Indicator
Vegetation Community Richness
Basics
Vegetation Community Richness
Vegetation Community Richness
Outcome
Program
% (%)
Maintain the existing species richness of the Region by providing for the perpetuation of the following plant associations:
• Yellow pine forest: Jeffrey pine, white fir, incense cedar, sugar pine
• Red fir forest: red fir, Jeffrey pine, lodgepole pine, western white pine, mountain hemlock, western juniper
• Subalpine forest: whitebark pine, mountain hemlock, mountain mahogany
• Shrub association: greenleaf and pinemat manzanita, tobacco brush, Sierra chinquapin, huckleberry oak, mountain whitethorn
• Sagebrush scrub vegetation: Region sagebrush, bitterbrush, Douglas chaenactis
• Deciduous riparian: quaking aspen, mountain alder, black cottonwood, willow
• Meadow associations (wet and dry meadow): mountain squirrel tail, alpine gentian, whorled penstemon, asters, fescues, mountain brome, corn lilies, mountain bentgrass, hairgrass, marsh marigold, elephant heads, tinker's penney, mountain timothy, sedges, rushes, buttercups
• Wetland associations (marsh vegetation): pond lilies, buckbean, mare's tail, pondweed, common bladderwort, bottle sedge, common spikerush
• Cushion plant association (alpine scrub): alpine phlox, dwarf ragwort, draba
Number of vegetation associations. For this assessment, TRPA vegetation associations were compared with California Wildlife Habitat Relationship types (CWHR, 2011) (attributed in TMU_Strata_07 map, USFS 2009c) to determine which types could be considered equivalent. Using Table 1, the California Wildlife Habitat Relationship types were used to estimate relative proportions of TRPA vegetation associations in the Tahoe Region.
This Indicator is reported in the following LT Info areas:
Status
Estimated proportion of land covered by different TRPA vegetation communities (associations) in the Lake Tahoe Region (USDA, 2009).
Name Options
Vegetation Community Richness
General

Program Vegetation Type Monitoring

Approach

The map of dominate vegetation types in the Region was last updated in 2009. Since then only the Angora fire burn area has been updated. In 2009, satellite imagery, aerial photographs and field reconnaissance (USFS Forest Inventory and Analysis data) were used to delineate and classify vegetation types in the Lake Tahoe Region. This information is digitized into a geographic information system and subsequently analysed to summarize vegetation community richness. Information from the Tahoe Fire and Fuels Team (a multi-agency partnership) on forest fuels treatments and disturbance events are incorporated for year to year change in vegetative composition.

Partners

Associated Programs data not provided.