Maps

Vegetation Maps

Existing and Predicted Vegetation 

The Integrated Landscape Assessment Project for Oregon, Washington, Arizona, and New Mexico produced many vegetation maps and datasets for Oregon, including existing vegetation and forest structure as well as predicted vegetation based on various management and climate states.


 

NW ReGAP Ecological Systems Map of Oregon

In the 2000s ORBIC received funding from OWEB to integrate all available 1:24,000 vegetation maps and coverages. Previously, the only statewide vegetation or land coverages available for Oregon had been the two OR-GAP coverages described below. ORBIC and OR-GAP has worked hard to link all existing vegetation coverages to the National Vegetation Classification System. The newest version of the map, a grid of ecological systems throughout Oregon, was created in 2010 and is available from the Oregon DAS GEO Spatial Data Library. 

 

Historical Vegetation in the Pacific Northwest

Creating Historical Vegetation Maps

Land managers and researchers often want to know what a landscape looked like years ago, to compare how the ecology has changed, assess the rate of change, and make decisions about how to manage the area for the future.

ORBIC and its partners have created datasets of historical vegetation at both fine and coarse scales, using several different data sources. Read more and view coverages by clicking below or on the menu links at left.

Historical vegetation based on General Land Office (GLO) and U.S. Coast Survey  (Scale: 1:24,000). GLO data integrated with U.S. Coast Survey topographic maps ("T-Sheets") where available.

Oregon statewide composite historical vegetation (Scale: 1:100,000). A synthesis of data from several sources, including GLO coverage where available.

 

Available Historical Vegetation Maps

Historical vegetation maps available for download include: 


National Park Service Vegetation Maps 

In conjunction with NatureServe, INR is making updated remote sensing-based vegetation maps for the major national parks in the Pacific Northwest. Detecting climate change impacts on the distribution of vegetation requires an accurate map of baseline conditions made using a repeatable methodology. The National Park Service Inventory & Monitoring Program has embarked on a major vegetation mapping project for Mount Rainier, Olympic, North Cascades, and Lewis and Clark National Parks.

The new vegetation maps will use the recently revised National Vegetation Classification System. They will be targeted to the Alliance level, roughly equivalent to dominant canopy species with some major types further differentiated by temperature or moisture modifiers. Multitemporal Landsat TM imagery, supple-mented by color-infrared aerial photography, LiDAR elevation and vegetation height data where available, and extensive field training data collection, will form the basis of the mapping, which will be performed using Random Forests data mining techniques. The new maps will provide a baseline against which to measure vegetation change and will also provide useful inputs for studies of the impacts of climate change on a variety of vegetation processes, including carbon dynamics and disturbance.

Final products will be available from the National Park Service website at their Natural Resource Reports page.


 

Interactive Mapping 

Oregon Explorer

With hundreds of map layers available to draw from, you can use the Oregon Explorer Map Viewer to make your own custom map and share it with others. If you need guidance, watch tutorials on how to use the Oregon Explorer Map Viewer.


Oregon Water Atlas (Institute for Water and Watersheds)

This interactive site include visualizations of Oregon water data created entirely with open-source software and publically available data.  OSU student Gareth Baldrica-Franklin created the atlas as part of his undergraduate honors thesis.


Land Ownership

Land Ownership, Management, and Protected Areas

Starting the Oregon Gap Analysis Project, the Oregon Biodiversity Information Center has been developing and maintaining a GIS coverage showing the distribution of Protected Areas in Oregon for many years. USGS GAP status is used to easily classify managed areas as being protected primarily for biodiversity verus lands without biodiversity protections (GAP status of 1 being most protected, 4 being not protected). Several other designations and descriptions are included in the datasets, covering federal, state, local, and private managed lands as available. The stewardship coverage is continually updated as new areas are protected or designated, or as land ownership patterns change.


Three Oregon managed area datasets are available from ORBIC:

  • The Oregon Stewardship geodatabase includes layers for managed areas and easements, and is constantly evolving as sites change or are added. Managed areas include a variety of classifications including wilderness areas, nature preserve, marine reserves, and wildlife management areas. Last updated in November 2015.
  • The Oregon Natural Areas geotabase, which is an excerpt of the Oregon Stewardship geodatabase, depicting areas included in the Oregon Natural Areas Plan. Natural Areas are sites that are primarily managed to preserve biodiversity, and include many research areas, nature preserves, and wildlife refuges, to name a few. Learn more about these areas in our Natural Areas Program section. Also available as a KML file. This dataset was last updated in October 2015. 
  • The Oregon Protected Areas dataset (PAD-US) is similar to the Stewardship geodatabase but conforms to USGS standards (i.e. Oregon-specific fields are removed) and is available from the PAD-US data download page. The Oregon PAD-US is periodically updated from the Stewardship geodatabase. 

Several other public land coverages are available at the Oregon DAS GEO Spatial Data Library. 


 

Water Quality Map

Willamette Water Quality Map (Institute for Water and Watersheds)

This map highlights water pollution issues in the Willamette River system. It was produced by the Corvallis Environmental Center and the Institute for Water and Watersheds and published in August of 2008. The map can be downloaded as a PDF -- map front, descriptive text from map back.