Currently, the only statewide vegetation or land coverages available for Oregon are the two OR-GAP coverages described below. ORNHP and OR-GAP has worked hard to link all existing vegetation coverages to the National Vegetation Classification System. The state of Oregon is committed to creating an updated, statewide land coverage map, either through the Northwest Re-GAP effort of the U.S.G.S., or through an interagency state effort, although funding for either of these is not now available.

Currently, ORNHP has funding from OWEB to integrate all available 1:24,000 vegetation maps and coverages. Fine scale data has been collected from southeastern Oregon (on the Burns, Lakeview and north Vale BLM districts), from northeastern Oregon (from the Wallowa-Whitman, Umatilla, Malheur, Ochoco and Deschutes National Forests), and from the Willamette Valley (from ODFW). Other data is available from western Oregon. This data has been integrated into a “2002 Statewide Existing best approximation cover”, which is a mix of 1:24,000 high-resolution data, with the 1:100,000 gap data used to fill in the holes. This is now available from ORNHP, and will soon be posted on-line.

OR-GAP Existing Vegetation and Land-Use Coverages

Two statewide vegetation and land cover GIS maps were created as part of OR-GAP in Oregon. The first was produced in 1992 by Jimmy Kagan and Steve Caicco. This map was done using available data, with polygons hand drawn and digitized on 1:250,000 satellite images. This cover and the associated vegetation manual are available on-line.

The second OR-GAP coverage is the 1998 Statewide Existing Vegetation and Landcover map. For this, OR-GAP contracted Chris Kiilsgaard of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. This map was completed using 30 meter TM imagery and was used in the analysis for the final OR-GAP report. This coverage is also available on-line. The vegetation types have also been crosswalked to wildlife habitats. An image of the wildlife habitats from this cover is included below.