Land Cover Data Description

Restoration Planning: Helpful for identifying important habitat areas and plant community types. Can avoid harming critical habitat during restoration work and also attempt to reconnect areas of important habitat through restoration efforts.

Data Description: NRIS has several land cover databases. The most useful at present for Upper Clark Fork  restoration planning is the Montana GAP database which is described here. Landsat Thematic Mapper Images of Montana were interpreted to provide ARC/INFO files of  land cover, stewardship (management entity), and predicted distribution of 425 terrestrial vertebrate species, based on cover types considered to be suitable habitat for each species.

Location of sample sites/areas assessed:  all of Montana + 10 km buffer

Nature of location info in database:  ARC/INFO; All images (but 2) were in an Albers Equal Area Conic projection with these parameters: units = meters; spheroid = Clarke 1866; datum = NAD27;          

1^st Parallel = 46 degrees; 2^nd Parallel = 48 degrees;

Central Meridian = -109.5 degrees; Latitude of projection’s origin = 44.25 degrees;

False Easting = 600,000 meters; False Northing = 0.

Duration and Frequency of Sampling: single Landsat image per site,  most from 1989-92, a few from 1993-4.  Update frequency —no plans to update at present—static, one time assessment.

Parameters measured & methods used:  Land Cover types, stewardship (management entity),  potential habitat of 450 terrestrial vertebrate species.  Land cover types are based on:

      Fisher, F.B.,J.C. Winne, M.M. Thornton, T.P. Tady, Z. Ma, M.M. Hart, and R.L. Redmond.  1998.  Montana land cover atlas.  Unpubl report.  Montana Cooperative Wildlife Research Unit, The University of Montana, Missoula.  viii + 50 pp.  /nsdi/nris/gap90/mtcover.pdf

Land cover is classified into 50 land cover types (various subdivisions of urban, agricultural, grasslands, shrublands, forests, water, riparian, barren, alpine, perennial snow & ice—see table 2.1 of  the Redmond report under Relevant References below).   

Mapping inputs & assumptions include:

•     Landsat TM images mostly from 1989-92 (a few from 1993 or 1994).

•     Digital elevation models;

•     Digital hydrography (USGS 1:100,000 scale checked against hard copy topos);

•     Ground reference points provided by land management agencies

•     Urban land was based on visual assessment of digital aerial photos

•     Riparian areas were assumed to be land adjacent to waterbodies and within 5 m of the elevation of the waterbody at that point. There was an unstated upper limit to width of the riparian area.

•     Agricultural land was manually identified  to avoid confusion with riparian areas. 

Quality of data:   Data are meant to be used at a scale of 1:100,000 or coarser. Input images had a final  pixel size of 30 sq. meter.  The grid cell size is 90 sq meters and the minimum map unit is 2 ha.   Analysis suggested these data average 61 % absolutely accurate (89% acceptably accurate)

Reference:  The report below describes input data and methods used to generate the database:

Redmond, R.L., M.M. Hart, J.C. Winne, W.A. Williams, P.C. Thornton,  Z. Ma, C.M. Tobalske, M.M. Thornton, K.P. McLaughlin, T.P. Tady, F.B. Fisher, S.W. Running.  1998.  The Montana Gap Analysis Project: final report.  Unpublished report.  Montana Cooperative Wildlife Research Unit,  The University of Montana, Missoula.  xiii + 136 pp. + appendices.  On-line at /nsdi/nris/gap90/mtgapveg.pdf 

Contact information:  Developed by MT Wildlife Research Unit at University of Montana,  but this entity does not provide support.  Data available through Montana State Library (NRIS). Most knowledgeable contact person at NRIS is:  Gerry Daumiller  (gdaumiller@state.mt.us)     Montana State Library -- (406) 444-5358     

How to obtain data: Can be downloaded as ARC/INFO or shape files from:   /nsdi/nris/gap90/gap90.html   Also available on 4 CDs from the MT Wildlife Research Unit at University of Montana

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Restoration Planning: Potentially useful for basin-wide, multi-agency planning, but the scale (1:500,000) is too coarse for specific project planning.

Data Description:  The ecological subregions map created by the USFS Northern Region is available from NRIS as a GIS layer.  This map divides the land up into areas that have similar surficial geology, lithology, geomorphic processes, soil groups, climate and potential plant communities.  The coverage is statewide, including parts of Idaho. There are several different ecoregions in the Upper Clark Fork study area.  

Metadata for this map can be obtained from NRIS:  /nsdi/nris/ot118.html

How to obtain data: Can be downloaded as ARC/INFO or shape files from:  /gis/datalist.html#lw   (scroll down the list of available data)

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