OpportunityTitle: Assessment of Cliff Escosystem in New River Gorge, Glen Jean, WV
CategoryExplanation: Technical Assistance, Biological and Cultural
AdditionalInformationOnEligibility: This is a notice of intent of a single source award to West Virgina University, Morgantown, WV.  This cooperator (West Virginia University) has extensive experience working with the NPS units in southern West Virginia, and extensive experience working with geology, vegetation and wildlife communities, and recreation and tourism studies around the Appalachian region.  The cooperator also has specific interest in working at New River Gorge National River (NERI).  Having this small team focused on the park and projects yields efficiencies that would not be achieved with other cooperators. