Conservation Planning for the Colorado River in Utah - Areas Open for Flight for Bat Watering Model

This dataset represents vegetation communities, river channel and bare areas (often sand bars) mapped along the Colorado River bottomland in Utah, as of September 2010. Dominant cover types were classified as 'open flight', based on height, and potential interference with bat flights over water sources. Traditional image interpretation cues were used to develop the polygons, such as shape, size, pattern, tone, texture, color, and shadow, from high resolution, true color, aerial imagery (0.3m resolution), acquired for the project. Additional, public available aerial photos (NAIP, 2011) were used to cross-reference cover classes. As with any digital layer, this layer is a representation of what is actually occurring on the ground. Errors are inherent in any interpretation of ground qualities. Due to the "snapshot" nature of the aerial photos, this cover layer reflects conditions that existed when the imagery was collected (September, 2010). This mapping was conducted as part of the Colorado River Conservation Planning Project, a joint effort between the National Park Service, The Nature Conservancy, US Geological Survey, Bureau of Land Management, and Utah Forestry Fire and State Lands.