Bent's Old Fort National Historic Site Exotic Plants Monitoring Summary—2022
Owen M, Barry C, Pingatore A, Valentine-Darby P. 2023. Bent's Old Fort National Historic Site Exotic Plants Monitoring Summary—2022. National Park Service, Southern Plains Inventory and Monitoring Network, Pecos, New Mexico.
Each year, the Southern Plains Inventory & Monitoring Network (SOPN) monitors pathways of exotic plant introduction at Bent’s Old Fort National Historic Site (NHS) (BEOL) and other network parks. The areas sampled are typically linear transects along roads, trails, boundary lines, and stream channels that are at high risk for exotic plant invasion and infestation. The transects for each park are divided into three panels, with one panel sampled each year. In select years, exotic plant data are also collected at predetermined grid points spaced 150 meters (m) apart, covering the entire park acreage minus any areas excluded for safety or difficulty of access. Grid-point surveys are done to determine the extent and distribution of exotic plants within the park interior landscape. The Southern Plains Network surveys for a short list of species that is customized to each park. Our intent is to document infestations for which we recommend treatment, and to monitor species of high concern. The monitoring list for BEOL (Table 1) was drawn from the park’s Natural Resource Condition Assessment (NRCA), completed by Struthers et al. (2015). In the NRCA, exotic plants found in 2010–2013 BEOL surveys were ranked across a series of factors, following a system designed by Morse et al. (2004). Factors included the plant’s ecological impact, management difficulty, current distribution and abundance, and trends in distribution and abundance. The rankings were then used to classify plants into the following categories: highest concern, high concern, medium concern, and low concern. The eight highest ranking plants were designated as high priority species for the park, all of which are included in our monitoring. For further detail, see the BEOL NRCA (Struthers et al. 2015).
- Type
- Resource Brief
- Authors
- Owen, Merran; Barry, C.; Pingatore, A.; Valentine-Darby, P.
- Date of Issue
- 2023-01
- Publisher
- National Park Service, Southern Plains Inventory and Monitoring Network, Pecos, New Mexico.
- Units
- BEOL , SOPN
- Keywords
- Exotic Plant Brief, Exotic Plant Monitor, exotic plant monitoring, Exotic plants, monitoring
- Subjects
- Ecological Framework: Biological Integrity | Invasive Species | Invasive/Exotic plants