Geographic Resource Solutions

Galena Forest (Biomass) Inventory and Management Plan Project

During 2012 Geographic Resource Solutions (GRS) undertook the Galena Forest Inventory and Management Plan Project for a consortium of the Louden Tribal Council, the Galena School District, and the City of Galena, Alaska. This project entailed the development of a detailed vegetation/land cover/biomass inventory for approximately 1.25 million acres of wildlands in the vicinity of Galena.  During this project GRS used the Discrete Classification methodology to develop a comprehensive natural resource inventory that included species-specific estimates of volume and biomass, estimated forest growth and biomass availability, and projected the magnitude and sustainability of future harvest levels through the end of this century. The resulting information (available as a map data set) and Project Report will provide the basis for a determination of the feasibility of developing biomass fueled power generation for the community of Galena. This Project was partially funded by grants from the Alaska Energy Authority and the Bureau of Land Management.

The National Park Service contracted with GRS to perform a comprehensive land-cover classification of Lassen Volcanic National Park (LAVO) in northern California. The National Park Service had dual goals in this project: the first goal was to create two detailed vegetation maps for LAVO - one based on photo-interpretation and the other on image classification; the second goal was to compare traditional aerial photo‐interpreted map data set with the map data set developed using the Discrete Classification Mapping Methodology (DCMM) developed by GRS. 

Started in the spring of 2008 and completed in mid-2013, this NVCS vegetationornia.    classification and mapping project performed for the National Park Service Inventory and Mapping Program encompassed over 136,000 acres of extremely steep, inaccessible, and rugged lands that ranged from flat beach sands to steep nearly barren ultra-maphic rock slopes, from meadows and prairies to oak woodlands, and from cutover young growth stands to cathedral-like virgin old-growth redwood-fir forests in Northernwestern Calif

The Inventory and Monitoring (I&M) Program of the National Park Service (NPS) sought to provide reliable and consistent land cover information for Katmai National Park and Preserve (KATM) that may be used to assess the status and trends of national park ecosystems.  GRS was selected based on our unique land cover mapping techniques, which enabled the estimation and mapping of detailed land cover characteristics.

In 2003 GRS was selected by National Park Service to create a detailed land-cover map of the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve(WRST). This 18-million acre park and preserve is the largest U.S. National Park and is characterized by its rugged terrain including magnificent mountains, glaciers, river valleys, and coastal shoreline.

GRS initiated land cover classification and mapping efforts of the 18-million acre project area in late-2003 for the Alaska Support Office (AKSO) of the National Park Service in an effort to upgrade and improve vegetation/land cover information for the WRST. 

GRS was contracted by the Forest and Rangeland Resources Assessment Program (FRRAP) of California Department of Forestry to perform a remote sensing classification encompassing the 18-million acre Klamath Province in northern California.

GRS used Landsat Thematic Mapper data to classify vegetation types on the 700,000 acre Applegate Watershed located in Southwestern Oregon.