Big Thicket National Preserve: Natural resource condition assessment

Nadeau, Andy; Allen, Kathy; Davis, Anna; Benck, Kevin; Meinke, Lonnie; Gardner, Sarah; Amberg, Shannon; Robertson, Andy

The Natural Resource Condition Assessment (NRCA) Program aims to provide documentation about the current conditions of important park natural resources through a spatially explicit, multi-disciplinary synthesis of existing scientific data and knowledge. Findings from the NRCA will help Big Thicket National Preserve (BITH) managers to develop near-term management priorities, engage in watershed or landscape scale partnership and education efforts, conduct preserve planning, and report program performance (e.g., Department of the Interior’s Strategic Plan “land health” goals, Government Performance and Results Act). The objectives of this assessment are to evaluate and report on current conditions of key preserve resources, to evaluate critical data and knowledge gaps, and to highlight selected existing stressors and emerging threats to resources or processes. For the purpose of this NRCA, staff from the National Park Service (NPS) and Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota – GeoSpatial Services (SMUMN GSS) identified key resources, referred to as “components” in the project. The selected components include natural resources and processes that are currently of the greatest concern to preserve management at BITH. The final project framework contains 15 resource components, each featuring discussions of measures, stressors, and reference conditions. This study involved reviewing existing literature and, where appropriate, analyzing data for each natural resource component in the framework to provide summaries of current condition and trends in selected resources. When possible, existing data for the established measures of each component were analyzed and compared to designated reference conditions. A weighted scoring system was applied to calculate the current condition of each component. Weighted Condition Scores, ranging from zero to one, were divided into three categories of condition: low concern, moderate concern, and significant concern. These scores help to determine the current overall condition of each resource. The discussions for each component, found in Chapter 4 of this report, represent a comprehensive summary of current available data and information for these resources, including unpublished preserve information and perspectives of preserve resource managers, and present a current condition designation when appropriate. Each component assessment was reviewed by BITH resource managers, NPS Gulf Network staff, and additional subject matter experts when appropriate. Existing literature, short- and long-term datasets, and input from NPS and other outside agency scientists support condition designations for components in this assessment. However, in some cases, data were unavailable or insufficient for several of the measures of the featured components. In other instances, data establishing reference condition were limited or unavailable for components, making comparisons with current information inappropriate or invalid. In these cases, it was not possible to assign condition for the components. Current condition was not able to be determined for six of the 15 components (40%) due to these data gaps. For those components with sufficient available data, the overall condition varied. No components were determined to be in good condition. Five components (fire regime, birds, harvested mammals, freshwater mussels, water quality) were of moderate concern. Water quality and harvested mammals did not have an indication of a current trend, while birds and fire regime exhibited stable trends. Freshwater mussels were the only component in the moderate concern category that exhibited a declining current trend. Four components were determined to be of significant concern (pine uplands, arid sand hills, air quality, and hydrology).

Big Thicket National Preserve: Natural resource condition assessment

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