Wellllllll, maybe, but if you look at where the lines are, and think about what is actually on the ground in those areas, maybe not. In the shot Wagga posted above, there is one such clear line just west of the edge of the Whitney summit plateau, and opposite that, just east of the edge of Iceberg Lake. What would the significant vegetation changes at those points be?
The band you describe spanning across the Whitney crest might represent the plant species at the highest elevation. At a larger map scale in the image I embedded, this general area is called "tundra." At the smaller map scale that's got us wondering, the source data seems to be different with different boundaries and color schemes (shades of green instead of white and green). If I'm correct, these vegetation zones are probably coming from someone sketching them in click, click, click with a mouse over the entire Sierra with minimal accuracy.
Once again, I could be off, but it makes sense to me. I think we're all sure these zones are not any kind of jurisdictional boundary (NF, NPS, County, Whitney zone etc.)
Edit: I'll ask our top GIS expert at my office this week to see if we can positively identify the source layer for this green shading.
