The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection and the USDA Forest Service conduct land cover mapping and monitoring to enhance fire protection and natural resource management on public and private lands in California. This program uses Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) satellite imagery to map land cover types and derive land cover changes across all ownerships. The state is covered in five unique project areas. One project area is completed each year, then revisited and updated every fifth year.

Final mapping products from this program include species groupings, tree size and tree canopy closure with a minimum map unit of 2.5 acres. Resulting monitoring products include a change map depicting vegetation cover increases and decreases, a coverage of known cause for change areas and an annual statistical report documenting the area and effects of land cover change.

Meetings are held throughout each project area prior to the mapping and monitoring processes. These meetings serve as a forum for information sharing and often enhance our current efforts. All meetings are open to anyone interested in our cooperative monitoring program.

Major Uses

  • Develop a baseline for amount and extent of California's forest and range resources
  • Examine effectiveness of existing policies
  • Assist in evaluation of watershed cumulative impacts
  • Track forest health trends
  • Map hazardous fuels
  • Model wildlife habitat

For more information contact: Mark Rosenberg at Mark.Rosenberg@fire.ca.gov or by phone at (916) 445-5366

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