Natural Resource Condition Assessments for Eisenhower National Historic Site

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The Natural Resource Condition Assessment (NRCA) Program provides framework, funding, and publishing support to parks to aid in the synthesis and documentation of natural resource conditions. Condition assessment reports are a tool to describe selected park resources, and record a snapshot of their current condition, identify trends, and identify potential or current threats and stressors. Understanding the condition and trend of natural resources is key for parks and NPS planners to appropriately prioritize and allocate stewardship resources.


 

Eisenhower Farm Front Lane.

NPS photo

Eisenhower National Historic Site is located in the south-central portion of Pennsylvania immediately adjacent to Gettysburg Military Park. The parks share a common boundary. Eisenhower National Historic Site preserves the presidential and retirement home and farm of General and President Dwight D. Eisenhower, 34th President of the United States. During his presidency the farm sported a putting green, a skeet range, and a show herd of Angus cattle. The farm was used as a weekend retreat, temporary White House, and meeting place for world leaders. Gettysburg Military Park preserves the site of the American Civil War battle of Gettysburg, the Soldiers' National Cemetery, and the commemoration of the great battle by Civil War veterans. The landscape is a mosaic of mature and maturing woodlands and woodlots, agricultural fields, pasturelands, grasslands, wetlands, and streams that provide habitat for flora and fauna.

NRCA reports completed for this park:

Traditional NRCA: 2017

Traditional NRCA Report: 2017

In order to better understand the natural resources and processes in both Gettysburg National Military Park and Eisenhower National Historic Site, a Natural Resource Condition Assessment was written and published in 2017. National Park Service staff evaluated available data and each park’s needs and chose indicators within four main resource topics to assess:

		- Physical resources
		- Water and water-related resources
		- Ecosystem integrity
		- Biological integrity - focal terrestrial animal communities

The conditions of resource indicators were similar between the parks, ranging from good condition for water quality, fish communities, and forest communities, to significant concern for wet deposition, visibility, acoustic resources, wetlands, aquatic macroinvertebrates, and herpetofauna and mammals communities (for Eisenhower National Historic Site). The remaining resource indicators had mixed conditions of good to moderate, while terrestrial arthropod and lepidoptera communities were not given a condition rating due to lack of data. Several of the natural resources at Gettysburg Military Park and Eisenhower National Historic Site were surveyed over ten years ago, and the parks would benefit by conducting these surveys again.

Links to NRCA Products
Materials produced by the park and the NRCA Program.

For other reports and natural resource datasets visit the NPS Data Store.

Source: Data Store Collection 7765 (results presented are a subset). To search for additional information, visit the Data Store.