State-by-State Summaries As discussed earlier, substantial time and effort have been spent on developing the partnerships that constitute each GAP project. Alabama: There is no formal GAP project in Alabama at this time, though there is a strong interest in starting one. The Alabama Natural Heritage Program, Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit at Auburn University, the Geological Survey of Alabama, the RUST International Geographic Information System Lab at Samford University, and the EPA's Region 4 office have all contacted the GAP coordinator about developing an "AL-GAP." The EPA's Region 4 is in the process of granting funds to Alabama for a generalized Anderson Level II land cover map (Anderson et al. 1976) and perhaps could cooperate on a GAP land cover map. For further information, contact:
Alaska: GAP has not yet been initiated in Alaska. In May of 1994, Mike Jennings was invited to conduct a workshop in Anchorage in conjunction with a meeting of the Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna (CAFF) project, a United Nations and multi-national effort to map vegetation of the circumpolar arctic. Jennings spent two days with representatives of the FWS, United States Geological Survey (USGS), National Park Service (NPS), Bureau of Land Management (BLM), National Heritage Program (NHP), Alaska Fish and Game (AK-F&G), United States Forest Service (USFS), and the United Nations. Interest in a GAP project is very high, cooperation potential is good, and capabilities are excellent. There is universal consensus on the urgent need for a GAP project; however, funds are lacking, especially for the large number of satellite images needed. Arizona: All data layers have been completed, though additional assessment of their accuracy will be needed. The land cover map is being used as part of a four-state effort (California, Arizona, Nevada, and Utah) to create a seamless vegetation map for the Mojave ecoregion. This is the founding data set for the Biodiversity Team Assessment (BIOTA), Arizona's node of the National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII), funded by the NBS Division of Information and Technology Services' State Partnership Program. For further information, contact:
Arkansas: The vegetation mapping is completed, and both high resolution and 100 ha maps have been produced. Land ownership and management maps are completed. Vertebrate distribution maps are nearing completion as well. Accuracy assessment and final report efforts are under way. For further information, contact:
California: Funded largely from non-NBS sources, including the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, Southern California Edison, California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, IBM Environmental Research Program, and the U.S. Forest Service, the California project is in the last stages of completion. Eight of ten physiographic regions are mapped, and the remaining two will be finished this winter. Data are being used in several regional planning efforts. The Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) incorporated GAP results from three regions to identify plant communities of concern in their regional open space plan. The multidisciplinary Sierra Nevada Ecosystem Project sponsored by the Forest Service used GAP data as a major component of their biodiversity assessment and for exploring alternative conservation strategies. An interagency team is using the GAP data to develop a management plan for the eastern Colorado Desert. The CA-GAP project has begun edge-matching their vegetation data with GAP land cover data from the other three states covering the Mojave Desert ecoregion. They are in the process of developing pamphlets for laymen and planners showing GAP results and designing formats for distributing the database to potential users on CD-ROM and the Internet. For further information, contact:
Colorado: Expected to be completed in August 1996, this project is being carried out as a joint effort between the University of Wyoming and the Colorado Division of Wildlife. Ground truthing of the land cover map began during the 1994 field season and was concluded in the 1995 field season. Some field work was delayed because of forest fires last year. A draft vegetation map has been completed, land ownership and land management have been mapped, and species distribution maps are about 80% complete. For further information, contact:
Connecticut: Work for this state is being carried out under a multi-state project covering Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. This project has three phases. Phase 1, now completed, consisted of preparing a generalized land cover map for the entire six-state New England region. Use of this as a "base map" will facilitate consistency, making the edge-matching of state maps easier. Phase 2 consisted of developing techniques for mapping the Eastern deciduous forest environment to a minimum mapping unit of two hectares to better meet the needs of local cooperators and achieve the higher-resolution GAP standards (dominant natural vegetation types at a 1:100,000 map scale), resulting in a major breakthrough in mapping capabilities. Phase 3, now under way, consists of completing the higher-resolution land cover map, along with the maps of vertebrate distributions and land management. Vegetation maps are 90% complete. Maps of land ownership/management and species distribution are completed. For further information, contact:
Delaware: Part of the multi-state GAP project covering Delaware, New Jersey, and Maryland, this project has been under way for two years. Land ownership and land management maps are 80% complete. Vertebrate species lists have been developed; literature searches and wildlife habitat relationship models are in progress. Land cover mapping is in progress; substantial amounts of field work were done during the 1994 field season for the land cover data. For further information, contact:
