Tag Archives: badlands

Land Cover Survey

Land cover survey work is pretty dead simple, but you have to be able to identify all the different farm crops and ecosystems throughout North Dakota and South Dakota. My primary area of survey was West River, meaning west of the Missouri River.

The National Land Cover Database (NLCD) requires that the data be updated occasionally, and I had the pleasure of being one of the technicians that were able to perform this survey.

It consisted of driving to a random smattering of points and recording what the land cover use was. This was one of my favorite surveys because I got to go into very remote areas of ND and SD. The Dakotas have expansive grassland areas where you can get so removed from civilization you don’t see power lines, phone lines, homes, or even roads. Buffalo Gap National Grassland and the Little Missouri National Grasslands are two of the notable big ones.

I also got to truck through some of the forest service roads in the Black Hills of SD to record data. Since I’m an accomplished 4×4 driver, I wasn’t hesitant about doing so. There were several times that I ran across ATV riders who couldn’t believe I got such a large vehicle into some of the spots I had to make it into.

Take note of all the different ecosystems you see in the pictures below. ND and SD have a lot of very beautiful and scenic landscapes.

Expansive grassland area
Expansive grassland area
More South Dakota rock features
More South Dakota rock features
Prairie left alone since the Dust Bowl period
Prairie left alone since the Dust Bowl period
Black Hills area
Black Hills area

nlcd4

Aspen wooded area in Black Hills
Aspen wooded area in Black Hills
Succulent from high dry prairie area
Succulent from high dry prairie area
Dry prairie with succulents
Dry prairie with succulents
Transitional badlands
Transitional badlands
Black Hills buttes and bluffs
Black Hills buttes and bluffs