The files linked to this reference are the geospatial data created as part of the completion of the baseline vegetation inventory project for the NPS park unit. Current format is ArcGIS file geodatabase but older formats may exist as shapefiles.

A final map of vegetation communities was created for Horseshoe Bend National Military Park (NMP) to the association level of the National Vegetation Classification System and in a 500-meter (1,640-foot [ft]) buffer zone around the park using the more general Anderson Level II classification. This map represents the vegetation found in the park during 2011, the year the images were acquired. We were provided with the vegetation communities occurring in the park, as determined by NatureServe from ground plots. We overlaid the location of the NatureServe plots on leaf-on color-infrared aerial photographs to determine the image signature of vegetation communities in terms of color, tone, texture, and topographic position. We also conducted our own field surveys to refine and verify photointerpretation. The park encompasses 829 hectares (2,049 acres [ac]) while the buffer alone covers 712 hectares (1,759 ac). Within the park boundary, there were 23 vegetation communities, with pine and hardwood forest communities dominating.