New River Gorge National River (WV): Natural Resource Condition Assessment NPS/NERI/NRR—2018/1622 - related geospatial dataset

New River Gorge National River (NERI) is located in south-central West Virginia along an 85-km stretch of the New River within the Appalachian Mountain chain. NERI conserves the outstanding natural, scenic, and historic values of the landscape immediately surrounding, and including, the New River Gorge. This conservation extends to the New River itself—a free-flowing river that supports small-mouth bass, freshwater mussels, native fish, and rare riparian plants. The landscape surrounding the New River main stem is a mosaic of mature and maturing forests, tributary streams, floodplains, and dramatic sandstone cliffs. This landscape has been shaped by a history of human occupation and resource extraction (e.g. mining, timbering, flood control). Natural resources presented in this Natural Resource Condition Assessment (NRCA) can be divided into five general areas: air resources, geologic resources, water-related resources, plant resources, and terrestrial wildlife. Within each of these general areas, specific natural resources were assessed as follows: • Air resources– acoustic environment, night sky, visibility, ozone, sulfur and nitrogen deposition, mercury/toxics, climate change, scenic vistas • Geologic resources—mass movements, cliff communities • Water-related resources—water quality (main stem and tributaries), fish, aquatic invertebrates, salamanders • Plant resources—xeric plants (e.g. rimrock pine), mixed mesophytic forest, eastern hemlock, Appalachian flatrock/riverscour prairies, rare and medicinal plants • Terrestrial wildlife --- Allegheny woodrat, bat communities, birds, game species. The approach of this NRCA was to use existing data to evaluate the condition of natural resources at NERI. Thresholds for condition (good, moderate concern, and significant concern) were obtained from a variety of resources such as federal and state regulations (e.g. water quality criteria), peerreviewed literature, research reports, and, in some cases, best professional judgment. If possible, trends in the condition (improving, deteriorating, or unchanging) were also evaluated. Finally, an estimate of the confidence in the assessment was provided based on the quality and quantity of available information (high, medium, low confidence). The assessment of condition used standardized symbology provided by NRCA guidelines.

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                                            [
  "Appalachian Mountains",
  "NERI",
  "NRCA",
  "Natural Resource Condition Assessment",
  "New River",
  "New River Gorge National River",
  "West Virginia",
  "air resources",
  "geologic resources",
  "plant resources",
  "terrestrial wildlife",
  "water-related resources"
]
                                        

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