Florida: The project has focused substantially on southern Florida in dealing with its complex environment and in meeting cooperator needs. In its final year, work on vegetation and vertebrate distribution databases is in an advanced stage. Land ownership and land management mapping are 85% and 70% completed. Species distribution models are 95% complete, and the vegetation map is 20% complete. For further information, contact:
Georgia: A GAP project has not been started in Georgia, although a preliminary proposal has been developed, and a tentative group of "GA-GAP" cooperators has been formed. For further information, contact:
Hawaii: A project was begun late in 1995 with funding from the NBS state partnership program. A work plan and funding are in place, and early organizational meetings have been held. There is a high level of interest and commitment between the state and federal cooperators. This project will use higher-resolution base data, and it is expected that it will result in substantial discovery of methods for the application of GAP to tropical environments. For further information, contact:
Idaho: Similar to Oregon, the Idaho project was a GAP prototype. All data layers have been produced at a 1:500,000 scale. A wide variety of analyses have been completed, including many alternative configurations for wilderness area boundaries, new wilderness areas, and proposals for new parks. The data are in regular use by many land management agencies in Idaho. An upgrade of the prototype data sets (using contemporary GAP standards with Thematic Mapper satellite imagery and a minimum mapping unit of two hectares) is now under way. The land cover map for the northern half of the state will be completed and ground truthed by March 1996. The southern half is scheduled for completion in December 1996. For some examples of published analytical results from these prototype data, see Butterfield et al. (1994), Caicco et al. (1995), Kiester et al. (in press), or Scott et al. (1993). For further information, contact:
Illinois: The project started in November 1995. The Illinois Natural History Survey (ILNHS) has received Thematic Mapper (TM) scenes for the state, and land cover mapping is in progress. Some innovative approaches are being used to interpret the TM data. The ILNHS has extensive vertebrate distribution records, and wildlife habitat relationship models are being developed. A number of important ancillary databases, such as census, soils, hydrology, and elevation, have been compiled for the GAP project. For further information, contact:
Indiana: Begun in late 1993 and scheduled for completion in December 1996, this project has experienced delays and instabilities in NBS funding. A strong cooperators' group is in place. A separately funded pilot project has been carried out for the Department of the Army's 70,000 acre Jefferson Proving Ground. Land cover classification categories have been developed, wildlife habitat relationship models are in progress, and the Indiana Department of Natural Resources database of managed areas is being examined for use as the land management data layer. Mapping of land ownership is 80% complete. Additionally, site-level field data is being incorporated into the land cover database, as are the National Wetlands Inventory maps. In spite of delays, progress has been maintained largely by the perseverance of the Principal Investigators through a "metaprojects" approach, by meeting the needs of the GAP project through a variety of other ongoing projects, for example, the Army's Jefferson Proving Ground project. For further information, contact:
Iowa: A formal GAP project has not been started in Iowa, however, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources and the Iowa Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit have begun early discussions. For further information, contact:
Kansas: The Kansas project received its first year of funding in FY 1995 and is scheduled to be completed in March 1999. Cooperators include the Kansas Biological Survey, Kansas State University, and the University of Kansas, as well as federal agencies such as the Forest Service and Fish and Wildlife Service. A general land cover map (e.g., showing woodlands, grasslands, croplands) was prepared from 1989-91 TM data, which will aid the GAP land cover mapping effort. The land cover categories are being refined, and the KS Natural Heritage Inventory's Vertebrate Characterization Abstract database is being incorporated into the GAP project. Ancillary data (e.g., soils, hydrology, census, county boundaries, and elevation) are being acquired and examined. Mapping of land ownership and management, spectral classification of land cover, and ground truthing are less than 10% completed at this early stage. For further information, contact:
Maine: This project was begun as one state in the six-state New England regional GAP project. Phase 1, now completed, consisted of preparing a generalized land cover map for the region. Presently, the Maine project is completing the higher-resolution land cover map, along with the maps of vertebrate distributions and land management. Completion is anticipated for September 1998. For further information, contact:
Maryland: Part of the multi-state GAP project covering Delaware and New Jersey as well as Maryland, this project has been under way for two years. Land ownership and land management maps are complete. Vertebrate species lists have been developed; literature searches and wildlife habitat relationship models are in progress. Land cover mapping is in progress, substantial amounts of field work were completed during the 1994 field season for the land cover data. For further information, contact:
Massachusetts: Work for this state is being carried out under a multi-state project covering Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. This project has three phases. Phase 1, now completed, consisted of preparing a generalized land cover map for the entire six-state New England region. Use of this as a "base map" will facilitate consistency, making the edge-matching of state maps easier. Phase 2 consisted of developing techniques for mapping the Eastern deciduous forest environment to a minimum mapping unit of two hectares and providing more detailed thematic descriptions of the dominant natural vegetation types, resulting in a major breakthrough in mapping capabilities. Phase 3, now under way, consists of completing the higher-resolution land cover map, along with the maps of vertebrate distributions and land management. Vegetation maps are 90% complete. Maps of land ownership/management and species distribution are completed. For further information, contact:
