Systematic rare plant survey at the Cuyahoga Valley National Park: Final report (sensitive version)

Abstract

EnviroScience, Inc. completed a systematic rare plant survey in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park (CUVA). CUVA staff use the visitor use management planning (VUMP) process to draft proposed management zones for the park to track resource degradation and guide management decisions. The VUMP process has identified a critical need for a park-wide rare plant inventory to supplement outdated surveys conducted from 1986 to the early 2000s. This systematic transect-based survey was designed to provide current rare plant data to inform the VUMP process. These updated rare plant data will support the National Park Service (NPS) in their efforts to: ? Prioritize ongoing conservation efforts. ? Support and improve the quality of the VUMP products and validate the proposed management zones. ? Support early stages of Comprehensive River Management Planning. ? Inform ongoing management decisions in sometimes contentious areas of the park. ? Help prioritize ongoing management efforts. Field surveys consisted of 10-meter-wide belt transect surveys conducted throughout all portions of the park. Transects were aligned with previous 400-m transects from the park?s invasive plant survey (Morgan et al. 2018), supplemented by additional parallel transects placed 200m from the original transects. For high priority areas identified by NPS, additional meander surveys were completed to increase the total area surveyed to ten percent of these areas. Meander surveys were often routed to pass through or near historic locations of rare species, ensuring that historic rare plant locations were visited. A total of 98 species and 675 rare plant locations were inventoried during the survey. Of the 23 surveyed management zones, A-P North Sensitive Resources, Virginia Kendall High Value Experience and Blossom Woods Natural zones had the highest number of rare plant records while those zones with fewer records had relatively high population size and densities. Invasive species were dominant in Virginia Kendall High Value Experience and Blossom Woods Natural zones in locations where rare plants were found. Among management zones, no discernible variation in habitat and disturbance-based measures was observed. Most zones were characterized as containing some levels of human disturbance, earthworm infestation and deer browsing effects colocated with rare plants. Correlations among population and species-based parameters did not show any clear positive or negative associations with the exception of a weak positive relationship between areal percent cover of rare species and percent cover of invasive species. Patterns of negative but weak correlations were observed between earthworm infestation, deer browsing and density and cover of rare species. Results from canonical correspondence analyses showed that the vegetation type was one of the most important factors in structuring rare plant assemblages with floodplain and oak dominated habitats showing strong associations with groupings of rare species. Additional surveys in multiple seasons are recommended. Future efforts should include more robust and intensive sampling in areas with high concentrations of previous records, higher concentrations of 2021 occurrences, and unique, high-quality habitats within the park. Although systematic sampling using belt transects allows for repeatable coverage across the entire park, meander surveys, those less repeatable over time, may further prove to be beneficial in identifying rare plants.