Bigcone Douglas-Fir

Mapping & Inventory in the Angeles National Forest

By Michael Kauffmann, Julie Evens, and Jaime Ratchford

Working in collaboration with the US Forest Service (USFS), CNPS initiated field surveys in the summer/fall of 2015 to assess the extent and status of the California endemic bigcone Douglas-fir in the Angeles National Forest (NF).

Goals in the field included verifying distribution and status of bigcone Douglas-fir, ground-truthing polygons designated by US Forest Service Remote Sensing Lab’s California Vegetation (CALVEG) system as ‘Bigcone Douglas-fir’ Regional Dominant, and conducting 370 rapid assessments on bigcone Douglas-fir stands. The data collected during field assessments were used to develop both an updated distribution map via heads-up digitizing and a vegetation classification to better define bigcone Douglas-fir stands for the area.

To learn more about the project and see survey findings, patterns, and recommendations, see Fremontia Vol. 45, NOS 1 and 2, page 30.

Related: Celebrating the Bigcone Douglas-fir of the San Gabriel Mountains