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An unexpected and often forgotten place becomes a vital part of one park’s bid to restore a critically imperiled landscape

Work on the Montara Prairie Renewal Project began in Fall 2024. The restoration project aims to protect and enhance coastal grasslands in the Montara Parcel of Rancho Corral de Tierra. We have already completed pre-restoration monitoring, and removal of several acres of invasive shrubs and conifers within historic grassland footprints.

At Lewis and Clark National Historical Park, staff are developing a plan that will help restore the park’s degraded prairies, wetlands, dunes, and coastal forests. To better tailor this ongoing restoration effort, they needed to know more about the species that reside in the park, including bryophytes and lichens.

The National Park Service is working to clear the views at two sites vital to the Battle of Second Manassas. Overgrown shrubs and trees have been hiding the sightlines used by Civil War commanders, and park managers are pulling out some unusual tools to address the situation.

The National Park Service will use an adaptive management approach developed with the U.S. Geological Survey to prevent, eradicate, and refine treatment methods for invasive grasses in the Northern Great Plains. The project aims to increase forage quality for bison and other wildlife, increase native plant diversity, improve pollinator habitat, increase climate resiliency, and refine restoration practices that can be broadly shared with other regions.

Though Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument is a site devoted to history, preserving its grassland ecology remains integral to the park's mission. A history of lightning ignited wildfires and Native American land-use burning practices preserved the native vegetation. Now the park balances protection of cultural artifacts with a natural fire regime.

Many unique native plants grow on the Calcareous Riverside Outcrops and Seeps in the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area. Over the past few years, park staff worked with the regional Invasive Plant Management Team, as well as an invasive plant control company, to remove invasive shrubs like autumn olive, honeysuckles, and multiflora rose.

During 2024 scouting for a large eastern grassland restoration project funded by IRA and BIL, several old growth remnant grasslands were identified in National Capital and Northeast Region parks that were previously unknown. These remnants preserve the genetic integrity of the original grassland flora of the eastern US and are true unexpected treasures that in some cases, were hidden in plain sight.

Climate change is a major driver of bird population declines and is feared to be negatively affecting species abundances in the drought-stricken southwestern United States. We analyzed twelve years of bird monitoring data (2007-2018) from six national parks and monuments on the Colorado Plateau to obtain habitat- and park-specific, breeding-season population trends and understand how they are influenced by important climate variables.

Rivercane is a woody grass native to the southeastern United States, extending up into the National Capital Region. Once a common species, rivercane now only occupies 2% of its former extent. Learn more about the ecology and cultural significance of this once abundant native bamboo.