Pacific Northwest Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit (CESU)

Lewis & Clark National Historical Park – Vegetation Inventory and Herbarium Review

Project ID: J8W07080030

Federal Agency: National Park Service

Partner Institution: Oregon State University

Fiscal Year: 2008

Initial Funding: $58,000

Total Funding: $58,000

Project Type: Research

Project Disciplines: Biological

National Park: North Coast and Cascades Network Inventory & Monitoring

Principal Investigator: Kagan, Jimmy

Agreement Technical Representative: Rochefort, Regina

Abstract: Through the Natural Resource Challenge in 1999, the National Park Service (NPS) launched an ambitious and successful natural resource inventory and monitoring (I&M) program nationwide. The inventory component of this program was dedicated to documenting the flora and fauna on NPS administered lands as well as completing eleven other basic resource inventories including vegetation classification and mapping. In 2003, through an act of Congress, the Lewis and Clark National Historic Park (LEWI) was expanded from 130 acres to 3245 acres. These new lands were not included in the original I&M program inventory efforts. The purpose of this project is to conduct an inventory of vascular plants in the newly acquired lands on both the Oregon and Washington sides of the Columbia River and to integrate this information with that available for the original 130 acre park area. Vegetation of LEWI will be inventoried through field investigations and a review of existing herbarium specimens and pertinent literature. Plot-based baseline vegetation inventories will be conducted using georeferenced ground survey methods for a census of all plant communities in the park. The plot-based sampling will be augmented with species specific searches. Federal or state listed threatened, endangered, species of concern or special status plant species will be documented and their distributions mapped. Non-native species will be documented and their distributions mapped. An evaluation of the impact of exotic and/or aggressive native species will be prepared. In addition, voucher specimens will be collected and prepared for each unvouchered plant species in the park for deposition in the LEWI herbarium. A taxonomic specialist will conduct a review of existing collections in the LEWI herbarium to verify identifications and update nomenclature. Data from the field based inventory and herbarium work will be compiled, updated and quality checked for incorporation into NPS servicewide databases.

Deliverables: