Assessing the Conservation Significance of a State Park System, New York, USA

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Bunnell et al. (2009) introduced the concept of Stewardship Responsibility (SR) rankings as a tool for conservation planning, using global rankings of rare species in British Columbia. I applied a version of their tool to assess biodiversity distributions in New York State Parks, using records collected by the N.Y. Natural Heritage Program. Comprehensive surveys were conducted among 150 parks over a decade, leading to a database of 1074 records for 312 rare species and 98 significant ecological communities. I applied SR ranks in a nested design — agency-wide — among regions within the agency and across the state (comparisons with other management entities). Subsets of parks and regions ranked more highly than others, but most parks contain at least one rare species and significant ecological community, indicating a broad distribution of important biological resources. Statewide, the agency maintains a very high SR rank profile in proportion to its land area (< 1% of the state), with 43% of all N...