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Assessing Park EI in Canadas National Parks
Forest EI Indicator
Concerned
High EI
EI Impaired
biodiversity, processes
models
human dimension
statistics
stressors
measures/data
George Wright Society Minneapolis, MN April 18,
2007
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ASSESSMENT NEEDS

• CONTEXT why is the assessment being carried
  out?
• KNOWLEDGE information for the assessments
• METHODS assessment methodologies
• COMMUNICATION displaying results

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Assessment Context

• enabling legislation Auditor General
• management plan goals and objectives
• management accountability
• for individual management activities
• for the ecological integrity of the protected area

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PCA Mandate Integration
PROTECT AND PRESENT
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Park Monitoring and Links with Key Planning and
Reporting Documents

SOPR

Scoping
Management
(5 years)
Document

Plan



(5 years)

(5 years)
EI Monitoring PE Monitoring VE Monitoring

National

SOPHA

Annual
Report

Implementation
(2 years)

Report

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Management Effectiveness Monitoring
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State of the Park Report SummaryGros Morne
National Park
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Assessment Knowledge (1)

• Consensus assessments
• Semi-quantitative assessment based on available
  relevant data, structured questions, and
  informed opinion
• Issues with ecological comprehensiveness,
  applicability, repeatability
• Affordable, doable and useful

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(Slide compliments of Steve Giddings NOAA)
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Assessment Knowledge (2)

• Quantitative, structured monitoring programs
• Assessments based on an ecologically
  comprehensive set of monitoring
  measures/indicators
• Data derived from monitoring projects designed to
  address specific monitoring questions, i.e.,
  experimental design with appropriate temporal and
  spatial scales power/significance
• Taken together the data reduce ecological
  complexity to a repeatable set of quantitative,
  well selected measures that provide a
  comprehensive EI assessment - trend analysis
• Issues
• Cost, time for meaningful results, flexibility an
  issue
• rigorous, comprehensive, defensible, repeatable

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Major Park Ecosystems as EI Indicators
UPLANDS
forests/woodlands arctic/alpine
tundra grasslands other non-forested
WETLANDS
beaches dunes cliffs
riparian, wetlands
COASTAL
estuaries
inter-tidal sub-tidal near-shore pelagic
rivers/streams lakes/ponds
lagoons
FRESHWATER
MARINE
MPEs for Great Lakes Bioregion
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BIOREGIONAL INDICATORS
The North Pacific Interior Plains Great Lakes Quebec Atlantic Southern Mntns
Forest Forests and woodlands Forest Forest Forest Terrestrial Ecosystems
Tundra Non-forest Grasslands Non-forest Barrens
Wetlands Lakes Wetlands Wetlands Wetlands Aquatic Ecosystems
Freshwater Streams and rivers Lakes Lakes Freshwater Native Biodiversity
Glaciers Islets/shorelines Streams Streams Geology and landscapes
Coastal Inter-tidal Great Lakes Shore Coastal Climate and atmosphere
Marine Sub-tidal Marine support for EI
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PCA EI MONITORING FRAMEWORK Biodiversity
Structure Processes Stressors

• Local Ecosystems
• suite of measures that monitor most important
  structure and process changes at a local
  ecosystem scale
• Landscapes
• suite of measures that monitor most important
  structure and process changes at a landscape
  ecosystem scale

• Species Lists
• native species
• alien species
• Focal Species
• mortality/natility
• immigration/emigration
• viability/persistence
• Trophic Structure
• size class distribution
• predation levels

• Inside Park
• most critical in-park stressors
• Outside Park (GPE)
• most critical GPE stressors
• Outside Park
• (Long Distance)
• most critical long distance stressors

