Meadows

In practice, a meadow is an ecosystem type composed of one or more plant communities dominated by herbaceous species (Drew et al. 2018). Meadows support plants that use surface water or shallow groundwater (generally at depths of less than 1 meter) during at least 2-4 weeks of the growing season. Woody vegetation like trees and shrubs may occur and be dense but are not dominant. The original UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences meadow map (Fryjoff and Viers 2012) compiled 44 meadow maps from multiple sources. Version 2 - The Sierra Nevada Multi-Source Meadow Polygons Compilation boundaries were updated using 'headsup' digitization from high resolution (1m) NAIP imagery. Version 1 retained only polygons larger than one acre. In version 2, existing polygons were split, reduced in size, or merged, and additional polygons not captured were digitized. If split, the Original ID was maintained in one half and a new ID created for the other half. When adjacent meadows were merged, only one ID was retained and the unused ID was 'decommissioned.' Newly digitized meadows were assigned a new sequential ID. Version 3 - Polygons for the entire Sierra National Forest (SNF) were replaced by more accurate data received from the GIS staff on the SNF. As in version 2, if a meadow was split the original ID from version 2 was retained for one half and a new sequential ID created for the other half if greater than 1 acre. Unused IDs were 'decommissioned.'