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Importance / Issues

Whiskeytown National Recreation Area’s vascular plant list was based largely on an inventory conducted by a California Native Plant Society volunteer from 1985 to 1987.  The flora (1988) and associated voucher specimens contained the most comprehensive information on the park’s flora gathered to date. However, findings from recent vegetation related projects in the park have lead to a growing uncertainty in the accuracy of the park’s plant list. Of particular concern are the findings of Bunn that illustrate that 13 out of 26 CNPS listed rare plants on the park’s list are either misidentifications or range extensions of the species.
 
Due to this growing uncertainty and its potential to compromise the park’s NPS Biological Inventory goals, Whiskeytown staff drafted a proposal to begin validating the accuracy of the park’s vascular plant list. During the 2004 certification of the park’s plant list in NPSpecies, the existence of a voucher specimen in the park’s herbarium or the Shasta College Herbarium was a primary factor in determining a species' “Park Status” rating. Therefore, the first priority of the proposal was to obtain some measure of the reliability of these voucher specimens as evidence for a species' presence in the park.

Principal Investigator

Windy Bunn
Biological Science Technician
Whiskeytown National Recreation Area

Objectives

The second objective was to develop a vascular plant species list in NPSpecies that is accurate and reliable.

Parks

Whiskeytown National Recreation Area.

Project Status

Completed