Michigan: Now completing its first full project year, Michigan is part of a single tri-state Upper Midwest GAP project, which includes Minnesota and Wisconsin. Considerable time and effort have been spent on developing a cooperatively-based project across the three states. Protocols for mapping vegetation have been developed and agreed to among the three states. Satellite imagery is now being processed and classified at the Environmental Management Technical Center and through the Michigan Department of Natural Resources. Mapping of land ownership is 80% complete, and development of predicted vertebrate range mapping protocols is in the initial stages. The project is anticipated to be completed in 1999. For further information, contact:
Minnesota: Now completing its first full project year, Minnesota is part of a single tri-state Upper Midwest GAP project, which includes Michigan and Wisconsin. Considerable time and effort have been spent on developing a cooperatively-based project across the three states. Protocols for mapping vegetation have been developed and agreed to among the three states. Satellite imagery is now being processed at the Environmental Management Technical Center, and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources is classifying the imagery. Mapping of land ownership is 80% complete, and development of predicted vertebrate range mapping protocols is in the initial stages. The project is anticipated to be completed in 1999. For further information, contact:
Mississippi: A GAP project has not yet been started in Mississippi, however, interest is high and a number of institutions have begun meeting to develop a "MS-GAP" proposal. For further information, contact:
Missouri: This is a flagship state project. A very large number of state and federal agencies are working closely on "MoRAP," Missouri Resources Assessment Project, of which GAP is a catalyst. MoRAP includes substantial state funding ($7M over six years) to achieve a 1:24,000 scale resolution of natural resources information. The GAP project is in its first year of actually mapping land cover. The 1:100,000-scale GAP land cover product, now 5% completed, will provide a spatial framework for the state's finer-level and longer-term effort. Wildlife habitat relationship models and species distribution data are one-third completed; 80% of land ownership and 10% of land management designations have been mapped. Anticipated project completion date is September 1996. For further information, contact:
Montana: This project began in the fall of 1991. Because of the size of the state relative to the amount of available data, much works remains to be done. The anticipated completion date is December 1997. Serious delays were experienced in early stages because of difficulties in obtaining satellite data and sufficient funding. However, during this period, new techniques were developed for classifying vegetation and for aggregating data to a desired minimum mapping unit (MMU). These methods are now being used to map existing vegetation in western Montana and 2 ha MMU according to cover type, size class, and canopy closure. Funded cooperatively with the Northern Region of the U.S. Forest Service, this intensive mapping effort will be complete in the spring of 1996. Eastern Montana remains to be mapped. Roughly 10% of the necessary species distribution data has been compiled. For further information, contact:
Nebraska: The Nebraska GAP project was begun in 1995. Completion is anticipated for 1998. All satellite imagery has been transferred, and the cooperator's group is in place. A two-day workshop was held in May of 1995. Funding transfer was made possible with the help of United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), Region 6. Work is taking place at the Center for Advanced Land Management Information Technologies (CALMIT) and the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and Wildlife, both located at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. For further information, contact:
Nevada: This project will be completed by the end of 1995. Work is being done at Utah State University. The vegetation data layer is 75% completed. Species distribution maps have not all been generated yet, although all models have been constructed. Some data are now being used by the Nevada Biodiversity Initiative, an interagency planning group. For further information, contact:
New Hampshire: New Hampshire and Vermont are now being covered as a single GAP project. Completion is anticipated for January 1997. Work is being done at the University of Vermont. An initial general land cover map covering all six New England states was developed at the University of Massachusetts, and those data are now being refined to the alliance level of thematic resolution. In addition, this project is responsible for developing vertebrate species/habitat association matrices over the entire New England region. Species distribution maps are 90% complete. Eighty percent of land ownership and 30% of land management have been mapped. Now in the second phase, NH/VT-GAP will focus on refinement and validation of land cover and vertebrate distribution maps. For further information, contact:
New Jersey: Part of the multi-state GAP project covering Delaware and Maryland as well as New Jersey, this project has been under way for one year. Land ownership and land management maps are 80% and 100% complete. Vertebrate species lists are being developed; literature searches and wildlife habitat relationship models are in progress. Land cover mapping is in progress, and substantial amounts of field work were done during the 1994 field season for the land cover data. For further information, contact:
