At the request of the East Bay Regional Parks District (EBPRD), Nomad Ecology (Nomad), Benson Bio Consulting (Shelly Benson), and Tukman Geospatial (project manager Brittany Burnett) conducted a fine-scale grassland vegetation mapping project on 11,000 acres of grasslands and low-cover shrublands in 16 parks owned and managed by East Bay Regional Parks District (EBRPD) in Alameda and Contra Costa counties. This project used field vegetation sampling and mapping to produce a fine-scale vegetation map (alliance and association level) to identify the composition and location of these native grassland vegetation types, so mapped polygons do not correspond with any imagery base. Areas mapped in the enhanced lifeform map as anything except upland herbaceous or non-native herbaceous were excluded from the matrix. These matrix polygons were incorporated into the final grassland map and flagged "Yes” in the field “Matrix Flag.”. The methods used for this vegetation sampling and mapping project are consistent with the Manual of California Vegetation and followed protocols established by CDFW VegCAMP and CNPS. This map was made in 2023.

This fine scale grassland map represents native grasslands and low-cover shrublands throughout select East Bay Regional Parks District (EBRPD) lands – a 74-class grassland map with 2,805 polygons. The mapping was conducted in the spring-summer of 2023 and 2024. The map also includes a non-native matrix covering areas not mapped as native grasslands or low-cover shrublands. After field work concluded, field staff conducted a thorough quality assurance process, which involved checking for polygons under the 1/5-acre minimum mapping unit (MMU), overlapping polygons, and accurate data attribution.

Spatial data for this project is also available on pacificvegmap.org. The report for this project is available here: https://nrm.dfg.ca.gov/FileHandler.ashx?DocumentID=228273