Landscape Scale Vegetation Mapping at Point Reyes and Golden

Understanding vegetation cover is critical for a wide variety of needs including fire and fuels management, project planning, sensitive species management and much more. Having this data available and be part of a seamless dataset for Marin County, will improve public safety through enabling fire prevention planning. It will also improve natural resources management which will lead to improved habitat and visitor experience. Lastly, it will facilitate project planning and review which will expedite implementation of a wide variety of projects that directly benefit the public. In addition, staff funded through this program will be able to interact with and engage the public about the importance of biodiversity in national parks and related topics as they encounter the public while doing field work. This project supports the Secretary⿿s priority to ⿿utilize science to identify best practices⿝ (1.a.) for park management actions. This project would be a collaboration to quantify patterns of vegetation change at Point Reyes National Seashore and Golden Gate National Recreation Area over the past 20 year. This information will allow park managers to make better decisions about how to prioritize restoration actions, where to implement fire and fuels projects, and will provide baseline information in the case of a landscape level event such as a wildfire. This collaborative project will use the best available science to manage park lands.