Natural resource condition assessment: Friendship Hill National Historic Site

Cole, Charles; Bera, Abhinandan; Rothman, Sarah; Ferreri, C.

Friendship Hill National Historic Site (FRHI) was established in November 1978 to commemorate the life and many accomplishments of Albert Gallatin (1761-1849). In 1785, he purchased 370 acres (150 hectares) of land in southwest Pennsylvania and named it Friendship Hill. Despite Gallatin’s love for this frontier estate, he frequently traveled for his political career, which began as early as 1788 with his contribution to the creation of the Bill of Rights and Pennsylvania’s constitution. From 1790-1793, Gallatin represented Fayette County in the Pennsylvania State Legislature, where he worked toward a state-wide public education system and the abolition of slavery. He then moved to the U.S. House of Representatives, in which he founded the Ways and Means Committee. In 1801, newly-elected President Thomas Jefferson appointed Gallatin as Secretary of the Treasury, a position he held until 1814. During this tenure, the longest of any Secretary of the Treasury, Gallatin reduced the national debt, reformed the tax system, and negotiated terms for the end of the War of 1812. Though his duties kept him away from Friendship Hill, he continued to develop the western frontier by acquiring the Louisiana Purchase and supporting infrastructure such as the National Road. In addition to doubling the size of the country, these actions allowed previously landlocked settlers access to an ocean port (New Orleans) thus improving trade. Gallatin also commissioned the famed exploration of Lewis and Clark to map the new territory in the interest of scientific knowledge and potential economic opportunities for western landowners such as himself. In 1825, Gallatin left Friendship Hill to live in the East near his wife’s family, eventually selling the home in 1832. Gallatin’s former residence is now an Historic Site including 675 acres (273 hectares) of rolling hills overlooking the Monongahela River, and its unique mix of cultural and natural resources is preserved by the National Park Service. 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. 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 FRHI 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..........

Natural resource condition assessment: Friendship Hill National Historic Site

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