Ministry of Forests and Range Vegetation Resources Inventory

Example of VRI and CMI Sample Maps

This is an example VRI Phase II and CMI sample map. This map is used as an aid by field crews to perform final navigation to the sample location. The intended sample location is in the center of the map and is shown by a red circle and a cross hair. The cross hair is most useful to VRI Phase II sampling crews and the lines should be at 50m at cardinal directions from the coordinate. This corresponds with the sample cluster design that the crews locate on the ground.

Typical information shown on a sample map includes: sample location, forest cover polygons and labels, water features, roads, land ownership, and parks. If desired more information can be added such as contours, photo elevations, UTM grids, etc. If Orthophotos are available, these should be used as a backdrop for the sample map. Typical scale for the map is 1:10,000 and should be of sufficient size that the crews have plenty of options for access locations and tie points. The map should be orientated so that North is exactly parallel with the side of the map (exactly "up"), as the crews may be using compasses in the field to navigate. As an alternative a long North arrow that points to true north can be placed near the sample location on the map. The example map is at 1:10,000 scale and is designed to be printed on 17X22 inch paper. Details can be seen on the map by using the zoom in tool on Adobe Reader.

Crews should also be provided with an overview map showing all of the samples in the project, and access maps to help them navigate to the general area of the sample (the area shown by this example sample map).

Crews establishing VRI phase II samples are trying to find a location on the ground in relation to the polygon boundary. There are areas in the province where the base maps are not accurate, for example where NAD27 maps have been transformed into NAD83 using the Federal Transformation program (I have to look up the right name here). If the project area includes maps where there are known errors such as this, the crews need to know as they may navigate to the sample location using GPS which could in fact locate them outside of the target polygon.

CMI sampling crews are typically intending to find a coordinate on the ground, but the crews still need to know if there are base map errors as they map navigate by compass and chain and not end up at the correct location.

To download example of a map [enter here]