Big South Fork National River & Recreation Area rock climbing management plan : a GIS predictive model development for sensitive vegetation
(Book - Regular Print)

Thesis,MSES,Green Mountain College,2012

Includes bibliographical references.

The Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area is a popular climbing destination for climbers in the eastern United States due to its mostly unexplored 500 km of cliff line. A new found interest in this untapped climbing resource has raised concerns among park managers regarding the impact of rock climbing on the sensitive vegetation only found along the cliff sides. The purpose of this project was to create GIS maps that identified possible cliff face study sites that would 1) be appealing to climbers and 2) contain significant vegetation including threatened and endangered species. Data was provided by the National Park Service in order to examine the slope, aspect, and other characteristics of the cliff line. As of December 2011, four of ten test sites were ground truthed and it was determined the maps were accurate in terms of slope and aspect.