# Presentation: 280052

## Inventory & Monitoring Accomplishments

- Inventory & Monitoring Accomplishments

- “Show & Tell”

## Sierra Nevada NetworkMeryl Rose

## Sierra Nevada Network Vertebrate Inventory 2003—2005

**Sierra Nevada Network Vertebrate Inventory 2003—2005**
- “Resurvey” effort of 1914—1919 Yosemite transects (Grinnell and Storer 1924)
- Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, UC Berkeley (Craig Moritz, Jim Patton)
- USGS-WERC (Les Chow)
-   Yosemite National Park
-   Yosemite Fund
-   SIEN Inventory & Monitoring

- Dr. Jim Patton weighing a Deer Mouse (*Permomyscus maniculatus*) in Merced Grove of Giant Sequoias. USGS photo by Les Chow.

**National Park Service**
**Sierra Nevada Network**

**Notes:**

Photo: USGS-Western Ecological Research Center @ Yosemite National Park.
Dr. Jim Patton weighs a Peromyscus maniculatus specimen collected from Merced Grove of Giant Sequoias, Yosemite National Park (circa 2005).

Original survey effort of 1914-1919 led to the publication entitled: Grinnell, J. and T.I. Storer.  1924.  Animal Life in the Yosemite.  An account of the mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians in a cross-section of the Sierra Nevada.

Excellent information (metadata) documenting the original survey effort were available, thus making possible the 2003-2005 “resurvey.”

The recent resurvey yielded new specie’s presence in Yosemite, and range expansion and contraction for other species. For example

## Original inventory was

- Short-tailed weasel
*Mustela erminea. *USGS photo by Les Chow.

- well-documented, allowing
- resurvey almost a century later.

- MVZ graduate student Allison Bidlack checks mammal traps along Crane Creek. USGS photo by Les Chow.

**National Park Service**
**Sierra Nevada Network**

**Notes:**
Photo: USGS-Western Ecological Research Center @ Yosemite National Park.
MVZ graduate student Allison Bidlack checks mammal traps along North Crane Creek, Yosemite National Park (circa 2005)
Inset: Short-tailed weasel, or Ermine (Mustela erminea) from North Crane Creek, Yosemite National park.

## National Park Service

- Resurvey documented new localities, range expansions and range contractions, and extirpations.
- Pika and alpine chipmunk *Tamias alpinus*, common below 9500’ in original survey, now gone from Tuolumne Meadows and now documented only at higher elevations.

- Pika *Ochotona princeps*

- New locality for rare Mt Lyell Salamander
*Hydromantes Platycephalus*

**National Park Service**
**Sierra Nevada Network**

**Notes:**
Photo: USGS-Western Ecological Research Center @ Yosemite National Park.
Hanna Shohfi and Dhou Yang, Museum of Vertebrate Zoology-UC Berkeley project, on an early morning check of Sherman and pitfall traps at Crane Flat Meadow, Yosemite National Park (circa 2005).

## Southern Colorado Plateau Network Chris Lauver

## SCPN:  

- SCPN:
- Resampling 1935
- Forest Plots at Grand Canyon

**Notes:**
Over the last two years, SCPN has contributed to a Grand Canyon NP effort to resample seventy-year-old montane forest plots.  The original plots were established in 1935 by the NPS Branch of Forestry as part of an effort to create an early vegetation map for the park.  Collection of quantitative vegetation data using standardized methods was unusual for that period, making this a rare and valuable dataset.  Grand Canyon scientists will use the new data to improve their understanding of long-term vegetation change.  

SCPN (Chris Lauver) 

## Southwest Alaska NetworkDorothy Mortenson

## Unnamed glacier above Cape Douglas, 1895

- <date/time>

**Unnamed glacier above Cape Douglas, 1895**
**Katmai National Park and Preserve**
**C . W. Purrington, USGS**
***Glacier was against its terminal moraine indicating negligible retreat since the end of the “Little Ice Age” around 1840. This is the oldest photograph in the database.***

- <date/time>

**Unnamed glacier above Cape Douglas, 2005**
**Katmai National Park and Preserve**
**Torre Jorgenson and Alan Bennett**
***Glacier has retreated 1.5 km since 1985. The exposed land has been completely overgrown with alder, except where outwash keep the river channel disturbed.***

- <date/time>

**Katmai Village, 12 August 1912**
**George C. Martin, USGS**
***The village was destroyed by heavy ash fall from the 6 June 1912 eruption of Mt. Katmai and Norarupta. The native villagers fled to Kodiak.***

## Katmai Village site, 2005

- <date/time>

**Katmai Village site, 2005**
**Torre Jorgenson and Alan Bennett**
***The village site has been completely washed away and buried by the Katmai River. The river was clogged by volcanic ash, and the entire sandy braidplain is constantly reworked by the dynamic channel network.***** **

## Bear Glacier, 1909 – 2004

- <date/time>

**Bear Glacier, 1909 – 2004**
**Kenai Fjords NP**

*Click on slide for 2004*

## Mt Augustine, Dec 2005

- <date/time>

**Mt Augustine, Dec 2005**
**Offshore from Lake Clark NP&P**
**MODIS Satellite Image**

*Volcano gas and steam*

## San Francisco Bay Area NetworkJason Herynk

- Raptor Monitoring at Pinnacles National Monument:  2005
- - The year of firsts

- SFAN Inventory and Monitoring Program

## SFAN Inventory and Monitoring Program

- 19th Year of monitoring
- 1.  Peregrines nest for or the first time in 48 years producing three fledglings.
- 2.  Cooper’s hawk nest for the first time in 13 years.  This year also marked the 2nd and 3rd time that sharp-shinned hawk nests have ever been found in the park.

- 3.  Long-eared owl breeding was confirmed for the first time in the 19 years - three fledglings observed.
- 4.  Ten raptor species–the highest ever recorded in a season–were confirmed breeding in the park in 2005.

## SFAN Inventory and Monitoring Program

- The data ties in directly with park management.
- 1.  The data are used to establish rock climbing advisories around active nest sites.

- 2.  Field technicians provide expert testimony toward prosecution of three base jumpers.   Each one was fined $1,200 for disturbance to Prairie Falcon nest.

## Sierra Nevada NetworkRose Cook

## Cave Invertebrate Species Inventory

- 35 caves in Sequoia, Kings Canyon and Yosemite National Parks surveyed – PWR Region base funds.
- 27 new taxa discovered.
- First SIEN application of the Natural Resources Database Template.

**National Park Service**
**Sierra Nevada Network**

- Photos by: Jean Krejca and Joel Despain

- Harvestman: *Calcina cloughensis*

- Pseudoscorpion

- Centipede

- Silverfish

**Notes:**
Protection of giant sequoias is one of the primary reasons for the founding of Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks.
There are 34 groves of giant sequoias in SEKI and 3 in Yosemite.
In the 1960s-1970s, SEKI mapped all of the giant sequoia adults, reproduction and logs in its groves.
Giant sequoias were identified as a high priority for long-term monitoring in several scoping workshops for the network.
The network invested in digitizing and doing QA/QC on these maps and associated attribute data to make these data available as a baseline for monitoring and as a tool for management (fire management, interpretation, park planning).

## National Park Service

**National Park Service**
**Sierra Nevada Network**

**Notes:**
This is an example of one grove map – Giant Forest, one of the larger groves.
The map shows individual tree locations as points, logs as lines and reproduction as polygons. A total of 11,413 features are mapped.
Trees of special interest are shown as named trees on this map – these are of high importance to identify prior to prescribed burns. Named trees are both natural and cultural resources – thus many of them are protected from fire by making firelines around them prior to or during fire events. Having these maps digitized makes this information much more accessible.

## National Park Service

**National Park Service**
**Sierra Nevada Network**

**Notes:**
Results of the Sequoia Tree Inventory legacy data project:
Over 73,000 mapped features of 33 giant sequoia groves were digitized by contractor IGIS Technologies.
Giant sequoia trees and reproduction clumps were georeferenced and attributed with unique identifiers.
Attribute data (including tree number, DBH, crown condition, fire scar number and size, etc) were converted from dBase to MS Access
Metadata for spatial and aspatial data completed. 
Quality control and data validation done on >200,000 database records.
Other uses – mapping trees of special interest in areas where prescribed burns planned, interpretive tool in visitor centers and in the field, spatial analyses of population and stand dynamics for research projects.

