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U.S. National Vegetation Classification Hierarchy Explorer Logo image

USNVC Hierarchy Explorer

The U.S. Geological Survey hosts the U.S. National Vegetation Classification (USNVC) official databases and explorer application on behalf of the Federal Geographic Data Committee’s Vegetation Subcommittee. The USNVC Partnership is composed of federal agencies and non-governmental partners to coordinate, manage, and share this vegetation classification information. For more information visit USNVC.org

This explorer provides detailed descriptions of vegetation communities aligned to the hierarchical National Vegetation Classification Standard (NVCS) and access to the current official version of the USNVC database in ScienceBase.

Explore the classification by searching the NVCS database by keywords, or by selecting a subset of the hierarchy. These criteria can be used in combination or separately.

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Keyword fields to search:
Select one:


Select a unit of the hierarchy to search:

Select hierarchy levels to be shown in results:




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