Phase 1 - Inventory and Monitoring Status of Natural Resource Inventories for the North Atlantic Region
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Phase 1 - Inventory and Monitoring Status of Natural Resource Inventories for the North Atlantic Region Janice Minushkin National Park Service r , North Atlantic Region I ! ( J August 1994 National Park Service North Atlantic Region Office of Scientific Studies 15 State Street Boston, Massachusetts 02109-3572 TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements ...................................... Forward ................................................ Introduction ................................. 0 ••••••••• 1 Methods ............................................... 1-3 Biological Inventory Status (BIS) 2 Imagery (IMAG) 2 Thematic and Cartographic (THEM) 3 Flora and Fauna (FLOR/FAUN) 3 Results ................................................ 4-9 BIS 4 Vascular Plants 5 Mammals 6 Birds 6 Herpetofauna 7 Fish 7 Cartographic and Thematic Information/GIS Imagery 9 Discussion ............................................. 10-14 Conclusion ............................................. 15-16 Park Summaries, 1992 ................................... 17-49 ACAD Acadia National Park CACO Cape Cod National Seashore FIIS Fire Island National Seashore FRLA Frederick Law Olmstead National Historic Site GATE Gateway National Recreation Area MIMA Minute Man National Historical Park MORR Morristown National Historical Park ROVA Roosevelt-Vanderbilt National Historic Site SAHI Sagamore Hill National Historic Site SAGA Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site SARA Saratoga National Historical Park LIST OF APPENDICES Appendix A. CODES FOR ALL DATABASES .............. 50-63 Appendix B. Complete List of Biological Inventory Status (BIS), 1992 Appendix C. Status of Imagery information (IMAG for NAR), 1992 Appendix D. Status of Mapped Information (THEM for NAR), 1992 Appendix E. Threatened and Endangered Species in NARparks, 1992 FORWARD I 1 I I .. j j The Servicewide versions of NPFLORA and NPFAUNA (software and data) are available for use at parks and can be accessed through the 1nternet(see details below). The information is a compilation of data gathered during this initial phase of the project and includes updated data from individual park sites. 1 The NPFLORA and NPFAUNA software is user friendly, it utilizes ! pull-down menus and FoxPro's ver. 2.5 built-in tools to manipulate and display the data. The data is also compatible with dBase 111+ software. NPFLORA and NPFAUNA for the North Atlantic Regions' park sites can be obtained through the University of California at Davis Cooperative Park Studies Unit or the Natural Resources Management and Research Office in Boston. The Cooperative Park Studies Unit can be contacted for more information: Dr. James F. Quinn Division of Environmental Studies University of California Davis, CA 95616 Phone (916) 752-3940; e-mail [email protected] or Janice Minushkin Biologist National Park Service: e-mail [email protected] ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would especially like to thank, David Manski, Supervisor of Resource Management at Cape Cod National Seashore, who at all stages of my work, has provided me with guidance and suggestions. Invaluable advice and resources have been provided by Mary Foley, Chief of Scientific Studies. Other NPS employees have contributed a great deal of time and thought to this project. These include: Michael Ruggiero; wildlife and Vegetation Division, Gary S. Waggoner; Geographic Information Systems in Denver (GIS-D), Thomas J. Stolgren; Ecologist, cooperative Park Studies unit at university of California. special thanks go to the North Atlantic Region's park superintendents, resource management, and other key staff who spent much time helping me research inventory and monitoring data for the individual park databases. Their names are too numerous to mention here, however the key staff that have contributed to this project at each park are recognized at the conclusion of the park summaries (see park contacts). I would like to thank the following people for their review, comments, corrections, and additions to the final draft of this report: James Allen, Mary Foley, Kyle Jones, David Manski, Brian Underwood The fauna and flora information gathered during this project and entered in dBase lV format will be included in the Servicewide NPFAUNA and NPFLORA software programs (for more information see Afterward). FORWARD The Servicewide versions of NPFLORA and NPFAUNA (software and data) are available for use at parks and can be accessed through the 1nternet(see details below). The information is a compilation of data gathered during this initial phase of the project and includes updated data from individual park sites. The NPFLORA and NPFAUNA software is user friendly, it utilizes pull-down menus and FoxPro's ver. 2.5 built-in tools to manipulate and display the data. The data is also compatible with dBase 111+ software. NPFLORA and NPFAUNA for the North Atlantic Regions' park sites can be obtained through the University of California at Davis Cooperative Park Studies Unit or the Natural Resources Management and Research Office in Boston. The Cooperative Park Studies Unit can be contacted for more information: Dr. James F. Quinn Division of Environmental Studies University of California Davis, CA 95616 Phone (916) 752-3940; e-mail [email protected] INTRODUCTION During FY1990, The National Park Service (NPS) began an initial Service-wide assessment of natural resources under its stewardship by compiling existing inventory information about vascular plants, vertebrate groups, and geographic information in five databases. The databases were designed by a NPS inter regional working group under the direction of the wildlife and Vegetation Division at the Washington Office (WASO). The goal of the project was to form an empirical basis for future program strategies as well as help parks and regions assess and organize their inventory information. The purpose of this project was not to point out individual park deficiencies, or lack of research;. effort. The goal was to help direct future research endeavors and funding initiatives to fill the holes in knowledge of the natural resources in the parks of the National Park Service. The collection and evaluation of inventories was completed for the following eleven park areas in the North Atlantic Region (NAR): Acadia National Park (ACAD), Cape Cod National Seashore (CACO), Fire Island National Seashore (FIlS), Frederick Law Olmstead National Historic Site (FRLA), Gateway National Recreation Area (GATE), Minute Man National Historical Park (MlMA) , Morristown National Historical Park (MORR) , Roosevelt Vanderbilt National Historic site (ROVA), Saint-Gaudens National Historic site (SAGA), Sagamore Hill National Historic Site (SAHI) and Saratoga National Historical Park (SARA). METHODS Information was gathered and evaluated for five databases; the Biological Inventory Status (BIS) , Thematic and cartographic (THEM), Imagery (IMAG), Flora (FLOR), and Fauna (FAUN). The database structure was designed by the wildlife and Vegetation Division at WASO. Parks in the North Atlantic Region were visited for three to five days which consisted of interviewing resource management personnel and key staff, as well as reviewing park files and data bases. For each of the fields in the five databases a number (code) was assigned to characterize the status of information (see Appendix A). 1 Biological Inventory status (BIS) The Biological Inventory status (BIS) database for each park was an evaluation of data on vascular plants, mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fishes based on interviews with park staff and reviewing systematic surveys and reliable species lists gathered within park boundaries. Available information was evaluated for taxonomic (family level), geographic, ecological, and seasonal completeness. Natural resource inventories were considered complete if they were conducted for all taxonomic groups (at the family level), conducted in all geographic locations, throughout all appropriate ecological habitats/ communities in a park, and conducted during all appropriate seasons. The purpose of the BIS database was to indicate existing research gaps in the eleven NAR park units surveyed for the six biological groups mentioned above. For quantitative summary purposes, the numerical sum of the codes entered into each of the four fields (i.e. taxonomic plus , , i geographic plus ecological plus seasonal completeness, BIS score) ) was used to summarize the status of knowledge of each biological group and to allow comparisons among parks and between biological groups. The parks were evaluated on the same scale without consideration to the various sizes of individual park units. Each category of completeness was evaluated on a scale of 1 to 6, with 1 being the most complete. In general, a low BIS score of 4 indicated that a lot was known about a biological group while a score of 16 showed a considerable gap in our knowledge of that group. A low BIS score 4-8 represented the more complete surveys (based on the four characteristics evaluated), the BIS score at this level represented surveys that can be considered greater than 80% complete. Similarly, a BIS score of 9-11 represented surveys that were 50-80% complete and a BIS score of 12-23 represented studies that were less than 50% complete or inventories that have been done on a sporadic basis. Imagery (IMAG) The Imagery (IMAG) database covered aerial photography and satellite imagery. Imagery was catalogued for scale, format (i.e. black/white or color) and park comprehensiveness. ,Imagery information housed at the NPS Geographic