Rocky
Mountain Front Vegetation Information
The Montana Rocky Mountain Front is a landscape of national importance, noteworthy for not only its scenic beauty, but also for the high-quality and diverse wetland, prairie, riparian and montane habitats found there in abundance. The United States Fish and Wildlife Service recognizes the Rocky Mountain Front in Montana as one of the nation’s most significant wildlife areas. Grizzly bears still venture down into prairie habitats in the spring and virtually all other presettlement plants and animals (except the bison) are still present. Migratory waterfowl use the abundant wetlands found along the Front and the diverse mix of habitats supports many species of conservation concern. To support habitat management we have developed a map of vegetation types for this area with funding assistance from the USFWS.
About the Map
The map is a mosaic of three data sets: National Wetlands Inventory data for wetlands, National Land Cover Data for agricultural areas, and classified Landsat Thematic Mapper satellite data. The Landsat data was combined with ground truth plots, and environmental data in a classification model to identify vegetation types. We primarily focused on the ecologically important upland grassland communities critical for some declining species of grassland birds and many other animal species. For complete details see the project report.
Download GIS Land Cover Data (ESRI GRID Format)
