Natural resource condition assessment: Salt River Bay National Historical Park and Ecological Preserve

Ogurcak, Danielle; Donoso, Maria; Duran, Alain; Ennis, Rosmin; Frankovich, Tom; Gann, Daniel; Olivas, Paulo; Smith, Tyler; Stoa, Ryan; Vargas, Jessica; Wachnika, Anna; Whitman, Elizabeth

doi:10.36967/nrr-2293359

Natural Resource Condition Assessments (NRCAs) provide managers with concise assessments for select focal resources within National Park Service (NPS) units. These assessments evaluate indicators of condition for a resource and determine status and trends over time for best management of the resources within a unit. Salt River Bay National Historical Park and Ecological Preserve (SARI) is a 1,015 acre unit located within the Caribbean, situated on the north side of the island of St. Croix. Consisting of both marine and terrestrial components, environments of SARI range in elevation from 200 m below mean sea level along the north edge of the Salt River Canyon to 83 m above sea level in the semi-deciduous tropical forest. Marine communities account for more than 60% of the area of the Park and include soft bottom habitats predominantly occupied by seagrasses and hardbottom habitats colonized by coral reefs. Terrestrial habitats are dominated by upland forests, mangroves, shrublands, and grasslands. The SARI NRCA considers 11 focal resources within the Park categorized as either pertaining to the supporting environment or biological integrity. These include shoreline dynamics, water quality, and watershed dynamics in the framework category of supporting environment, and mangrove, semi-deciduous dry forest, coastal grassland, macroalgae, seagrass, corals, queen conch, and reef fish, in the framework category of biological integrity. Full assessments were conducted for all above-listed resources except for queen conch which was restricted to a limited assessment due to the data available. In each focal resource section, a discussion of threats, stressors, and data gaps relevant to the resource accompanies the assessment of condition. Resource issues relevant to all components within the Park are discussed separately and include impacts of hurricanes/tropical storms, land cover/land use changes, and human interactions related to boat traffic, marine debris, and poaching. Assessment of the focal resources in the Park resulted in the majority, six of 11 (55%), considered as warranting moderate concern. Four focal resources warranted significant concern, and only one resource was considered to be in good condition. Trends in condition were nearly equally divided between improving, deteriorating, stable, and undetermined. The focal resources assessed in this report are a mix of marine and terrestrial resources. Terrestrial resources included condition assessments for three vegetation communities (mangroves, dry tropical forest, and coastal grassland) and two supporting environments (watershed condition and shoreline dynamics). With the exception of coastal grasslands (which warrant significant concern), the other terrestrial focal resources were considered to be of moderate concern or good condition, with improving trends or stable conditions. The marine focal resources of SARI were either of significant concern (reef fish, corals, and macroalgae) or moderate concern (conch, seagrass, and water quality) with deteriorating or stable trends. Taken as whole, the assessment suggests that the focal resources of SARI are experiencing degraded conditions compared to reference conditions for these resources and appear to be under a wide range of threats. Deteriorating conditions for corals and macroalgae combined with a lack of recovery of the reef fish communities are especially concerning. The current conditions for these resources appear to have resulted from the interaction of disturbance events and anthropogenic impacts, including extent of hurricane damage, increasing sea surface temperatures, contaminants, introduction of invasive species, and continued fishing pressure. Shoreline dynamics was assessed as being in both good condition and having an improving trend attributable to increasing shoreline length and extent of the shoreline currently in vegetated cover. As a supporting resource, the differing character of the shoreline...

Natural resource condition assessment: Salt River Bay National Historical Park and Ecological Preserve

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