Vegetation Mapping and Remote Sensing Advisory Committee

The Sonoma County Vegetation Mapping Program is excited to announce our Vegetation Mapping and Remote Sensing Advisory Committee!  This committee will provide expert technical advice to the District and mapping team throughout the course of the project.  Our committee members have deep expertise in varied fields including remote sensing, botany, ecology, wildlife, carbon mapping, forestry, and GIS.  We are thrilled to have such a high caliber group of advisers to guide us as we map the vegetation and habitats of Sonoma County.  The district and the mapping team is in the process of forming other committees and working groups that will provide specific guidance and expertise;  these committees will be introduced as they are established.  The table below lists the Vegetation Mapping and Remote Sensing Advisory committee members, their affiliations, and their particular areas of expertise.

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Sonoma County Serpentine

Serpentine communities occur in scattered areas across Sonoma County. These communities support a number of rare and endangered plant species.  From a vegetation mapping perspective, these are important areas.  Because thesy are small, geographically isolated, and occur uncommonly across the County's landscape, it will be important to clearly identify these areas and compile existing field data for them before our mapping work begins.  Serpentine areas on the North Coast have been studied significantly in the past 75 years, and much is known about their composition. In the April, 2009 issue of the Journal Fremontia (California Native Plant Society), Roger Raiche provides a great botanical profile of the Cedars, the county's largest serpentine area.

The serpentine areas of Sonoma County are associated with several soil types.  Among these are soils from the Henneke Series, soils from the Montara  series, and soils from the Huse series.

The interactive map below shows the 1997 Soil Survey Geographic (SSURGO) soils data overlaid on Bing aerial imagery.  Pan and zoom to move around on the map.  Access the "Bookmarks" to navigate to the major serpentine areas in the county.  If you click "View Larger Map," a larger map will open in ArcGIS.com with more functionality.  This map's default extent is an area of serpentine soils (mainly the Henneke series) and vegetation north of Occidental near the Bohemian Highway.

View Larger Map

Historical Wieslander Vegetation Maps

In the 1920s and 30s, forester A.E. Weislander led an effort to map vegetation across the State of California.  Though never completed, this effort resulted in set of maps, photos, and vegetation plot data for numerous areas throughout California.  This data set provides the best available snapshot of California vegetation during the early part of the 20th century.

The Wieslander Vegetation Type Mapping (VTM) Project, a project conducted jointly between UC Berkeley and UC Davis, has resulted in the digitization of the Wieslander plot data, photos and many of the vegetation map sheets.  The VTM project was jointly funded by the US Department of Agriculture and UC Berkeley.  Much of the GIS work for the Wieslander VTM project was undertaken by Dr. Maggi Kelley's laboratory at UC Berkeley.  Dr. Kelley serves as an Advisory Committee member for our Vegetation Mapping Program here in Sonoma County.

Example of a Wieslander Vegetation Map from Sonoma Valley

The Wieslander maps are of interest to the Sonoma County Vegetation Mapping Program because - once the Sonoma County map is produced - the Wieslander maps can be compared to the new Sonoma County Vegetation map to see how vegetation has changed in the past 70 years or so.

Wieslander plot data is limited to only 13 available plots in southern Sonoma County.  But Wieslander vegetation maps exist for a number of areas within the county, including the far northern section of the county, and the southeastern part including the southern Mayacamas Mountains.

In addition to digitizing the vegetation related data and photos, the University of California also has captured digital transcripts of interviews conducted with A.E. Weislander in 1985. These are fascinating to read.

To download the map or the plot data for Sonoma County, go to http://vtm.berkeley.edu/data/ and click "Data by County."

Welcome!

Welcome to the Sonoma County Vegetation and Habitat Mapping blog!  This blog will facilitate an ongoing discussion between the mapping team, the map's stakeholders, and end users of the maps.  We will also use this forum to make our community aware of program related events and milestones.