Iowa GAP Stewardship Poster

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Iowa GAP Stewardship
Attribute Data Each land unit was attributed
with a minimum of a place name, owner, manager
and associated stewardship codes as well as a
management status code. Additionally if available
the land unit was designated with its place name
or equivalent. Stewardship Codes IAGAP uses a
set of 4-digit codes similar to other GAP
programs to differentiate the different owners
and managers in a states conservation system. A
list of all GAP stewardship codes can be seen at
www.gap.uidaho.edu. The first two digits
identify the agency with the last two digits
representing the management type. GAP Status
Code The GAP status code is a measure of the
level of commitment a land unit provides for
maintaining biodiversity. The status code is
based on the permanence of protection from a
natural to unnatural state, the amount of
landcover within a landunit that is managed for
natural cover, inclusiveness of
managementspecies versus ecosystem and type of
managementallows or mimics disturbance events.
Analysis Completion of the stewardship map will
allow the examination of stewardship and the
level of protection offered throughout the
conservation network in Iowa. Basic reporting
will include tabulating the level of protection
(Status 1,2,3,4) by steward. An analysis of
conservation gaps will also be performed using
data from the vertebrate modeling component of
IAGAP. Some preliminary analyses of the
stewardship data can be seen below, as well as a
preliminary representation of the final
stewardship map in the large box.
Introduction The goal of IAGAP was to compile a
comprehensive stewardship map detailing the
geographic boundaries of a majority of the public
and private conservation lands in Iowa. IAGAP
uses the term stewardship because in many cases
the organization or agency managing an area is
different than the legal owner of a parcel of
land. Over 100 county, state and federal agencies
were identified as possible contributors of
ownership boundaries for Iowas stewardship map.
In addition to collecting the geographic boundary
of managed areas information about the owner,
manager and a measure of intent to maintain
biodiversity was also collected. The intent of
the land stewardship component of IAGAP is to
provide an indicator for the protection of
biodiversity throughout the state. When used in
conjunction with the habitat modeling and
landcover components the map of land stewardship
also provides agencies, organizations and private
land owners the basic information to evaluate
their land in the context of the entire
conservation system of the state.
Preliminary analysis of the IAGAP map units
(landcover type) protected within conservation
areas in Iowa.
The IAGAP stewardship map contains over 2250
uniquely named areas.
IAGAP Map Unit Open Water Upland Deciduous
Forest Cool Season Grass Cropland Seasonally
Flooded Forested Wetland Warm Season
Grass/Perennial Forbs Temp Flooded Forested
Wetland Grassland w/ Sparse Trees Sparsely
Vegetated/Barren Semi-perm Flooded Wetland Upland
Deciduous Woodland Permanently Flooded
Wetland Mixed Evergreen/Deciduous Forest Temp
Flooded Wetland Seasonally Flooded
Wetland Seasonally Flooded Shrub Evergreen
Forest Upland Shrub Artificial/High
Vegetation Eastern Red Cedar Forest Temp Flooded
Shrub Pine Forest Artificial/Low
Vegetation Semi-perm Flooded Shrub Eastern Red
Cedar Woodland Barren/Mixed Vegetation Mixed
Evergreen/Deciduous Woodland Saturated
Wetland Saturated Shrub
Acres 194028 141426 85184 75547 37474 34196 32925
15904 13789 12986 12744 10989 10783 5881 5562 4226
3377 2972 2783 2106 1546 1447 1291 1194 888 733 5
96 179 8
Acres 168086 148875 1541 75392
346618 2444 30 1296 36175 5650
Manager ACE CCB system City FWS IDNR INHF Loc
al Gov. NPS Private TNC
Analysis with Landcover and Habitat models
Data Acquisition
Input and Reconcile data sources
Attribute Data
Status 1-Permanent protection from conversion
through a management plan or intent, allow or
mimic disturbance events Status 2-Permanent
protection from conversion through a management
plan or intent, suppression of natural
disturbance or management practices that may
degrade the quality of natural communities Status
3-Permanent protection but may be subject to
extractive or intensive uses Status 4-No known
institutional mandate or legal restrictions to
prevent the conversion of natural areas, area
generally allows conversion to unnatural
landcover Status 5-Not managed for biodiversity
includes private flow easements The County
Conservation Board system involves 99 separate
managing agencies. includes ACE easements
Data Acquisition The Iowa Department of Natural
Resources (IDNR) was invaluable in obtaining
data. Their work with federal and county agencies
throughout the state yielded many pieces of the
stewardship puzzle in existing GIS data formats.
After identifying other key organizations
managing land in Iowa requests for data were made
to the appropriate individuals. Data was
available in a variety of formats and
resolutions. The table below shows the data
acquired for a particular agency, the source,
format and approximate resolution.
Data Input and Reconciliation Reconciliation of
existing GIS data Much of Iowas conservation
network was represented in a variety of existing
GIS formats already. Pieces of existing GIS data
received from GAP participants contained similar
geographic information and attributes that
required edge-matching or conflation. Another
problem was contradictory information about
ownership or management. Prior to construction of
the final dataset these issues had to be
resolved. Digitizing Almost all of the property
owned/managed within the 99 County Conservation
Boards (CCB) had to be digitized. Data was
obtained on FSA aerial photos or paper maps
directly from a CCB. In cases where no data was
submitted information was transferred to aerial
photos from information at the county Auditors
Office. The photos were then scanned and
referenced to allow on-screen digitization of
property boundaries.
Mapped Land Units Each property boundary
identified as having a unique combination of land
owner, land manager and biodiversity protection
became a distinct land unit in the final database.
The Iowa Gap Analysis Project would like to thank
the following agencies and organizations for
their contribution to IAGAP Iowa Department of
Natural Resources Iowa Association of County
Conservation Boards The individual County
Conservation Boards of Iowa Iowa Natural Heritage
Foundation Natural Resources Conservation Service
The Nature Conservancy U.S Fish and Wildlife
Service U.S. Army Corps of Engineers For more
information contact Patrick Brown patrickb_at_iastat
e.edu
Iowa GAP Stewardship data mapped according to
owner