Native Forest - High Quality

High Quality Successional and Native Forests of Tallahassee and Leon County, Florida. This feature class was created as part of the Environmentally Sensitive Areas (ESA) Mapping Project. The Native and High Quality Successional Forests were mapped in GIS as part of a larger Environmentally Sensitive Areas (ESA) mapping project, which was a collaborative effort between the city and county growth management departments, the planning department and TLCGIS. This project was driven out of a need for better data that was standardized county-wide to support environmental resource planning, protection and regulation, etc. It was also needed to support public works and emergency management. Additionally, the Tallahassee-Leon County Comprehensive Plan Conservation Element Objectives and Policies required compilation and maintenance of maps of conservation and preservation features, effective 1990--the same year that the GIS Interlocal office was created. Prior to this in 1988, the original ESA data layers were mapped by environmental professionals and stormwater engineers working in what was then called the Leon County Department of Public Works. The data was drawn onto USGS quad maps (base) using mylar overlays (scale 24,000)--drainage basins were also mapped. It was supported by a Department of Community Affairs grant, and there was assistance from the FSU Geography Department. The Native and HQS Forests were identified using DOT Vegetation Inventory Maps, USFS Soils and Vegetation maps, some aerial photo review, and ground truthing. In 1996 a proposal was brought to the GIS Executive Committee by the departments as an ESA Remap Project that would map the layers (also Greenways) at larger scales of 1,200 and 2,400 using the new GIS base map. The project was funded by the TLCGIS. The layers were mapped by OPS environmental/biology students and graduates with oversight by the departments. Native and HQS Forests originally mapped on the quad maps were then heads up digitized into the GIS using base map data and two sets of digital aerial photos from '94 & '96. Hard copy aerials from '37 and '76 were also used for comparison. In the southeastern US mixed hardwood/beech-magnolia forests have a fairly distinct spectral signature on the false color infrared imagery which staff learned and were trained to recognize, with ground truthing where possible (property owners were called for access). The upland pine/longleaf and pine oak hickory signatures were not as easy to identify. The goal of the ESA Remap was to identify forests that had been continually forested since at least '37 (less so for longleaf forests where bulk of the diversity is in the groundcover). The soil and contour layers, with the aerials were used to find additional areas that hadn't been previously mapped. So, essentially it was a process of identifying a specific signature and also the environmental conditions (soils, slope, aspect, topography) that would have supported or allowed a forest type to have been protected throughout history. For example, beech-magnolia forests are often found on steep slopes that were historically difficult to access for logging or around wetland/floodplain areas that would have potentially limited logging due to saturated soils. Florida Natural Areas Inventory Element Occurrence data and Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission Closing the Gaps data were also used.