As part of a collaborative project between Department of Conservation and Natural Resources and Department of Environmental Protection, PA Natural Heritage Program, ecologists are assessing the patterns of riparian vegetation of higher order streams in selected watersheds across Pennsylvania.
In the past, much of the riparian vegetation work done by PNHP ecologists and botanists focused on plant communities associated with larger river systems like the Delaware and Allegheny rivers.
These projects allowed the program to update the Terrestrial and Palustrine Plant Communities of Pennsylvania classification and to better describe the natural communities associated with rivers.
This current U.S. Environmental Protection Agency-funded project, which began in late 2012 and continues through 2015, provides an opportunity to expand the understanding of riparian communities by examining plants found along the banks of smaller, headwater streams in Pennsylvania.
The current plant communities described for Pennsylvania can be found at the PNHP website.
The past summer’s assessment work focused on headwater streams in three areas of the state, the Allegheny National Forest, Ohiopyle State Park and French Creek State Park.
A team of PNHP ecologists assessed 21 streams between late June and early August and have assessed a total of 47 streams in six focal areas of the state, thus far. PNHP staff will visit additional streams in 2015 so that most regions of the state are represented in the dataset.
High quality, first and second order streams were selected in each area using a combination of aerial imagery and multiple GIS layers. Staff then visited the selected streams to examine the patterns of vegetation occurring along sections or entire streams.
The team established temporary transects across the banks of representative portions of the streams, recorded all vegetation occurring along the transects and documented additional stream and site characteristics.
This information will be used to define characteristic plant communities found along headwater streams and examine similarities and differences between riparian plant communities within and across specific regions of the state.
Results from this project will provide reference information that DEP can incorporate in its mitigation strategies for headwater streams. The data will also be helpful in the further expansion of PNHP’s plant community classification of riparian areas.
The PNHP is a partnership between the Western PA Conservancy, the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, the Game Commission and the Fish and Boat Commission.
The PNHP manages the PA Natural Diversity Inventory database, which is used as part of the Department of Environmental Protection environmental review process for evaluating permit applications. It is accessible to the public through the online PNDI tool that screens projects for potential impacts to species of conservation concern.
The PNDI tool as well as full County Natural Heritage Inventory reports and other planning oriented information can also be found at the PNHP.
The Western PA Conservancy works under contract with the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources to provide PNHP services, including the management of the PNDI database and collection of information on Pennsylvania’s natural communities and rare, threatened and endangered species.
For more information, visit the PA Natural Heritage Program website.
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