Montgomery County has no single land-cover class that overwhelms everything else. Wetlands lead the supplied 2025 summary at 28.69%, followed by forest at 22.07%, agriculture at 16.52%, and grassland at 16.37%. Developed land is 7.37% and appears in several separated small-town clusters rather than one large urban area. This Montgomery County Georgia Land Cover Map compares those settlement pockets with the county’s wet lowlands, fields, grass, shrub cover, and woodland.
The page includes four WebP views for current land cover, vegetation, impervious surface, and the 1985–2025 endpoint comparison. The four original 2480 × 1754 JPG maps are available together in one ZIP for county profiles, lessons, reports, and presentation graphics.
Table of Contents
The countywide map is defined by wetlands and a finely mixed rural surface
Wetlands cover 28.69%, the largest individual class. Teal areas are broad along the western side and southwest and reappear as branching bands through the center and north. The distribution is not limited to one river edge or one corner of the county; wet ground is woven through much of the rural landscape.
Forest accounts for 22.07%. Larger wooded blocks occupy the west and southwest, but green patches remain common through the north and east as well. Agriculture at 16.52% and grassland at 16.37% are almost equal in size, so open rural land is split between cultivated areas and grass-dominated surfaces instead of being represented by one farm class alone.
Shrubland adds 7.51%, while open water is 1.19% in the vegetation summary. That small water percentage is important when reading the teal wetland cover: most wetland cells are not simply open ponds or river channels. The 30-meter classification can also simplify narrow drainage features and small water bodies.
Mount Vernon and nearby Ailey provide context for the largest built cluster
The strongest hard-surface concentration sits in the west-central county. Georgia’s comprehensive-plan material describes Mount Vernon as Montgomery County’s governmental, educational, commercial, and social center, and the nearby city of Ailey is part of the same small-town network. That setting gives a useful geographic reference for the largest built cluster without turning the raster into a municipal-boundary map.
The cluster itself is not a solid block of pavement. Darker cells mark a compact core, while lighter hard-surface values extend outward along several road-shaped lines and mix quickly with fields, grass, forest, and wetlands. The edge of that pattern should not be treated as the legal boundary of Mount Vernon or Ailey.
Mean impervious cover is 1.32%, and only 0.24% of the county reaches 50% impervious surface or more. Developed land covers 7.37%, a much wider class. Developed cells can contain lawns, trees, yards, and bare ground; the impervious product isolates roofs, pavement, parking areas, and other surfaces that shed rather than absorb water.
Higgston, Uvalda, and other towns keep development dispersed
The Georgia Department of Community Affairs lists Ailey, Alston, Higgston, Mount Vernon, Tarrytown, and Uvalda in the county’s joint comprehensive plan. Separate developed concentrations appear in the eastern and southern portions of the maps, which fits a rural county made up of several small municipalities rather than one dominant city.
Higgston lies in the northeastern part of the county and Uvalda in the south, offering reasonable place context for two of the separated settlement areas. Exact assignment still requires a political boundary layer because the supplied land-cover images do not print town names or municipal limits. The safer map-based conclusion is that built surfaces occur in several distinct centers with large rural gaps between them.
The vegetation view shows agriculture and grassland as nearly equal parts of the open landscape
Removing the strong developed colors makes the open rural cover much easier to separate. Agriculture is common across the north, east, and west-central portions, while grass-dominated areas are spread through the same broad landscape and remain especially noticeable in the center and south. Forest and wetlands divide both classes into many medium and small patches.
Montgomery County Extension provides soil and water testing, production-agriculture resources, and information for field crops, fruits and vegetables, poultry, livestock, and related farm needs. That local service context supports discussing agriculture as an active part of the county, but the map cannot identify a yellow cell as a particular crop or a light-green cell as a specific pasture.
The 1985–2025 endpoint map is dominated by forest and agricultural class changes
The total class difference is 39.54%. That figure counts raster cells assigned different classes in 1985 and 2025. It is not an urbanization rate or the share of Montgomery County that was damaged. The map itself notes that classification variation can be included, which matters when imagery date, seasonal conditions, and mixed land cover influence a cell’s label.
