Vegetation Classification and Mapping Project Report - USGS

Acknowledgments
Behind the authors of this report are the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), National Park Service
(NPS), Northern Arizona University (NAU), and Kansas State University affliates that were
responsible for much of the project’s execution. The project team thanks the NAU classification
field crew—Josh Lambert and Steve Till—and accuracy assessment field crew Jessica Fisher, Kyle
Christie, Scott Stollery, Kelsey Johnson, Christina Bille, Meredith Jabis, and Meghan Pope for their
hard work in the field. Heather Folger, Stacy McKnight, and Lakhbir Kaur from NAU provided data
entry and quality control. Jonathan Donaldson provided important background research for the
plant community descriptions. Terry Arundel, Jered Hansen, and Mike Gishey provided technical
support to the USGS Southwest Biological Science team. Jason Sweet, Clancy Jensen, Katie Franke,
Joseph Grasela, and Tammy Johnson provided digital data layer development, image processing
and cartographic support from the Geographic Information Systems Spatial Analysis Laboratory
(GISSAL) in the Department of Geography at Kansas State University. Patty Guertin of the USGS
provided invaluable support during the compilation and publishing of the final products.
Logistical and administrative support was provided by Mark Sogge, Linda Lasley, and John D.
Kite, Sparrow Adson, and Wendy Parrish of the Southwest Biological Science Center; Marie
Saul and Cindy Judge of NAU; and Leslie Holland-Bartels and Carl Markon of the USGS Alaska
Science Center. The team particularly thanks the staff of the Alaska Science Center for housing and
providing logistical support for M. McTeague during the last part of the project.
Karen Beppler-Dorn, Chuck Dorn, and Pat Thompson at Petrified Forest National Park provided
housing, critical logistical support, water drops for backcountry support, vehicle use for the
classification field teams, and guidance to the project. The NPS Southern Colorado Plateau
Network, through coordinator Lisa Thomas, provided funding support and information technology
specialist Nicole Tancreto helped with spatial data acquisition. Tom Forsyth and Lynelle Wright at
the Intermountain Region assisted with contract development. The USGS-NPS Vegetation Mapping
Program national offce, through support from Karl Brown, Tammy Hamer, Chris Lea, and Mike
Story, provided the project team with critical financial and programmatic support.
Cindy Sessions of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Aerial Photography Field Offce assisted with
the acquisition of aerial photography for the project.
The project team was permitted access to some sites in the park and in the project boundaries by
several landowners and agencies.
The project also benefited from the critical review of the report and digital products by Janet Coles
of the Northern Colorado Plateau Network and Sam Drake of the University of Arizona.
The project team is extremely grateful for the help, advice, and assistance provided to the project by
all these people and their respective institutions.
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