A Habitat-Based Framework for Communicating Natural Resource Condition

This new article in ISRN Ecology discusses how progress in achieving desired environmental outcomes needs to be rigorously measured and reported. Two major challenges in achieving this are how to synthesize monitoring data in a meaningful way at appropriate temporal and spatial scales, and how to present results in a framework that allows for effective communication to a variety of audiences. This paper presents a habitat framework, developed to assess the natural resource condition of Rock Creek Park (Washington DC), providing insight on how to improve future assessments. Vegetation and stream GIS layers were used to classify three dominant habitat types: Forest, Wetland, and Artificial-terrestrial. This approach has potential to provide assessment of resource condition for diverse ecosystems and provides a basis for addressing management questions across multiple spatial scales.

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