 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
THE ROLE OF DISTURBANCE
IN THE LONG-TERM VIABILITY OF
A COASTAL MARITIME FOREST FRAGMENT
Technical Report NPS/NER/NRTR--2008/104
Jodi A. Forrester1, Donald J. Leopold1 and H. Brian Underwood2
1State University of New York,
College of Environmental Science & Forestry
Department of Environmental & Forest Biology
Syracuse, NY 13210
2USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center,
State University of New York
College of Environmental Science & Forestry
Syracuse, NY 13210
January 2008
U.S. Department of the Interior
National Park Service
Northeast Region
Boston, Massachusetts
____________________________________
INTRODUCTION
The maritime holly forest is a unique assemblage of species dominated by the broadleaf evergreen, Ilex opaca (American holly). Due to the highly restricted occurrence of this forest community to only two locations on barrier islands in New York and New Jersey, it has been classified as a critically imperiled community (global conservation status rank of G1; NatureServe 2004) because of extreme rarity or very few remaining acres. The only two examples known of the maritime holly forest include: the Sunken Forest (SF; 16 ha) occurring on Fire Island National Seashore, a barrier island protecting Long Island, NY; and the Sandy Hook (SH) holly forest (30 ha) occurring on a barrier spit on the NJ shore that is a unit of Gateway National Recreation Area (GNRA). This project was born from the uncertainty surrounding key conservation issues, and in 2004 was listed as the primary research priority for Fire Island National Seashore due to the uniqueness of the SF among maritime forests of the Atlantic coast, its prominence in the park’s enabling legislation and Resource Stewardship Plan, and its interpretive value to the visiting public. An important objective of the research was to assist the park in developing reasonable conservation goals for sustaining the essential characteristics of the SF.
________________________
This report is available to view or download in PDF file format. Using PDF files requires the free Adobe Acrobat Reader. If you do not already have it installed on your computer, you may download it now. Download Reader.
To download a pdf file, click on this icon in the toolbar of the pdf window: 
. This will allow you to save the file on your computer. If you want to copy or print only a small part of the saved file, click on this icon to select the desired text: 
.