State Reports - Arizona Accuracy assessment for Arizona GAP is now being carried out by the Colorado Plateau Field Station at Northern Arizona University for the northern half of the state, and by the Cooperative Park Studies Unit at the University of Arizona for the southern portion of the state. The assessment is being conducted with a number of collaborators, such as the Arizona Game and Fish Department, Indian tribes, and local and county organizations and agencies. In order to help us with plant community classification and future mapping efforts, relevant data are being collected at a statistically significant number of polygons throughout the state. Vegetation accuracy assessment is being done by field technicians, private volunteers, and agency volunteers. Expectations are that this phase will be completed by early fall and that a final report will be drafted by the end of 1997. We continue to seek partnerships with state agencies and national museums with whom we can share data to the benefit of both programs. Part of our assessment of the vertebrate distribution maps includes checking the maps against documented collection data from museums and research laboratories. Lists of species occurrence have been collected for more than 22 different areas, and we are now in the process of evaluating the quality of those lists. To date, three public lectures have been given to agency conferences, and eleven meetings have been held with federal, state, and tribal agencies. Agency commitment toward assessing sampling sites has been slow in forthcoming, although some in-kind help has been provided. Despite this, the personal contact is important in giving these agencies and tribes a sense of investment in the gap analysis process. Arizona GAP is also increasing its capacity to serve data through the Internet. We expect that in fall 1997, we will have the GAP data sets available on-line, in addition to the CD-ROMs that might be produced with the final report. |