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Ecologically Comprehensive
EI FRAMEWORK
EI INDICATOR
Biodiversity
Processes
Stressors
Forests
Wetlands
lakes
streams
dunes
lagoons
estuaries
v
v
v
v
v
v
v
v
v
v
v
v
v
v
v
v
v
v
v
v
v
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FOREST EI Indicator
Concerned
EI Impaired
High EI
Public environment
Science environment
feedback
assessment
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Forest EI Indicator
Concerned
Critical
Healthy
Stand Level Forest EI
Landscape Level Forest EI
Models
ASSESSMENT
tree productivity, songbird index, salamander
populations change, foliar nutrient index,
decomposition efficiency
FF BioD Index (SAR, top predators, ungulates),
CFBioD Index (ecosystem representation),
connectivity, productivity
Measures
dbh, canopy condition, species composition,
chopstick dry weight loss, songbird/salamander
density, relative soil arthropod abundance,
foliar nutrient concentrations
SAR and other species population assessments,
relative ecosystem abundance, Fragstats, AVHRR
Data
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Capturing EI - Forest Stand Model
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Capturing EI - Forest Landscape Model
disturbance
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Forest EI Indicator
Concerned
Critical
Healthy
Stand Level Forest EI
Landscape Level Forest EI
Models
ASSESSMENT
tree productivity, songbird index, salamander
populations change, foliar nutrient index,
decomposition efficiency
FF BioD Index (SAR, top predators, ungulates),
CFBioD Index (ecosystem representation),
connectivity, productivity
Measures
dbh, canopy condition, species composition,
chopstick dry weight loss, songbird/salamander
density, relative soil arthropod abundance,
foliar nutrient concentrations
SAR and other species population assessments,
relative ecosystem abundance, Fragstats, AVHRR
Data
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Assessment Methodologies

• There is no magic equation to invoke that will
  provide the correct answer for the ecological
  assessment
• Objective to develop a rigorous process that
  provides a defensible, repeatable, and
  informative ecological assessment
• Watchwords - transparency and consultation
• The measures are the thing
• individual monitoring measures are the heart of
  the assessment need for defensible
  targets/thresholds
• Assessment approaches relative to what??
  multimetric indices, pre-Columbian state,
  biologically-based targets

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SETTING TARGETS AND THRESHOLDS
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Forest EI Indicator
Concerned
Critical
Healthy
Stand Level Forest EI
Landscape Level Forest EI
Models
tree productivity, songbird index, salamander
populations change, foliar nutrient index,
decomposition efficiency
FF BioD Index (SAR, top predators, ungulates),
CFBioD Index (ecosystem representation),
connectivity, productivity
Measures
dbh, canopy condition, species composition,
chopstick dry weight loss, songbird/salamander
density, relative soil arthropod abundance,
foliar nutrient concentrations
SAR and other species population assessments,
relative ecosystem abundance, Fragstats, AVHRR
Data
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FROM MEASURES TO ASSESSMENTS
Can the suite of EI measures make a reliable
statement about the Ecosystem Indicator?
No - If due to missing data for 1 or 2 measures,
can they be fixedwith surrogate data?
Yes - Score measures relative to thresholds
Do 3 or more or 1/3 (whichever comes first) of
the measures have a score of 0?
No - Take average of all scores and rescale from
0 to 100
No Make qualitative assessment
Yes Impaired Red
Score 0 to 33 Impaired Red
Score 34 to 66 Concerned Yellow
Score 67 to 100 Intact Green
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Measures to Indicators
Simple Roll Up
1
3
5
salamander abundance
0
45
15
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BIODIVERSITY
forest bird richness
0
22
7.3
14.6
effective patch size
0.2
78.4
26.3
52.6
decomposition
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89
37
63
regeneration (height class)
PROCESSES
0
13
3
6
productivity (NDVI)
0.1
0.9
0.4
0.7
lichen diversity
14
35
21
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crown vigor
STRESSORS
0
20
10
5
fragmentation (ENN)
50
250
117
184
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Measures to Indicators
Simple Roll Up
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Other Considerations for Assessments

• establish a network of long term sites with a
  small suite of co-located and conceptually
  inter-related EI measures, e.g., forest/tundra
  plots, stream sample sites wetlands, kelp beds
• Measure redundancy so ecological effects can be
  related
• provides some internal logic for assessments
• Potential for measure weighting for assessments
• Locate plots strategically to assess predicted
  stressors,
• climate change zonal sites or sentinel
  sites
• Local stressors - land use gradient from highly
  impacted to pristine

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Communicating Assessment Results

• Communication of monitoring assessment critical
  component of the assessment process
• Wide audiences for assessment results
• Park managers
• Oversight groups (Auditor General)
• Stakeholders and partners, Canadian public
• Science peers

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ICE (data management)

• EI Assessment
• Guiding Principles
• transparency
• peer review
• consultation

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Communicating EI Monitoring
Nutrient Cycling