Kealia Pond NWR: Vegetation Community Mapping - Habitat Map [PRIMR]

The purpose of this dataset is to provide a baseline vegetation map to use for habitat planning and other work throughout the refuge. This dataset was created based on a unique classification determined by FWS biologists. The imagery used for the classification was collected on August 12 & 13 2019 using a Rico GRII camera mounted to a quad copter (3DR Solo) unmanned aerial system (UAS). Flight paths of the UAS were flown at 400ft above ground level. The composite orthophotos were created using Agisoft Photoscan software. An initial classification was completed usingTrimble eCognition software, resulting in a shapefile of 271,840 polygons. Manual digitization was then completed from this shapefile, resulting in a final product consisting of 27 vegetation classes. Keālia Pond NWR was established to preserve, restore, and manage essential habitat for endangered waterbirds. The majority of the Refuge is dominated by wetland habitats, although 98 percent of the vegetated portion of the Refuge is dominated by nonnative species. Some habitats dominated by nonnative species are used by waterbirds (for example pickleweed, California bulrush, and cattail), but are often lower quality than native habitats (USFWS 2011). Restoration efforts should focus on restoring nonnative-dominated wetland habitats to native wetland species that support endangered waterbirds. This vegetation and land cover map is a snapshot in time of Keālia Pond NWR. Since August 2019, water levels at the Refuge have continued to fluctuate, and this influences the acres of open water and mudflats at the Refuge at any given time. Refuge staff have removed hundreds of feral pigs, which trample and destroy vegetation and spread seeds of nonnative species. The long-term effects of ungulate removal are expected to change both vegetative cover and species composition across the Refuge. Vegetation has regrown since the 2019 fire, which has led to an increase in vegetation cover since the imagery was taken. Finally, Refuge staff have replaced one acre of nonnative kiawe forest on the northwest side of the Refuge with native species and continued to control cattail, red mangrove, cane grass, and small areas of Pluchea spp. This map can serve as a baseline index of the status of vegetation and land cover at Keālia Pond NWR. We hope this map will allow Refuge staff to track the effects of management actions at the Refuge, and serve as a baseline reference for shifts in vegetation and land cover caused by climate change and off-Refuge land use changes. We recommend that the Refuge acquire new drone imagery every five to ten years and update this map. Ideally, the updated map willshow changes that ungulate removal and restoration efforts have made across the landscape.