Aerial Information Systems, Inc. (AIS) was contracted by the Coachella Valley Conservation Commission (CVCC) through a Local Assistance Grant originating from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) to map and describe the essential habitats for bighorn sheep monitoring within the San Jacinto-Santa Rosa Mountains Conservation Area. This effort was completed in support of the Coachella Valley Multiple Species Habitat Conservation Plan (CVMSHCP). The completed vegetation map is consistent with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife classification methodology and mapping standards. The mapping area covers 187,465 acres of existing and potential habitat on the northern slopes of the San Jacinto and Santa Rosa Mountains ranging from near sea level to over 6000 feet in elevation. The map was prepared over a baseline digital image created in 2014 by the US Department of Agriculture '' Farm Service Agency''s National Agricultural Imagery Program (NAIP). Vegetation units were mapped using the National Vegetation Classification System (NVCS) to the Alliance (and in several incidences to the Association) level (See Appendix A for more detail) as described in the second edition of the Manual of California Vegetation Second Edition (Sawyer et al, 2009). The mapping effort was supported by extensive ground-based field gathering methods using CNPS rapid assessment protocol in the adjacent areas as part of the Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan (DRECP) to the north and east; and by the 2012 Riverside County Multiple Species Habitat Conservation Plan vegetation map in the western portion of Riverside County adjacent to the west. These ground-based data have been classified and described for the abovementioned adjacent regions and resultant keys and descriptions for those efforts have been used in part for this project.For detailed information please refer to the following report: Menke, J. and D. Johnson. 2015. Vegetation Mapping '' Peninsular Bighorn Sheep Habitat. Final Vegetation Mapping Report. Prepared for the Coachella Valley Conservation Commission. Aerial Information Systems, Inc., Redlands, CA.
