Stillwater Sciences URS Corporation vector digital data Prepared by Stillwater Sciences and URS Corporation for the California State Coastal Conservancy and the Santa Clara River Trustee Council, Berkeley, California. https://www.wildlife.ca.gov/Data/BIOS Although the Santa Clara River riparian corridor is relatively intact, flood protection infrastructure, diversions, roads, agriculture, and urbanization have constrained or disrupted natural geomorphic and hydrologic processes, causing riparian and aquatic habitat degradation. While a number of studies and planning efforts have begun on the river to address these issues (e.g., Trustee Council 2002, AMEC 2005, and the Santa Clara River Parkway project), baseline information on existing riparian community types, their extent, and distribution is not available. Since native riparian vegetation provides critical ecosystem services, such as improved flood control and water quality, improved terrestrial and aquatic habitat quality, and increased local biodiversity, managing for healthy riparian vegetation is a central part of river management and restoration. Developing an accurate, current map of riparian vegetation is a crucial first step in river management and restoration planning. This project addresses the need for detailed vegetation information in support of conservation and restoration planning efforts on the lower Santa Clara River within Ventura County. Funding for the project was provided through matching grants by the California State Coastal Conservancy (SCC) and The Santa Clara River Trustee Council (Trustee Council). The complex and dynamic nature of vegetation communities present within the lower Santa Clara River corridor required modifications to traditional approaches for riparian vegetation mapping; thus, this project utilized a combination of field-based vegetation classification and mapping, and traditional photo-interpretive techniques. One-foot, digital Orthoimagery flown in September 2005 was used as the imagery base. The vegetation classification followed the State of California standard vegetation classification system developed under the auspices of the Vegetation Program of the California Native Plant Society and described in the first edition of 'A Manual of California Vegetation' (Sawyer and Keeler-Wolf 1995), with minor adjustments to match changes being incorporated into the second edition of the Manual, which is currently in preparation (T. Keeler-Wolf, pers. comm., 2005 and 2007). The primary objective of this project is to provide a preliminary vegetation classification and detailed vegetation map for the mainstem Santa Clara River riparian corridor and its three major tributaries within Ventura County. This was undertaken to provide baseline data for Santa Clara River Parkway Floodplain Restoration Feasibility Study, identify invasive vegetation for eradication efforts, facilitate more effective land use planning, improve local wildlife habitat suitability modeling, and advance regional conservation planning. Complete None planned -119.268901 -118.689153 34.466628 34.202195 None vegetation ISO 19115 Topic Category biota environment None California None None Stillwater Sciences Zooey Diggory zooey@stillwatersci.com Microsoft Windows 7 Version 6.1 (Build 7601) Service Pack 1; Esri ArcGIS 10.5.1.7333 Although no formal accuracy assessment was performed, a streamlined data form, modified from the CNPS vegetation reconnaissance field data form (versus the modified CNPS rapid assessment protocol used for the 50 sites described above) was used to document dominant and characteristic plant species at approximately 650 stands (polygons) during the remainder of the four-week main field survey effort in summer 2005, and additional surveys in fall 2005 and summer 2006. This CNPS reconnaissance data form is typically used for ground-truthing or accuracy assessment of polygon classification based on photo interpretation. This effort provided more accurate vegetation data than could be obtained through photo-interpretation, reduced the amount of area that had to be mapped using photo-interpretation (see Section 2.4), and supported further refinement of the classification system. In summary, field data on percent cover of dominant and characteristic species were collected for nearly 700 stands of vegetation during 2005 and 2006 0 None Digital Orthoimagery flown in September 2005 was used as the imagery base. Vector GT-polygon composed of chains 1546 NAD 1983 California Teale Albers 34.0 40.5 -120.0 0.0 0.0 -4000000.0 coordinate pair 0.000000003754707655900803 0.000000003754707655900803 meter D North American 1983 GRS 1980 6378137.0 298.257222101 