Natural resource condition assessment: New River Gorge National River

Mahan, Carolyn; Young, John

New River Gorge National River (NERI) is located in south-central West Virginia along an 85-km stretch of the New River within the Appalachian Mountain chain. NERI conserves the outstanding natural, scenic, and historic values of the landscape immediately surrounding, and including, the New River Gorge. This conservation extends to the New River itself—a free-flowing river that supports small-mouth bass, freshwater mussels, native fish, and rare riparian plants. The landscape surrounding the New River main stem is a mosaic of mature and maturing forests, tributary streams, floodplains, and dramatic sandstone cliffs. This landscape has been shaped by a history of human occupation and resource extraction (e.g. mining, timbering, flood control). Natural resources presented in this Natural Resource Condition Assessment (NRCA) can be divided into five general areas: air resources, geologic resources, water-related resources, plant resources, and terrestrial wildlife. Within each of these general areas, specific natural resources were assessed as follows: • Air resources– acoustic environment, night sky, visibility, ozone, sulfur and nitrogen deposition, mercury/toxics, climate change, scenic vistas • Geologic resources—mass movements, cliff communities • Water-related resources—water quality (main stem and tributaries), fish, aquatic invertebrates, salamanders • Plant resources—xeric plants (e.g. rimrock pine), mixed mesophytic forest, eastern hemlock, Appalachian flatrock/riverscour prairies, rare and medicinal plants • Terrestrial wildlife --- Allegheny woodrat, bat communities, birds, game species. The approach of this NRCA was to use existing data to evaluate the condition of natural resources at NERI. Thresholds for condition (good, moderate concern, and significant concern) were obtained from a variety of resources such as federal and state regulations (e.g. water quality criteria), peer-reviewed literature, research reports, and, in some cases, best professional judgment. If possible, trends in the condition (improving, deteriorating, or unchanging) were also evaluated. Finally, an estimate of the confidence in the assessment was provided based on the quality and quantity of available information (high, medium, low confidence). The assessment of condition used standardized symbology provided by NRCA guidelines. This NRCA complements the park’s General Management Plan (NPS 2011), Resource Stewardship Strategy (Mahan and Darden 2004) and the initial, comprehensive Natural Resource Assessment completed in 2004 (Mahan 2004). Therefore, this NRCA is a form of re-assessment that permits a better understanding of the trends in resource conditions at the park. A detailed comparison of the assessments is presented in the Discussion section but, in general, the overall score for natural resource condition at the park has declined in the past 13 years from 58 (on a 100-pt scale) based on 19 resource indicators in 2004 to 42 (on a 100-pt scale) based on 24 resource indicators in 2017. A composite resource condition score of 42 indicates moderate concern. This lower score is due, in part, to a better understanding of all natural resources at the park thanks to research and inventory and monitoring efforts. In addition, over the past 13 years, some natural resources at NERI have been negatively affected by non-native pests and pathogens that originated outside the park. For example, white-nose syndrome has decimated the bat population and Emerald ash borer has caused wide-spread mortality of both white and green ash trees. Furthermore, poor water quality issues persist within park tributaries and the New River main stem—especially after rain events. Most of these threats to water quality (fecal coliforms, acidity) also originate outside of park borders. Despite these challenges, NERI continues to support a magnificent expanse of diverse, un-fragmented forest and globally-significant cliff, riverscour, and bird......

Natural resource condition assessment: New River Gorge National River

Series

See also

Collections