Natural Resource Monitoring at Boston Harbor Islands NRA

Sunset at Boston Harbor Islands' Little Brewster Island

Asten photo

 

Overview

Established as part of the National Park System in 1996, Boston Harbor Islands NRA has a threefold purpose of (1) preserving and protecting a drumlin island system within Boston Harbor, along with its associated natural, cultural, and historic resources, (2) telling the islands' individual stories and enhancing public understanding and appreciation of the island system as a whole, and (3) providing public access, where appropriate, to the islands and surrounding waters for education, enjoyment, and scientific and scholarly research for this and future generations. Managed by a unique 13-member partnership, the park's 34 islands are rich in both human history and breeding bird habitat. In 2002, the park was designated as a Massachusetts Important Bird Area (IBA). The IBA program, overseen by the international nonprofit group BirdLife, includes more than 2,000 sites in over 20 countries worldwide.

The Boston Harbor Islands are part of the only drumlin (an elongated hill in the shape of an inverted spoon or half-buried egg formed by glacial ice) field in the United States that intersects a coastline. Located in the Northeastern Coastal Zone level III ecoregion, the islands have a humid maritime climate characterized by a moderate annual range of temperatures and definite summer and winter seasons. The park encompasses a total of 1,480 terrestrial acres, with islands and peninsulas ranging in size from a quarter to over 300 acres. In addition, the park includes approximately 34 miles of shoreline and 1583 acres of intertidal habitat.

The Boston Harbor Islands Partnership facilitates natural, cultural, and social science studies and scholarly research. These studies support the park mission by providing a cumulative and constantly refined understanding of park resources, along with an understanding of park visitors, the non-visiting public, and human interactions with park resources. This approach provides a scholarly or scientific basis for planning, development, and management decisions.

Long Term Monitoring Programs in the Park

 

Click below to learn more

Air Quality	Rocky Intertidal Communities
Coastal Birds	Phenology
Climate
Invasive Species Early Detection

 

Air Quality Reports

Source: Data Store Saved Search 1187. To search for additional information, visit the Data Store.

 

Coastal Bird Reports

Source: Data Store Saved Search 1095. To search for additional information, visit the Data Store.

 

Invasive Species Reports

Source: Data Store Saved Search 1458. To search for additional information, visit the Data Store.

 

Rocky Intertidal Briefs

Source: Data Store Saved Search 2233. To search for additional information, visit the Data Store.

 

Park Baseline Inventories

The Inventory and Monitoring Program provides guidance, funding, and technical assistance for parks to complete a set of 12 baseline, or "basic", natural resource inventories. These basic inventories are common to all parks with significant natural resources, and are intended to provide park managers with the minimum information needed to effectively manage the natural resources of their park.

Baseline Inventories	Complete for Park?	Reports, Documents & Data
Water Quality	Y	Baseline Inventory
Base Cartography	Y	Cartographic data sets: U.S. Geological Survey and U.S. Department of Agriculture. National Park Service data clearinghouse for mapping information and geospatial resources.
Air Quality Related Values	Y	Air Quality in Parks
Climate Inventory	Y	Weather and Climate Inventory for NETN parks
Geological Resources Inventory	Y	NPS Geodiversity Atlas—Boston Harbor Islands NRA
Soil Resources Inventory	Y	NPS - SRI - Soil Survey Geographic (SSURGO)
Water Body Location and Classification	Y	National Hydrography Dataset
Vegetation Inventory	Y	Vegetation Inventory and Map
Species Lists	Y	IRMA Species Search

 

Park Species Lists

Species lists are available from NPSpecies, the National Park Service's tool for documenting park biodiversity. Keep in mind that these species lists are a work-in-progress. Changes and updates are made as more species are shepherded through a rigorous vetting process. The absence of a species from a list produced with the tool below doesn't necessarily mean the species is absent from a park.

 

×

Species Attribute Definitions

Definitions

Occurrence

Occurrence values are defined below. One or more Occurrence Tags may be associated with each Occurrence value.

Present: Species occurs in park; current, reliable evidence available.

Probably Present: High confidence species occurs in park but current, verified evidence needed.

Unconfirmed: Species is attributed to park but evidence is weak or absent.

Not In Park: Species is not known to occur in park.

---

Occurrence Tags

Adjacent: Species is known to occur in areas near to or contiguous with park boundaries.

False Report: Species was reported to occur within the park, but current evidence indicates the report was based on misidentification, a taxonomic concept no longer accepted, or other similar problem of error or interpretation.

Historical: Species' historical occurrence in park is documented. Assigned based on judgment as opposed to determination based on age of the most recent evidence.

---

Abundance

Abundant:

• Animals: May be seen daily, in suitable habitat and season, and counted in relatively large numbers.
• Plants: Large number of individuals; wide ecological amplitude or occurring in habitats covering a large portion of the park.

Common:

• Animals: May be seen daily, in suitable habitat and season, but not in large numbers.
• Plants: Large numbers of individuals predictably occurring in commonly encountered habitats but not those covering a large portion of the park.

Uncommon:

• Animals: Likely to be seen monthly in appropriate habitat and season. May be locally common.
• Plants: Few to moderate numbers of individuals; occurring either sporadically in commonly encountered habitats or in uncommon habitats.

Rare:

• Animals: Present, but usually seen only a few times each year.
• Plants: Few individuals, usually restricted to small areas of rare habitat.

Occasional:

• Animals: Occurs in the park at least once every few years, varying in numbers, but not necessarily every year.
• Plants: Abundance variable from year to year (e.g., desert plants).

Unknown: Abundance unknown

---

Nativeness

Native: Species naturally occurs in park or region.

Non-native: Species occurs on park lands as a result of deliberate or accidental human activities.

Unknown: Nativeness status is unknown or ambiguous.

×

List Differences

The Checklist contains only those species that are designated as "present" or "probably present" in the park.

The Full List includes all the checklist species in addition to species that are unconfirmed, historically detected, or incorrectly reported as being found in the park. The full list also contains species that are "in review" because their status in the park hasn't been fully determined. Additional details about the status of each species is included in the full list.

The checklist will almost always contain fewer species than the full list.

Select a Park:

Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area

Select a Species Category (optional):

All Amphibians Birds Fish Mammals Reptiles Vascular Plants

Get Checklist Get Full List List Differences

Species attribute definitions

Search results will be displayed here.

Visit NPSpecies for more comprehensive information and advanced search capability. Have a suggestion or comment on this list? Let us know.

 

Duration:

6 minutes, 3 seconds

How National Parks in urban settings provide valuable refuges to wildlife: from water birds at Boston Harbor Islands to threatened bats at Rock Creek Park, and the contributions that monitoring by citizen scientists and NPS employees make to preserving them.

 

Natural Resource Briefs for Boston Harbor Islands NRA

Click link below to view all the short briefs about the long-term monitoring and natural resouces of the park.

 

Park Resource Briefs

Source: Data Store Saved Search 3747. To search for additional information, visit the Data Store.

 

Non NPS Citizen Science Opportunities in the Park

Bird observations on eBird

The Boston Harbor Islands have been set up in eBird as birding "hotspots". Help the park bolster bird data by adding your bird obsevations to eBird when you visit the park.

Download a bird checklist compiled using eBird data, NPSpecies info, and NETN's longterm coastal breeding bird monitoring program in the Islands. 11x17 PDF 1.3 MB

Species observations from iNaturalist

Learn how you can contribute to iNaturalist

View Boston Harbor Islands NRA data on iNaturalist website