Annual administrative report (FY 2013) and work plan (FY 2014) for inventories and Vital Signs monitoring: South Florida / Caribbean Network

National Park Service South Florida/Caribbean Network

The Annual Administrative Report and Workplan summarizes the activities of the National Park Service South Florida / Caribbean Network for FY13 and projected workplan for FY14. In FY 2013 the SFCN received a total of $2,027,885. From the Inventory and Monitoring program, the network received $1,815,100 which included $1,503,000 in monitoring funds, $132,100 in water quality monitoring funds, and $180,000 in vegetation mapping project funds. In addition, the SFCN received $78,059 from the Youth Partnership Program to support the Community Ecology Branch work, $134,226 from the Water Resources Division to support Natural Resource Condition Assessments at Big Cypress National Preserve and Everglades National Park, and $500 from Southeast Region Volunteer in Parks (VIP) program. After regional office assessments totaling $22,418, the SFCN had an operating budget of $2,005,467 in FY13. Those funds were allocated as follows: Seventy four percent (74% or $1,500,354) of the total FY13 budget was spent on personnel, 6% ($119,964) on cooperative agreements, 10% ($211,522) on contracts, 6% ($131,470) on operations, 2% ($42,156) on travel. Three protocols in FY13 were approved and published including 1) Multiagency Reef Fish Monitoring Protocol for the U.S. Virgin Islands Coral Reef Ecosystem; 2) South Florida/Caribbean Network Early Detection Protocol for Invasive Exotic Plants: Corridors of Invasiveness; and 3) Coral Reef Ecosystem Water Temperature Protocol. Early draft versions of Colonial Nesting Birds and Periphyton protocols have been completed, but are undergoing internal revision and review before being submitted to the regional office for external review. Major progress was made towards drafting protocols for soil elevation tables, forest ecotones and community structure, exotic fish in canals, and land use change, as well as revising the coral reef ecosystems protocol, and draft versions are expected in FY14. Significant efforts were put forward by SFCN on Marine Fish Community monitoring in and around St. John, Marine Benthic Community monitoring in all coral reef parks, Colonial Nesting Bird monitoring in BISC, Coastal Geomorphology monitoring in BISC, Corridors of Invasiveness exotics monitoring in BICY, Periphyton monitoring in BICY, and Ecotonal Movement monitoring in EVER and BICY. Additional effort has been focused on report development and automation of tasks, as well as continued data management. Considerable effort has taken place to revise our web presence, rolling out a new website that follows new NPS web content policies. SFCN has successfully rehired a new Vegetation Map Project Manager and a Natural Resource Condition Assessment ecologist in FY13. The EVER vegetation map project has completed nearly all of the accuracy assessment field data collection, and nearly 20% of the terrestrial portion of the park has been mapped. Work continued on final reports and DVD bundled data packages for vegetation maps for western BICY, EVER, BISC, and VIIS. SFCN Volunteer in Parks (VIPs) logged a total of 3,292 volunteer hours in FY13 with an approximate value of $71,732.68. In FY14, the SFCN hopes to finalize the Coral Reef Ecosystems Monitoring Protocol, Periphyton Monitoring Protocol, Invasive/Exotic Fish in Canals protocol, Colonial Nesting Birds protocol, and Land Cover and Use protocol. Vital Signs monitoring will include coral reef monitoring, marine fish monitoring, periphyton monitoring, exotic plant early detection monitoring, exotic fish in canals monitoring, colonial nesting bird monitoring, sediment elevation table (SET) monitoring, and ecotonal/vegetation community monitoring. Work will continue on the Everglades vegetation map project, Schaus Swallowtail restoration project, and finalization of several technical reports. Data management will continue to develop Vital Sign databases, expand upon automated reporting and graphing solutions, and produce additional data summary reports, resource briefs, and keep the website up-to-date.

Annual administrative report (FY 2013) and work plan (FY 2014) for inventories and Vital Signs monitoring: South Florida / Caribbean Network

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