Completion of Vegetation Inventory and Mapping for the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge, Arizona

To better understand the relationship between the endangered Sonoran pronghorn (Antilocarpa americana sonoriensis) movement patterns, habitat use, and associated vegetation, a comprehensive vegetation map and GIS database were created in 2003 by the University of Arizona (UA) for 388,000 acres of the eastern portion of the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge (CPNWR). In addition, 76,000 acres of Bureau of Land Management lands to the east of CPNWR were also mapped with the same methodology. At that time, funding was not available to complete the remaining 472,000 acres within CPNWR. Since completing the first portion of the CPNWR vegetation map and mapping the adjacent Bureau of Land Management lands, this mapping methodology has been implemented on additional adjacent partner lands including the Barry M. Goldwater Range (BMGR) East- Air Force and the BMGR West, Marine Corps. A similar methodology for vegetation mapping was used on Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, another partner with lands adjacent to the CPNWR. In 2014 a crosswalk was created to make the data as compatible to the data created by the UA in order to create a vegetation map that covers 5 federal landowners and greater than 2 million acres in southwest Arizona. The purpose of the proposed project is to continue the development of the regional vegetation map by completing the remaining 472,000 acres of the CPNWR (Map of Project Area: Figure 1, Areas A, B, and C). In 2003, the principal investigator for the UA, Dr. James Malusa, completed approximately 80 percent of the fieldwork associated within this proposal for Areas A and B. As a result, the UA rate per acre (which is currently about $0.60 per acre for mapping on the Goldwater Range) would be only about $0.16 per acre for this project area. The remaining 374,000 acres (Area C) has had no initial work done; and therefore will be charged the standard current rate per acre ($0.60 per acre). Other vendors would have access to the UA-Malusa field notes, but they would not be familiar with the terrain and would likely need to charge significantly more than the UA to complete the project. The proposed project will be useful in that it will provide a baseline for ecosystem management by aiding in the management of the vegetation communities within the Refuge, as well as contributing to the larger landscape level map already existing as a result of work done on adjacent partner lands. The results of the effort will be documented as digital shapefiles for use in GIS, a kml file for use with Google Earth, paper maps of the relevant quad sheets, and an Access database including all field samples from CPNWR.