New Mexico: Project completion is scheduled for March 1996. All data layers have been completed, however, additional assessment of data accuracy will be needed. For further information, contact:
New York: This project should be completed in September 1996. As of late 1995, a preliminary general land cover map of the state had been completed. Refinements and field-checking of the map are under way. Land management and ownership data layers are nearly completed, and vertebrate distributions are 85% completed. For further information, contact:
North Carolina: Begun in 1995, this project has required considerable time to work out a cooperative relationship among disparate groups. Land cover mapping activities are under way in North Carolina by a number of organizations, including the State Office of Geographic Information, the Southern Appalachian Forest Assessment Project, and the Coastal Change Analysis Program. Exhaustive efforts have been made to meld these activities. A coordinated approach has been achieved, and cooperation is ongoing. Staff has been hired, and the project is now moving forward. For the land cover data, this project will be a test case for the coordination of mapping activities among different organizations. It will also be used to test accuracy assessment methods. For further information, contact:
North Dakota: A GAP project has not been started in North Dakota. Ohio: A GAP project has not been started in Ohio. Oklahoma: This project has been under way since early 1994, though there has been some delay due to funding problems. The anticipated completion date is September 1997. Work is being done at the Oklahoma Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, Oklahoma State University, and at the University of Oklahoma. Mapping of land ownership and land management is 75% complete. Mapping of vegetation layer is 10% complete. Species distribution data is 50% complete. For further information, contact:
Oregon: Completed initially as a prototype for GAP, the data layers were developed at a scale of 1:250,000. The land cover data are presently being remapped at 1:100,000 by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. Completion of the update is anticipated for October 1996. The vertebrate data are in place as are the land ownership and land management data. An element-by-element comparison of distribution of vegetation types with the distribution of conservation lands has been completed and is available on paper and transparency overlays as well as in a digital format. GAP is also a partner in funding the Oregon Biodiversity Planning Process, which is a state, private, and federal effort to apply the GAP data to interdisciplinary and inter-sectoral statewide biodiversity planning. For further information, contact:
Pennsylvania: The project started in April 1993; completion is anticipated for February 1996. The land cover mapping is under way based on the MRLC hyperclustered imagery and some interpretation using SPECTRUM software at a resolution of five hectares. About half of the species distribution data are completed, and work is progressing on land ownership and management maps. For further information, contact:
Puerto Rico: Although not a state, Puerto Rico is included here because there is a very high level of interest, and organization is presently under way in Puerto Rico for the application of GAP, from the Governor's office, to the Puerto Rico Department of Natural Resources, to multiple non-governmental organizations. It is important to recognize and respond to these efforts. Puerto Rico is, biogeographically, of extreme significance to the biodiversity resources of the U.S., and the talent and capability exists within Puerto Rico to conduct a Gap Analysis project. Among other reasons, Puerto Rico represents the opportunity to test and develop methods that would be applicable to the rest of the neotropics. The experiences gained from such a project in Puerto Rico would be relevant and readily accepted by professional ecologists, geographers, and their institutions in the tropical environments of Central and South America. A critical aspect to be tested is the applicability of a natural-community-based approach in a tropical environment where vegetation species dominance is usually weak or absent. For further information, contact:
Rhode Island: Gap Analysis for Rhode Island is being carried out under a multi-state project that includes Connecticut and Massachusetts. This project has three phases. Phase 1, now completed, consisted of preparing a generalized land cover map for the entire six-state New England region. Use of this as a "base map" will facilitate consistency making the edge-matching of state maps easier. Phase 2 consisted of developing techniques for mapping the Eastern deciduous forest environment to the higher-resolution GAP standards (dominant natural vegetation types at a 1:100,000 map scale), resulting in a major breakthrough in mapping capabilities. Phase 3, now under way, consists of completing the higher-resolution land cover map, along with the maps of vertebrate distributions and land management. Vegetation maps are 90% complete. Maps of land ownership/management and species distribution are completed. For further information, contact:
South Carolina: A GAP project for South Carolina has not yet begun, although interest is high. Substantial discussions have been held with the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources. South Dakota: South Dakota State University is hosting their first organizational meeting in February 1996. Many data sets have already been started within South Dakota, and the project is eager to begin land cover mapping in conjunction with EROS (Earth Resources Observation Systems) Data Center as soon as the project can be funded. For further information, contact:
