is represented in the data incidentally, but the primary purpose of this dataset is to illustrate the distribution of western Joshua tree. Western Joshua tree is distributed in discontinuous populations in the Mojave Desert and in a portion of the Great Basin Desert. Western Joshua tree is often noted as being abundant near the borders of the Mojave Desert in transition zones. No attempt was made to map Joshua tree distribution outside of California, and therefore the data are limited to geographic areas within California. CDFW possesses vegetation maps that cover a large portion of the California deserts where Joshua tree generally occurs. CDFWs Vegetation Classification and Mapping Program (VegCAMP) uses a combination of aerial imagery and fieldwork to delineate polygons with similar vegetation and to categorize the polygons into vegetation types. In 2013, an effort was made to create a vegetation map that covers a large portion of the California deserts. The vegetation data from this project includes percent absolute cover of Joshua tree and in some instances only Joshua tree presence and absence data. Western Joshua tree and eastern Joshua tree were lumped together as one species in these vegetation maps. A rigorous accuracy assessment of Joshua tree woodland vegetation alliance was performed using field collected data and it was determined to be mapped with approximately 95 percent accuracy. This means that approximately 95 percent of field-verified, polygons mapped as Joshua tree woodland alliance were mapped correctly. While Joshua tree woodland alliance requires even cover of Joshua tree at ≥1 percent, the vegetation dataset has polygons recorded with Creating a range map with incomplete presence data can sometimes be misleading because the absence of data does not necessarily mean the absence of the species. Some of the observations used to produce the range map may also be old, particularly if they are based on herbarium records, and trees may no longer be present in some locations. Additionally, different buffer distances around data points can yield wildly different results for occupied areas. To create the the western Joshua tree range boundary used in the March 2022 Status Review of Western Joshua Tree, CDFW buffered presence locations, but did not use a specific buffer value, and instead used the data described above in a geographic information system exercise to extend the range polygons to closely follow known occurrence boundaries while eliminating small gaps between them. This data describes the range of Joshua tree in California as interpreted by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) in 2021 for the March 2022 Status Review of Western Joshua Tree (Yucca brevifolia). 20220909 The desert areas of the State of California, primarily the Mojave Desert. Complete None planned -119.019932 -114.369466 37.496642 33.685251 ISO 19115 Topic Categories biota environment None Western Joshua Tree Yucca brevifolia brevifolia jaegeriana California range California Department of Fish and Wildlife CDFW native plant. None License: This work is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Using the citation standards recommended for BIOS datasets (https://www.wildlife.ca.gov/Data/BIOS/Citing-BIOS) satisfies the attribution requirements of this license.Disclaimer: The State makes no claims, promises, or guarantees about the accuracy, completeness, reliability, or adequacy of these data and expressly disclaims liability for errors and omissions in these data. No warranty of any kind, implied, expressed, or statutory, including but not limited to the warranties of non-infringement of third party rights, title, merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and freedom from computer virus, is given with respect to these data. California Department of Fish and Wildlife Jeb Bjerke Jeb.Bjerke@wildlife.ca.gov California Department of Fish and Wildlife Diane Mastalir GIS Specialist - Habitat Conservation Planning Branch unknown Sacramento California US Diane.Mastalir@wildlife.ca.gov Please contact via email California Department of Fish and Wildlife Diane Mastalir GIS Specialist - Habitat Conservation Planning Branch unknown Sacramento California US Diane.Mastalir@wildlife.ca.gov Please contact via email California Department of Fish and Wildlife. Habitat Conservation Planning Branch. Native Plant Program. Jeb Bjerke. Diane Mastalir (GIS). Version 6.2 (Build 9200) ; Esri ArcGIS 10.6.1.9270 Vector GT-polygon composed of chains 14 NAD 1983 California Teale Albers 34.0 40.5 -120.0 0.0 0.0 -4000000.0 coordinate pair 0.0001 0.0001 meter D North American 1983 GRS 1980 6378137.0 298.257222101 ds3020 OBJECTID Internal feature number. Esri Sequential unique whole numbers that are automatically generated. SHAPE Feature geometry. Esri Coordinates defining the features. ssp Subspecies CDFW Acres GIS Polygon Acres CDFW Shape_Length Length of feature in internal units. Esri Positive real numbers that are automatically generated. SHAPE_Area Area of feature in internal units squared. Esri Positive real numbers that are automatically generated. 20220913 California Department of Fish and Wildlife Diane Mastalir GIS Specialist - Habitat Conservation Planning Branch unknown Sacramento California US Diane.Mastalir@wildlife.ca.gov Please contact via email FGDC Content Standard for Digital Geospatial Metadata FGDC-STD-001-1998 local time This work is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Using the citation standards recommended for BIOS datasets (https://www.wildlife.ca.gov/Data/BIOS/Citing-BIOS) satisfies the attribution requirements of this license.