The goal of this project is to provide assistance and outreach in the implementation of the National Vegetation Classification Standard, Version 2—Working Draft to vegetation scientists, plant ecologists, wildlife biologists, and any others that may collect or utilize floristic and/or vegetation data. Coordinate Solutions, with assistance from the Oklahoma Biological Survey (OBS), will provide outreach support and training on the proposed standards to local, tribal, and state government agencies, college and university research units, and other individuals and groups in or around the State of Oklahoma involved in all manners of floristic and vegetation collecting and mapping. Specifically, Coordinate Solutions, Inc. proposes to:

• Create and distribute through existing channels (e.g. Oklahoma GIS Council; local and regional GIS user conferences; other relevant local and regional conferences; and listserves) FGDC-approved educational materials related to the National Vegetation Classification Standard, Version 2 (hereafter NVC);
• Utilize existing, established online research tools, such as the Oklahoma Vascular Plant Database, to publish and promote the new vegetation standard training materials to a wider research audience;
• Promote utilization of PLOTS database and submission to VegBank;
• Update the existing Vegetation of Oklahoma (Hoagland 2000), a vegetation classification for the state of Oklahoma based on the original National Vegetation Classification, to reflect the changes in the NVC ;
• Hold two (2) workshops related to the NVC geared towards vegetation scientists, ecologists, GIS users, and others involved in vegetation inventories and mapping in and around the State of Oklahoma.

Overview

Efficient stewardship of the nation’s biological resources requires a systematic inventory and classification of the systems which support these resources (Grossman et al. 1998). However, until recently, a single classification system utilized across jurisdictional boundaries and throughout multiple collecting agencies was non-existent. Rather, conservation priorities were focused primarily at the local and regional scales, with inventory and mapping standards varying from one area to the next. Inconsistent standards of inventories and classifications compounded the difficulties inherent in management of biological resources, namely the ability to present multi-scale, synoptic views of vegetation resources.

In order to address these problems, a consortium of conservationists, land planners, ecologists, and others formed a working group to develop a single vegetation classification and mapping standard for the United States (Grossman et al. 1994; Grossman et al. 1998; Anderson et al. 1998). This effort resulted in the U.S. National Vegetation Standard Classification, accepted by the Federal Geographic Data Committee in 1997 (FGDC 1997). However, it was recognized at the time that the Standard was far from complete (Grossman et al. 1998) and work on refinements and further developments began immediately (Loucks 1995). In October 2007, the Vegetation Subcommittee of the FGDC released the National Vegetation Classification Standard, Version 2—Working Draft (FGDC 2007), a proposed revision representing a substantial overhaul of the original Standard.

While Executive Order #12906 requires all federal agencies to conform to the data requirements of the NVC (FGDC 2007), universal acceptance of the Standard requires voluntary participation by others, such as state, tribal, and local agencies, University research units, and others involved in vegetation data collection and reporting. Additionally, beyond technical articles (e.g. Grossman et al. 1998; Anderson et al. 1998), few, if any, resources exist to aid in implementation of the NVC. Additionally, version 2.0 represents a “substantial revision” to the 1997 Standard and any extant materials are likely out-of-date.

Coordinate Solutions, therefore, proposes to partner with senior research staff at the Oklahoma Biological Survey (OBS), a research division at the University of Oklahoma, to promote version 2.0 of the NVC through creation and dissemination of FGDC-compliant educational materials, the hosting of workshops, promotion of the utilization of the PLOTS database and submission to VegBank, and the updating of the existing classification for the State of Oklahoma. The target audience of these resources will be regional, state, tribal, and local agency personnel and any individuals in the State of Oklahoma (or adjacent states) involved in vegetation data collection and reporting. This includes state herbarium directors, university and college faculty and graduate students, state conservation agencies such as the Department of Environmental Quality and the Oklahoma Conservation Commission, tribal environmental programs, and regional environmental consultants. Additionally, by making these materials available online, Coordinate Solutions and the OBS can reach a geographically broader audience.