Tennessee: Project completion is anticipated for December 1996. Vegetation classification is nearly completed, and aerial videography methods are being used. Vertebrate species distribution models have been produced and are being reviewed by experts. Land ownership and land management layers are 80% and 60% complete. The Tennessee Biodiversity Project is under way. This is a large, broad-based joint activity between citizen's groups and state government, focused on (a) education and (b) the application of biogeographic information, such as the TN-GAP data, to ongoing land use planning and management activities, such as county land use planning or state wildlife management. This project has the potential to lead the way for private-lands biodiversity conservation in the U.S. It merits careful monitoring and ongoing support by the NBS. For further information, contact:
Texas: The Texas Gap Analysis Project has been under way for two years but has experienced delays related to cooperator organization, funding, and technical problems. Completion is anticipated for December 2000. Similar to Pennsylvania, this project is using the MRLC hyperclustered TM imagery with SPECTRUM software. A complete set of aerial video transects has been acquired, and the mapping of land cover is under way. A species list of terrestrial vertebrates has been completed, and 50% of land ownership has been mapped. For further information, contact:
Utah: Utah was the first non-prototype GAP state project to be completed. All products are available from the GAP Home Page on the World Wide Web (http://www.gap.uidaho.edu/gap) and on a compact disk (CD) from the Utah Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, Utah State University, Logan, UT. Also, see Edwards et al. (1995). These data are being widely used today. For example: GAP data were used to help resolve a wilderness issue in Utah. They were used to optimize the location of a proposed new sawmill site relative to timber stocks. These data are also now widely used in routine county planning. For further information, contact:
Vermont: Vermont and New Hampshire are now being covered as a single GAP project. Project completion is anticipated for January 1997. Work is being done at the University of Vermont. An initial general land cover map covering all six New England states was developed at the University of Massachusetts, and those data are now being refined to the alliance level of thematic resolution. In addition, this project is responsible for developing vertebrate species/habitat association matrices over the entire New England region. Species distribution maps are 90% complete. Eighty percent of land ownership and 30% of land management have been mapped. Now in the second phase, VT/NH-GAP will focus on refinement and validation of land cover and vertebrate distribution maps. For further information, contact:
Virginia: This project is in its first year of operation. The anticipated completion date is September 1999. Initial efforts have concentrated on developing partnerships, acquiring and organizing data, training personnel, and establishing hardware and software capabilities. Cooperative support has been established with several agencies, most notably the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, and two steering committee meetings have been held. As a result of these partnerships, many ancillary layers of data have been acquired and catalogued, including full SPOT (Le SystPme Pour l'Observation de la Terre) panchromatic coverage, DLG (digital line graph) vectors, and NWI (National Wetlands Inventory) wetlands vectors. Approximately 80% of the vertebrate habitat modeling portion of the project is complete, and approximately 75% of the public lands layer is finished. All TM imagery has been received. Verification of the georeferencing is nearly complete. Initial work on vegetation classification has begun. For further information, contact:
Washington: The "WA-GAP" is nearing completion. The land cover map has been completed but has not been assessed for accuracy. All vertebrate data layers have been completed, and predicted distribution maps have been created for each species. The land ownership map has been completed. Analyses of the gaps in conservation for land cover types and vertebrate species have been completed. Preparation of a final report is under way and will be completed early in 1996. For further information, contact:
West Virginia: Although begun in 1992, this project has only received full funding for the past two fiscal years. Completion is scheduled for November 1997. Vegetation classification of the area's highly diverse forested landscapes has been difficult, and alternative processing approaches have been explored. The breakthrough achieved in the New England states in mapping the deciduous Eastern forest will be applied by "WV-GAP." About 20% of the vegetation classification has been completed. Work on wildlife habitat relationship models and species distributions is about 50% complete. Land management and ownership maps have been completed. For further information, contact:
Wisconsin: Now completing its first full project year, Wisconsin is part of a single tri-state Upper Midwest GAP project, which includes Michigan and Minnesota. Considerable time and effort have been spent on developing a cooperatively-based project across the three states. Protocols for mapping vegetation have been developed and agreed to among the three states. Satellite imagery is now being processed at the Environmental Management Technical Center, and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources is classifying the imagery. Mapping of land ownership is 80% complete, and development of predicted vertebrate range mapping protocols is in the initial stages. The project is anticipated to be completed in 1999. For further information, contact:
Wyoming: The Wyoming GAP project is nearly completed. Data layers for vegetation, land ownership and land management have been completed, and species distribution maps are 90% complete. Continued support for data implementation, archiving, and distribution is required by NBS, for example, by including Wyoming as a National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII) test node. For further information, contact:
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