Maps: Central Sierra Region GIS project

2005 National Agricultural Imaging Program (NAIP) 1-meter resolution aerial photography. For more information see USDA's Aerial Photography Field Office web page.

The California Natural Diversity Database (CNDDB) is a program that inventories the status and locations of rare plants and animals in California. CNDDB staff work with partners to maintain current lists of rare species as well as maintain an ever-growing database of GIS-mapped locations for these species. For more information see the State of California's CNDDB web page.

The Fire and Resource Assessment Program (FRAP) compiled fire perimeters and has established an on-going fire perimeter data capture process. The fire perimeter database represents the most complete digital record of fire perimeters in California. However it is still incomplete in many respects. Fire perimeter database users must exercise caution to avoid inaccurate or erroneous conclusions.  For more information see the State of California's FRAP web page.

Fire Threat is a combination of two factors: (1) fire frequency, or the likelihood of a given area burning, and (2) potential fire behavior (hazard). These two factors are combined to create 4 threat classes ranging from moderate to extreme.  For more information see the State of California's FRAP data web page.

The Mineral Resource Data system (MRDS) of USGS and the Mineral Availability System/Mineral Industry Locator System (MAS/MILS) originated in the U.S. Bureau of Mines, which is now part of USGS. The MRDS is a large and complex relational database developed over several decades by hundreds of researchers and reporters.  For more information see USGS's Mineral Resources Data System web page.

Digital terrain model shows the topography and relief in the sierra foothills.  For more information about the data used to generate this model see GeoCommunity's USGS Digital Elevation Models (DEM) web page.

Shows land ownership distribution throughout the region by agency. Light grey (non-colored) areas depict private ownership.  For more information see the State of California's Public Conservation and Trust Lands web page.

A watershed is any area of land that catches rain and snow and drains or seeps into a single spill point. Derived from the National Hydrography Dataset (NHD), a comprehensive set of digital spatial data that containing information about surface water features. The watersheds depicted are based on "HUC 8" designations. For more information see USGS's National Hydrography Dataset web page.