Mountain Research Station. Mapping Ecological Systems in Southeastern Arizona

and other partners have been mapping ecosystems at multiple scales. The approach has focused on identifying land type associations (LTA), which represent the sum of bedrock and superficial geology, topography, elevation, potential and existing vegetation, soil properties, and local climatic variables. This mapping effort has been extended into the FireScape program, in which multiple partners utilize ecological land type mapping as a framework for fire planning across the Sky Island bioregion. Land type association maps for the Catalina-Rincon mountains (available at www.azfirescape.org) are used for managing ecological units (e.g., mixed conifer on granitic soils) typically no smaller than a thousand acres, and often much larger. Land type associations compliment raster-based sources of information such as LANDFIRE. Not surprisingly, the success of the project depends on an accurate depiction of vegetative and physical setting reality, not just interpretations of remote imagery. LTAs provide an intuitive and informative method of characterizing complex landscapes for planning and ecosystem management