The printed summary lists 18.83% forest loss, 8.57% agricultural loss, 8.52% other difference, and 1.89% classified to developed. Orange forest-loss cells are widespread through the north, center, and south. Yellow agricultural-loss cells also occur broadly, while red developed-change cells stay much closer to the existing settlement centers and road-oriented pockets.
Wetland difference is included in the legend without a separately printed percentage. The missing value should not be recreated by subtracting the listed categories from 39.54%. “Forest loss” likewise does not establish timber harvest or development as the cause; intermediate imagery and local records are needed before a cause is assigned.
A 30-meter land-cover grid is useful for county patterns, not parcel decisions
Annual NLCD assigns one predominant class to each 30-meter raster cell. A field edge, trees, grass, a road, and part of a building can share the same square even though only one label appears. Narrow streams, small ponds, thin wooded strips, and scattered structures can therefore look simplified.
Land cover is also separate from zoning, ownership, legal land use, and wetland jurisdiction. Agricultural color does not define a farm parcel, wetland color does not replace a regulatory determination, and developed color does not show a town boundary or permitted use. Site-specific decisions require current local, state, or federal records.
The four JPG maps work best when each is used for a different question
Use the 2025 countywide map first to explain the balance among wetlands, forest, agriculture, grassland, and small-town development. The vegetation view is better for comparing cropland, grass, shrub cover, and woods. Choose the impervious map for the concentration of roofs and pavement, and reserve the endpoint map for a separate discussion of 1985–2025 classification differences.
Each JPG measures 2480 × 1754 pixels and works well for reports, lessons, and presentations. The package does not identify the files as meeting an A3 high-resolution reference, so test a proof before large-format printing.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the largest land-cover class in Montgomery County?
Wetlands are the largest class in the supplied 2025 summary at 28.69%. Forest follows at 22.07%, agriculture at 16.52%, and grassland at 16.37%, so several rural cover types share substantial portions of the county.
Why is developed land 7.37% while mean impervious cover is only 1.32%?
Developed classes can include trees, lawns, yards, and bare ground around roads and buildings. Fractional impervious cover measures the harder surfaces such as roofs, pavement, and parking areas.
Does the 39.54% endpoint difference mean that much of the county was damaged?
No. It counts all cells with different class labels in 1985 and 2025. The summary separately lists 18.83% forest loss, 8.57% agricultural loss, 8.52% other difference, and 1.89% classified to developed.
Sources and Reference Data
- MRLC Annual NLCD Data – official access to annual land-cover and comparison products
- USGS Annual NLCD Land Cover Classification – definitions for wetlands, forest, agriculture, developed land, and related classes
- U.S. Census Bureau TIGER/Line Shapefiles – authoritative county, place, and transportation layers for comparison
- Montgomery County Government – official county administration and public-service information based in Mount Vernon
- Georgia DCA – Montgomery County Joint Comprehensive Plan – official planning context for Mount Vernon, Ailey, Higgston, Uvalda, and the county’s rural land-use pattern
- UGA Extension – Montgomery County Agriculture & Natural Resources – local soil, water, crop, livestock, and production-agriculture resources
Map File Information
The ZIP contains four original JPG maps for comparing Montgomery County's wetlands, forest, agriculture and grassland, Mount Vernon-area development, impervious surfaces, and 1985–2025 class differences.
- Included Files: Use only the versions confirmed in the article and supplied images
- File Type: Use the confirmed download contents
- Intended Use: Printing, education, presentations, and map-based projects
Related Maps
- Appling County Georgia Land Cover Map
- Atkinson County Georgia Land Cover Map
- Bacon County Georgia Land Cover Map
Green Map creates custom-edited map images using open geographic data sources such as geoBoundaries, Natural Earth, OpenStreetMap, and government open data.
These maps are edited visual materials, not raw data files, and are provided for education, documents, presentations, and graphic reference.
