Natural resource condition assessment: Fort Necessity National Battlefield

Cole, Andrew; Bera, Abhinandan; Rothman, Sarah; Ferreri, Paola

As a small park focused primarily on cultural resources, background information on associated environmental resources is not widely available. Furthermore, the data that do exist are fragmented, making assessment of the natural resource statuses and trends within the park a difficult task. This Natural Resource Condition Assessment (NRCA) seeks to gather all available information on the natural resources of the park and provide an evaluation of their current state, as well as offer recommendations for action by the National Park Service to improve environmental resources in the park. We used vital signs created by the NPS Eastern Rivers and Mountains Network (ERMN) and NPS soundscape and lightscape assessments as a baseline for our evaluation, characterized by local data sets. The majority of natural resource data was collected for the main unit, with a lesser quantity of data available for Braddock’s Grave and Jumonville Glen. For each evaluated natural resource in this NRCA, we began with a brief description of the relevance of the resource to the environment in general and FONE in particular. We then documented the data and methods used to assess the resource and justified the condition categories by discussing reference conditions or threshold values utilized. The reference conditions and threshold values were based on federal or state agency regulations and criteria, peer-reviewed research, estimates of biotic integrity, established NPS ERMN vital signs, or NPS Air Resources Division (ARD) and NPS Natural Sounds and Night Sky condition (NSNSD) categories for natural resources. Best professional judgment was used to assign condition categories when other options were not available. We assigned each natural resource metric to a condition category for current state and temporal trend based on the available. Condition category language for current state included three categories: resource is in good condition, resource warrants moderate concern, and resource warrants significant concern. We assigned temporal trend categories of condition is improving, condition is deteriorating, or condition is unchanging after assessment of historic and current data. We discussed data gaps and confidence in our assessment after each metric was evaluated. Confidence in the assessment and trend was identified as high, medium, low, or not applicable. High confidence ratings signify that extensive spatial or temporal quantitative data were available for review; medium ratings indicate that data were from studies that were quantitative and/or qualitative in nature but not usually spatially explicit; low ratings represent data were sourced from limited studies that collected generally qualitative information; and not applicable means that no reliable assessment or trend analysis was possible with the data available. Finally, the authors recommend in Chapter 5 potential indicators that may be useful for monitoring natural resource conditions in FONE in addition to those analyzed in this report.

Natural resource condition assessment: Fort Necessity National Battlefield

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