kkr1@psu.edu
Writer-Editor for the Northeast Region,
National Park Service;
University Park, Pennsylvania


Back to Chapter 2: NPS Science

Amphibians and abandoned mines spawn collaboration of scientific disciplines
By Carol A. Pollio

Barred owl displaces northern spotted owl at Olympic
By Scott Gremel

Return of the muskox to Gates of the Arctic
By James Lawler

Paleontological inventories unearth the remains of ancient life in parks
By Vincent L. Santucci

Award-Winner Profile - Dan Foster honored for resource monitoring

Sulfur dioxide advisory system installed at Hawaii Volcanoes

Beaver, river otter, and muskrat inventoried in Grand Canyon

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The value of scientific inventories as a resource management tool in national parks is that they create baseline data for future planning and reflect the health of ecosystems. With information yielded by a systematic sampling of a park’s plants and animals, resource managers know they will have convincing evidence when they evaluate the effects of proposed construction, land use changes, or other developments within or near their borders. In fact, as microcosms of their respective regions, national parks can use their surveys and monitoring to provide an early-warning system that benefits the inhabitants of entire watersheds. During 2000 the breadth of these inventories improved as a result of the Natural Resource Challenge, which provided $7 million to the Servicewide Inventory and Monitoring Program. By combining these funds with regional and park funds, several of the national parks in the Allegheny and Chesapeake Clusters of the Northeast Region implemented or began developing policies to protect rare, threatened, or endangered species that had been identified in previous inventories. Moreover, some studies that were initiated in 2000 have already yielded surprises.

Among the species in the Northeast that will benefit from investigative surveys is the bog turtle (Clemmys muhlenbergii). A study conducted in 1998 and 1999 identified likely habitat for this federally endangered species in the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area and confirmed its presence in the park. However, researchers observed that the open marshland needed by the turtle was being invaded by purple loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria), a common exotic whose high canopy crowds out lower-growing native plants. In 2000 the park began implementing a long-term strategy designed to reverse this trend. Two kinds of beetles (leaf-eaters and root-borers) that are biological enemies of the loosestrife were released. Ongoing monitoring of both the bog turtle population and the loosestrife will enable resource managers to evaluate the effectiveness of their strategy and to modify it if needed.

Additional opportunities to provide or protect habitat for rare species are being revealed by inventories in West Virginia. Although the species have not yet been identified, researchers have verified that bats are using the cavelike habitat of the abandoned coal mines found in the New River Gorge National River/Gauley River National Recreation Area. Three federally endangered species of bats occur in West Virginia, two of which (gray myotis [Myotis grisescens] and Indiana myotis [Myotis sodalis]), have previously been found in abandoned deep mines. The third, the Virginia big-eared bat (Plecotus townsendii virginianus), is typically found in caves and uses rock shelters in other parts of its range. At least two other rare species, the eastern small-footed bat (Myotis leibii) and Rafinesque’s big-eared bat (Corynorhinus rafinesquii), are occasionally or regularly associated with abandoned underground mines. When the study is completed, resource managers hope to identify specific portals that are being used by one or more of these at-risk species. Gating these portals will reduce hazards to the public, continue to make mines accessible to bats, and reduce disturbances to bat colonies due to recreational entry.

The value of combining information gathered from several surveys was shown in Colonial National Historical Park near Williamsburg, Virginia. During 2000, a small community of a threatened wetland plant, sensitive joint-vetch (Aeschynomene virginica), was rediscovered in the park during a survey by the Virginia Division of Natural Heritage of the Department of Conservation and Recreation; the presence of this species had not been documented in that area since 1939. Fortunately a two-year, parkwide inventory of invasive flora had disclosed that common reed (Phragmites australis) was growing nearby. Knowing the relative location and density of these two species has prompted park management to target that area for treatment in 2001 to help ensure that the rare plant survives.

Of course, because they are so recent many inventories begun or conducted in 2000 have not yet affected management policies or monitoring strategies—but they will. Perhaps most dramatic are surveys that yield discoveries reflecting the health of ecosystems. Knowing that freshwater mussels are the most rapidly declining animal group in the United States and that they serve as useful barometers of environmental health, the National Park Service and the U.S. Geological Survey began a two-year study in July 2000 to determine the diversity, abundance, and distribution of freshwater mussels in the Upper Delaware Scenic and Recreational River. The researchers are using geographic information system technology to create maps of mussel species distribution and abundance that incorporate data from each 200-meter snorkel survey section along 73 miles of river. Among the eight species found so far, three are listed as endangered, threatened, or proposed endangered at the state or federal level. These three (all indicators of good water quality) are the dwarf wedgemussel (Alasmidonta heterodon), thought to have been extirpated in Pennsylvania; the brook floater (Alasmidonta varicosa); and the eastern pearlshell (Margaritifera margaritifera), which had not been documented in the Delaware River basin in Pennsylvania since 1919. As part of the study, researchers will establish permanent monitoring transects to allow for long-term assessment of trends in mussel populations. This ongoing monitoring will give park personnel an additional indicator of water quality and better enable them to detect changes in ecosystem health in a river upon which millions of people rely for drinking water.

Surveys in 2000 have also revealed species that are intriguing because they are being found in some parks for the first time. Examples include a crayfish (Cambarus acuminatus) in Valley Forge National Historical Park, the mountain dusky salamander (Desmognathus ochrophaeus) in Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, and the northern leopard frog (Rana pipiens) in Gettysburg National Military Park (NMP). While conducting an inventory in 1999 and 2000 at both Gettysburg NMP and Eisenhower National Historic Site, researchers also documented four new species of bat for those areas: northern or long-eared myotis (Myotis septentrionalis), eastern pipistrelle (Pipistrellus subflavus), red bat (Lasiurus borealis), and hoary bat (Lasiurus cinereus). These preliminary findings suggest the need to conduct a population assessment and to continue monitoring those sites where these animals are being found.

Because factors such as urban sprawl, changing land and water use, and encroachment by dominant plants (both native and exotic) will continue to affect each region’s biodiversity, the role of the National Park Service as a protector of natural resources has never been more critical. As researchers analyze and monitor the newfound species in the coming months, their insights will enhance the ability of managers throughout the Northeast Region to plan proactively and to educate the public about the delicate ecosystems in the parks.

/YearInReview/yir/yir2000/pages/02_nps_science/02_01_reeder.html
Last Updated: 06/17/2001
Direct comments on this website to jeff_selleck@nps.gov