National Park Service

Northeast Region

**Memorandum of Understanding**

**with the Europarc Federation**

Northeast Region Park Questionnaire

+------------+---------------------------------------------------------+
| Name:      | **Ken Stephens Jr.**                                    |
+------------+---------------------------------------------------------+
| Position:  | # **Supv. Natural Resource Specialist**                 |
+------------+---------------------------------------------------------+
| ### Park   | New River Gorge National River                          |
|            |                                                         |
| **Heritage |                                                         |
| Area**     |                                                         |
+------------+---------------------------------------------------------+
| Address:   | PO Box 246 Glen Jean, WV 25846                          |
+------------+---------------------------------------------------------+
| Tel:       | 304-465-6531                                            |
+------------+---------------------------------------------------------+
| Fax:       | 304-465-0591                                            |
+------------+---------------------------------------------------------+
| E-mail:    | Ken_Stephens@nps.gov                                    |
|            |                                                         |
| Web Site:  | [www.nps.gov/neri](http://www.nps.gov/neri/)            |
+------------+---------------------------------------------------------+

 Yes, we are interested in sharing information and expertise with a
protected area in Europe.

*If you are currently working with an area in Europe, please note that
here:*

 No, we are not interested.

*Please state reason:*

**1. If yes, on which topics would you be interested in pursuing
cooperation?**

  ----------------------------------- -----------------------------------
  organizational development        ecotourism

  sustainability                    marketing

  multi jurisdictional management   education

   financing                         other (please state) Biological
                                      Resource Management
  ----------------------------------- -----------------------------------

**2. If yes, what type of communication exchange would you be interested
in?**

at staff level (professional development)

at partner level (Presidents, Board Members)

other stakeholders (e.g. farmers, tourism businesses)

*continued \....*

3\. If yes, please give a [short]{.underline} description of the
features of your park and main areas of current work. Please note the
cultural and/or natural connections/similarities to countries/places in
Europe if possible:

NEW RIVER GORGE NATIONAL RIVER (NRGNR)

The New River originates at an elevation of 3,800 feet in the Blue Ridge
Mountains of North Carolina and continues to flow in a general northward
direction through Virginia into West Virginia. Within the New River
Basin, the most distinguished topographic feature is the New River
Gorge. The gorge begins at Sandstone Falls just below Hinton and extends
downstream until a short distance above the confluence with the Gauley
River. The canyon rim is 1,000 feet above the river in many places
within the gorge. The width of the river reduces from 1,000 feet at
Hinton to between 200 and 500 feet wide within the main gorge below
Thurmond. Differential erosion by the New River through layers of
sandstone, limestone, and shale strata has created a characteristic mix
of slow meandering reaches and whitewater rapids. The New River, the
gorge, and the Allegheny Plateau offer excellent opportunities for the
study and interpretation of geologic processes, with many exposed
geological formations.

#### Flora

The vegetation of NRGNR may be classified as part of the Central
Hardwood Forest. The composition of the forest is difficult to
characterize but generally the vegetation associations are distributed
among moisture gradients, such as Oak-Pine-Mountain Laurel (zeric), Cove
Hardwoods or Mixed Mesophytic Forests (mesic) and Riparian plant
communities (hydric). With the exception of a few very small remnant old
growth mixed-hemlock stands, the flora and fauna of the parks are not
representative of pre-Columbian settlement, because of repeated
disturbances to the landscape during the past two hundred years. There
are thousands of acres within NRGNR that are recovering naturally from
dramatic upheavals resulting from coal extraction practices that removed
soils, altered drainage patterns and dramatically influenced the
structure and composition of successional plants that are largely
composed of exotic plant species.

The topographic diversity has also led to the development of an unusual
variation, including species with northern or southern affinities and
disjunct populations of plants from other regions. The New River Gorge
serves as a distributional corridor for plants between the eastern
coastal plains and the Mississippi Valley, and contains plants common in
either or both of those regions but uncommon elsewhere in the central
Appalachians.

#### Mammals

NRGNR supports a wide variety of wildlife and habitats within the river
corridor and surrounding uplands. The forests characteristic of the
region are highly productive for wildlife. In wooded habitats white-tail
deer, gray squirrel, fox squirrel, raccoon, opossum, skunk, fox, and
various small rodents are the most common mammals. Black bears are
occasionally sighted and are increasing in numbers. Open lands support
abundant populations of ground hog, rabbit, crow, dove, blackbirds, and
many other non-game species.

Habitat alteration, fragmentation and other human activities have
sometimes created wildlife habitat at the expense of other native
species. Some mammals native to the parks have been so adversely
impacted by humans that they no longer exist. Several species have been
extirpated over the past 150 years, including the elk, bison, gray wolf
and eastern cougar. Although human and natural causes have altered
native habitat, there is a wide diversity of mammals. A 1951 statewide
mammal survey by the West Virginia Conservation Commission identified 69
species, about 40 of which occur in NRGNR. A 1987 biological survey of
NRGNR that emphasized riparian zones, documented 35 species of small
mammals, including one species of bat. Hunting of game mammals is
permitted with the exception of public use areas.

# 

# [Birds]{.underline}

Birds are the wildlife most likely to be seen and heard by visitors;
they are prominent in all seasons, although numbers and diversity are
greatest when spring and fall migrants arrive. Birds within the park has
been inventoried to some degree. Preliminary data has shown that the
area supports a diverse avian community. A 1985 bird survey resulted in
the location of 178 species of birds that have occurred in NRGNR since
1975. The abundant riparian habitat found is a magnet for many species
of song birds that are listed as rare in West Virginia and the
Mid-Atlantic region. Concern over the decline of neotropical migrants
such as warblers and vireos has provided the impetus for increased
inventory and monitoring efforts by the park. To date, there have been
187 species of birds documented for NRGNR. In 1995, the park established
a Monitoring Avian Productivity Survivorship (MAPS) station at Sandstone
Falls on the New River. A point count survey was initiated the same
year. A fall migratory banding station has been in operation since 1995
at the Sandstone Falls site.

[Reptiles]{.underline}

Different species of snakes, turtles and skinks, are found in all types
of habitats. Snakes probably get the most attention from management and
the visiting public. The timber rattlesnake and copperhead are the only
two poisonous snakes found in the parks. Probably the greatest threat to
these animals is automobile traffic on the many roads that traverse the
parks. Reptile inventories have been conducted for NRGNR.

[Amphibians]{.underline}

Three species, Jefferson salamander (Ambystoma jeffersonianum),
Blackbelly salamander (Desmongnathus quadramaculatus), and Green
salamander (Aneides aeneus), are listed as species of concern by the
West Virginia Division of Natural Resources. These species and 15 other
salamanders, 8 species of frogs and toads, have been documented for
NRGNR. Surveys have discovered that the greatest numbers and diversity
of salamanders are generally found in tributary streams. The majority of
these tributary watersheds lie outside park boundaries and are very
susceptible to a variety of pollutants including, sewage, sediment
loading from logging and mining operations, and other impacts associated
with economic development. Salamanders are generally very sensitive to
ecological changes and nowhere are changes more evident than in the
riparian areas, where possible threats to their populations include
recreational impacts and the conversion of native plant communities to
exotic monocultures of Japanese knotweed, purple loosestrife, garlic
mustard, etc.

  ----------------------------------- -----------------------------------
  Signed: Ken Stephens Jr.            Date: 9/29/03

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Please return by June 28, 2003 to: Edie Shean-Hammond

e-mail: <edie_shean-hammond@nps.gov>

fax: 215-597-0815