## Appalachian Highlands NetworkNora Murdock 

**WATER QUALITY & AQUATIC MACROINVERTEBRATE INVENTORY AND MONITORING ON THE BLUE RIDGE PARKWAY**

-  - 469-mile long park - 1,000’s of streams, wetlands, multiple watersheds, rare aquatic species  - Multiple threats to aquatic resources, including atmospheric deposition - Very little baseline data

**Notes:**
APHN
Presenting: Nora Murdock, APHN Ecologist
Tremendous resources (BLRI encompasses over half of what remains of the globally imperiled Southern Appalachian Mountain bog/fen habitat; 2 Federally-listed species that are dependent upon aquatic habitats in the park), rare aquatic macroinvertebrates (previous unique find from a high-elevation bog – 1st North American record for the taxon; possible new species – C. Parker, USGS, 1992), 5 designated ORW’s, potentially significant threats (149 industrial/municipal discharges, 40 drinking water intakes, & 78 impoundments; 500 agricultural leases within the park boundary), severe impacts documented from atmospheric acid deposition on adjacent National Forests, GRSM, and SHEN; 469-mile long park with very little park-specific baseline data on water quality, and, as usual, not enough money or manpower to figure it all out...  Before we could design our long-term water monitoring program, we needed some characterization (synoptic) sampling – but, where to start?   (Stream coverage within 5 miles of the Parkway & complex geology map illustrate the magnitude of the task)

## GEOLOGY AND SENSITIVITY TO ACID DEPOSITION (Collaboration with U of Virginia, US Forest Service in NC, VA) 

- _Most affected:_  aquatic habitats associated with first-order streams, at higher elevations, in watersheds with low acid-neutralizing capacity.

**Notes:**
Atmospheric deposition – aquatic habitats most affected by acidic deposition are associated with first-order streams, at higher elevations, in watersheds with low acid-neutralizing capacity. Southern Appalachians are characterized by geologic complexity, heavy precipitation and low buffering capacity, as well as some of the highest total nitrate and sulfate deposition levels in the US (average rainfall pH=4.3).  GRSM has an ongoing long-term water quality monitoring program (Prototype park for I&M – started monitoring a decade ago, like Shenandoah); a single storm can acidify streams at high elevations by more than a full pH unit—pH can fall below 5.0 during large storms at higher elevations.  GRSM & SHEN monitoring have documented serious impacts to aquatic fauna.  Sustained pH levels of less than 5.0 can result in decreased nutrient cycling rates, decline in periphyton species richness, declines in benthic invertebrates, reproductive failure of acid-sensitive amphibians, and loss of most or all fish species – 736 miles of GRSM streams now have no fish at all.

Using lithology models (Over 70 different geologic types analyzed and consolidated into 5 classes based on sensitivity to acid deposition) developed by U of VA researchers and the US Forest Service in NC and VA, we identified 50 sites on the Blue Ridge Parkway for characterization sampling.

## GOALS OF  SAMPLING

**To identify specific sites and habitat types that support significant aquatic macroinvertebrate fauna (rare species or exceptionally rich diversity)**
**To identify at-risk aquatic habitats, based upon exposure to atmospheric pollutants or other sources of contaminants**
**To identify target sites for long-term monitoring of water quality and macroinvertebrates**

**Notes:**
We combined the lithology models with elevation, aquatic resource maps & databases, and plant community data to select the sites (boreal relict plant communities – indicative of great age in wetlands at this lattitude – some have apparently been in the same place for millenia – high probability of significant faunal diversity).  We also incorporated the findings from synoptic sampling on adjacent US Forest Service lands, as well as the neighboring parks, SHEN & GRSM.

## PRELIMINARY RESULTS - 50 Sites

- 89 rare species found (some known from fewer than half a dozen sites, worldwide)
- At least 16 species new to science (including what may be an entirely new genus)
- Several sites with sparse fauna & high deformity rates (possible impacts of chronic low pH and/or heavy metal deposition)
- Unusual individuality of sites – apparently identical seeps, even in close proximity, had significantly different macroinvertebrate faunas

**  ****Results suggest that many seeps and springs will need complete protection, not just a few sites chosen to be representative**
**  ****Importance of additional, systematic surveys**

**Notes:**
Most of the rare species found were not previously known from the Parkway; 50 sites is barely scratching the surface in this water-rich park.  What other significant, but unknown resources are out there, and how are they being impacted by factors threatening the Parkway’s waters?