Natural Resource Monitoring at Saint-Gaudens NHP

A Great Blue Heron takes off from Saint-Gaudens Blow-me-down Pond.

Joe Bartlett

 

Overview

Saint-Gaudens National Historical Park contains the home, studios, and gardens of Augustus Saint Gaudens (1848-1907), America's foremost sculptor of the Gilded Age. Since 1964 the park has preserved, protected and interpreted cultural and natural resources and artwork historically associated with the sculptor. Saint-Gaudens created over 150 works of art, from exquisitely carved cameos to heroic-size public monuments. Works such as the Standing Lincoln monument and the Shaw Memorial, continue to inspire people today and his design for the 1907 Twenty-Dollar Gold Piece, is considered America's most beautiful coin.

The park was once covered by glaciers and glacial meltwaters, but today is home to upland forests, spring seeps, brooks, and two ponds. It is located in Cornish, Sullivan County, New Hampshire and ranges from about 300 to 600 feet above sea level. The park abuts the Connecticut River, a federally designated American Heritage River, and comprises 195 acres owned in-fee, with an additional 175 acres included in the authorized boundary.

The park occurs within the eastern deciduous forest biome, a region dominated by hemlock and hemlock-beech transition and mesic forest types. Well-drained sandy, alluvial soils occur primarily in floodplain and wetland areas of the park, whereas shallow stony soils are more common in the forested areas.

Geologically, the park is underlain with the Gile Mountain formation, a schistose, calcium-rich bedrock that raises the pH of adjacent soils. Park lands are predominately forested, but also include open fields. There are two hiking trails on the property, the Ravine Trail (0.25 miles) and the Blow-Me-Down Trail (1.5 miles). The Ravine Trail skirts the edge of the Blow-Me-Up Brook, while the Blow-Me-Down Trail offers glimpses of the Blow-Me-Down Brook and the Mill and Pond. From these trails a variety of wildlife can be seen; a single hike can bring sightings of Eastern Newts, Beavers, White-tailed Deer, Common Garter Snakes, Mink, and numerous bird species. In all there are over 200 species of birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, and fish found at Saint-Gaudens NHS.

There are over 400 vascular plant species at Saint-Gaudens and seventeen of them are known invasive plants. Each invasive is monitored for spread and is controlled based on its invasiveness, ease of removal, and threat or damage caused by the species.

Long Term Monitoring Programs in the Park

 

Click below to learn more

Air Quality	Invasive Species Early Detection
Breeding Landbirds	Phenology
Climate	Water Quality
Forest Health

 

Air Quality Reports

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

 

Breeding Landbird Reports

Source: Data Store Saved Search 2272. To search for additional information, visit the Data Store.

 

Forest Health Monitoring Reports

Source: Data Store Saved Search 1189 (results presented are a subset). 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.

 

Water Quality reports

Source: Data Store Saved Search 1159. To search for additional information, visit the Data Store.

 

Park Basline 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—Saint-Gaudens NHS
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.

 

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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.

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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.

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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

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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.

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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:

Saint-Gaudens National Historical Park

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.

 

Non NPS Citizen Science Opportunities in the Park

Bird observations from eBird

Saint-Gaudens NHS has been set up in eBird as a birding "hotspot". To view infomration on recent and historic bird sightings in the park, click here.

Species observations from iNaturalist

Learn how you can contribute to iNaturalist

View Saint-Gaudens NHP data on iNaturalist website