A comprehensive effort has been made to compile, format, integrate, and interpret Geographic Information System (GIS) data among the CDOW, USFS, BLM, and others.  The maps illustrated in the Map Gallery are a result of this effort.

• Map A: This map shows the UP Project area boundaries.

• Map B: This map shows the different administrative boundaries on the Uncompahgre Plateau.

• Map C: This map shows the different watersheds on the Plateau. The UP area is divided into 20 principal (5th level) watersheds. Watershed management is the foundation for ecosystem management. Events occurring at the top of a drainage can affect the entire watershed. All restoration efforts need to carefully consider this fact during project planning.

• Map D: This map shows the major vegetation cover types for the Plateau.

• Map E: This map shows the grazing allotments on the Plateau. Sustaining farming and ranching within the UP area is an important UP objective. Knowledge of grazing allotments is important to identify opportunities to work with livestock permittees in restoration efforts. Grazing allotment maps and data on federal lands were produced by the Public Lands Partnership, working with the American Farmland Trust and Adaptive Mapping Systems.

• Map F: This map shows the location of roads on the Plateau. Roads are a significant disturbance on the Plateau landscape and fragment natural ecosystem functions and processes. Roads can change surface run-off, create fire breaks for wildfires, increase soil disturbance and erosion, affect water quality, fragment wildlife habitat, and provide a seed bed for noxious weeds.

• Map G: This map show current and past vegetative treatments on the Plateau. These treatments include prescribed fires, roller-chopping, chaining, plowing, seeding, and spraying. Complete historic records for timber harvests and some of the other treatments have been difficult to retrieve. Efforts to collate and digitize this information are on-going.  Evaluation of past treatment sites is important for understanding the sequence of vegetative changes that occur following treatment.

• Map H: This map shows precipitation amounts for the Plateau. Precipitation information is critical to understanding the type of treatment, seed mixture, timing and site potential for success when planning a vegetative restoration project.

• Map I: This map shows Sensitive Areas on the Plateau. These locations are identified as special management areas to protect a variety of resources including sensitive, threatened or endangered species habitats; wilderness or roadless areas, unique ecological sites, and energy transmission corridors. Proprietary cultural and paleontological sites are not included on the maps to protect these areas from vandalism.

• Map J: This map delineates and defines important winter concentration areas for mule deer. Mule deer were the initial focus for the founding of UP. A decline in vegetative quality and quantity in the mule deer winter range is a major concern to UP.

• Map K: This map shows the varying soils conditions on the Plateau. Soils information is paramount to understanding natural processes, site potential and for planning restoration efforts. Soils have been mapped for six geographic units on the Plateau. However, the format of the information is not GIS friendly, and UP has not had the resources to digitize this information. Development of a quality soils map is an anticipated product for UP integrating data from the NRCS, USFS and BLM.

• Map L: This map shows the history of wildfire starts on the Plateau. Understanding the history, occurrence regime, intensity and size of natural fires is very important for ecosystem restoration. UP has digitized recorded natural fires on the Plateau and supported two fire history studies in the ponderosa pine and pinyon/juniper vegetation zones. Updating and expanding this information into a comprehensive data base will help UP managers better understand natural processes, current conditions and information needs for planning restoration projects.

The GIS maps provide a baseline for management decisions. Identification of unknown information and data gaps is underway and will be a continuing process as we learn more about the restoration process.

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