Natural Resource Monitoring at Roosevelt-Vanderbilt NHS

Scenic trail in Home of FDR NHS

Craig Fildes

 

Overview

Roosevelt-Vanderbilt NHS consists of three sites: the Eleanor Roosevelt NHS, the Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt NHS, and Vanderbilt Mansion NHS in Hyde Park, New York. The sites, totaling over 1,100 acres, are located within three miles of each other in western Dutchess County, and together host about 500,000 visitors per year.

The park is located in the Eastern Great Lakes and Hudson Lowlands ecoregion, and has a broad array of natural resources. Both the Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Vanderbilt Mansion border on the Hudson River, a brackish-water estuary until the dam at Troy, New York, 75 miles to the north. The presence of the river brings a marine influence far inland, resulting in unique plant communities and animal species otherwise uncommon to the region. The lands are primarily forested and include many wetlands. A 25-acre tidal marsh lies between the Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Hudson River, and a dam built by the Roosevelt family in 1925 across the Fall-Kill Creek created an extensive wetlands complex at Eleanor Roosevelt. Park units contain approximately four miles of streams; 14 acres of permanent ponds; 40 acres of non-tidal wetlands; numerous unmapped vernal pools and intermittent streams; mature second-growth hardwood forests; numerous rock outcrops; a sphagnum swamp; and a wet sedge meadow. Significant threats from exotic species, especially Japanese barberry, Japanese knotweed, and garlic mustard, are affecting the natural and cultural landscapes.

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 1146. 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—Eleanor Roosevelt NHS NPS Geodiversity Atlas—Home of FDR NHS NPS Geodiversity Atlas—Vanderbilt Mansion NHS 2024 GRI Report 2024 GRI Poster GRI GIS Map Data
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.

 

×

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.

---

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.

---

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

---

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.

×

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:

Eleanor Roosevelt National Historic Site Home Of Franklin D Roosevelt National Historic Site Vanderbilt Mansion National Historic Site

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.

 

Natural Resource Briefs for the Roosevelt-Vanderbilt NHP's

Click link below to view all the short briefs about the long-term monitoring and natural resouces of the parks.

 

Park Resource Briefs

Source: Data Store Saved Search 3745. To search for additional information, visit the Data Store.

 

Non NPS Citizen Science Opportunities in the Park

Bird observations from eBird

The Roosevelt-Vanderbilt NHS sites have been set up in eBird as a birding "hotspots". Help the parks bolster bird data by adding your bird obsevations to eBird next time you visit. To view recent and historic bird observations in the parks, click here.

Species observations from iNaturalist

Learn how you can contribute to iNaturalist

View Roosevelt-Vanderbilt NHS data on iNaturalist website