Final Report of Review of Plant Species Lists for New River Gorge National River, Bluestone National Scenic River, and Gauley National Recreation Area

Norris, S

The National Park Service (NFS) is in the process of completing background reviews to determine what data need to be gathered to fully meet guidelines for land management planning in the river parks of West Virginia. Considerable botanical field work has been done on the New River since the collecting by L. M. Nuttall and C. F. Millspaugh in the 1890's. Tosh (1942) studied the flora of Raleigh County, and Boone (1961) surveyed the flora of Summers County, while Phillips (1969) focused specifically on the New River Gorge. Subsequent floristic and vegetation studies were conducted by Grafton and McGraw (1976), Grafton (1982), Fortney, et al. (1995) and Suiter and Evans (1999). Studies by Rouse and McDonald (1986) and McDonald and Harmon (1990) deal specifically with rare species. J. Vanderhorst continues plant community characterization and mapping that began in 1999. Less attention has been given to the Gauley and Bluestone Rivers. The vegetation study by Fortney, et al. (ibid) as well as a floristic study by Grafton (1993) include these rivers, and Norris (1992a, 1992b) undertook rare species surveys. There are also some data available for the Gauley from vegetation sample plots by Walton and Anderson (1997) and a study of birds in hemlock communities by Wood (2001). These and other sources (such as herbarium specimen label data) have enabled the NPS to compile vascular plant species lists for the three river parks. The database used, NPSpecies, provides several fields for additional information on each species, such as abundance and nativity in the given park. In May 2001, NPS requested a review of these three NPSpecies lists preliminary to planning for future field work, and to determine the percent of plant species documented, the objective being to reach a level of 90% documentation.