ds983 Vegetation - Lower Santa Clara River [ds983] OBJECTID Internal feature number. ESRI Sequential unique whole numbers that are automatically generated. Shape Feature geometry. ESRI Coordinates defining the features. NVCSNAME The standardized name of the vegetation description used in the National Vegetation Classification System (see http://usnvc.org/). Since the NVCS does not have categories for human land use or otherwise unvegetated land, those descriptions were drawn from the California Wildlife Habitat Relationship. http://usnvc.org/ NVCSLEVEL The standardized level of the vegetation description used in the National Vegetation Classification System (seehttp://usnvc.org/). http://usnvc.org/ MAPCLASS The finest level of vegetation type mapped (alliance, association, group or macrogroup); or land use for polygons that are not natural vegetation, per the mapping classification. ALLIANCE Contents of this field vary. For associations, the alliance which contains them. For types mapped above the alliance, a grouping name was used. Stillwater Science Arundo_Cov Percent Arundo donax cover for the mapping unit. http://www.santaclarariverparkway.org/wkb/scrbiblio/scrvegreport Tamarix Whether or not there is Tamarix in the polygon. (Yes or No) MUSource The source from which the mapping unit delineation and classification call were derived: “field data” indicates the mapping unit was derived from the field-based mapping efforts, “PhotoInterp” indicates a photo-interpretation based delineation and classification call. Mapping units with an MUSource of “ESA 2003” were modified from mapping conducted by ESA (2003) in McGrath State Park and mapping units with an MUSource of “URS Corporation 2002” were derived from mapping efforts at Hedrick Ranch conducted by URS Corporation (2002). http://www.santaclarariverparkway.org/wkb/scrbiblio/scrvegreport PolyNumber The polygon number, used to link field-based mapping units with the associated reconnaissance field form. http://www.santaclarariverparkway.org/wkb/scrbiblio/scrvegreport UID Unique identifier for each polygon. CA Dept. of Fish and Wildlife, VEGCAMP CALVEGNAME A crosswalk to the CalVeg vegetation system. Note that there may be a one-to-many relationship between CalVeg and NVCS. http://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/r5/landmanagement/resourcemanagement/?cid=stelprdb5347192 CALVEGCODE A crosswalk to the CalVeg vegetation system. Note that there may be a one-to-many relationship between CalVeg and NVCS. http://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/r5/landmanagement/resourcemanagement/?cid=stelprdb5347192 CWHRTYPE A crosswalk to the California Wildlife Habitat Relationships system. Note that there is usually a one-to-many relationship between CWHR and NVCS http://www.dfg.ca.gov/biogeodata/cwhr/ CWHRCODE A crosswalk to the California Wildlife Habitat Relationships system. Note that there is usually a one-to-many relationship between CWHR and NVCS http://www.dfg.ca.gov/biogeodata/cwhr/ GLOBALRANK The global rarity rank of the plant community mapped (only for alliances). http://www.natureserve.org/publications/ConsStatusAssess_RankMethodology.jsp STATERANK The state rarity rank of the plant community mapped (only for alliances). http://www.natureserve.org/publications/ConsStatusAssess_RankMethodology.jsp RARE Rarity of the vegetation type. Alliances and associations with state ranks of S1-S3 are considered rare. CA Dept of Fish and Wildlife, VEGCAMP Y Rare N Not Rare U Unknown CACODE California Natural Community Codes - unique code assigned to alliances and associations. CA Dept. of Fish and Wildlife, VEGCAMP NVCSALLIANCE The standardized name for the alliance within the Nation. http://usnvc.org/ NVCSGROUP The standardized name for the group within the National Vegetation Classification System. http://usnvc.org/ NVCSMG The standardized name for the macrogroup within the National Vegetation Classification System. http://usnvc.org/ Acres The area of the polygons in acres. 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. Note: certain fields have been added by the Department of Fish and Game's Vegetation Classification and Mapping Program. These include crosswalks to the Wildlife Habitat Relationships and CalVeg classification systems, Global and State Ranks, CaCode and the fields relating the mapping units to the National Vegetation Classification System as it is described for California in the 2nd edition of the Manual of California Vegetation. 20171102 California Department of Fish and Wildlife Rosie Yacoub GIS Specialist rosalie.yacoub@wildlife.ca.gov FGDC Content Standard for Digital Geospatial Metadata FGDC-STD-001-1998 local time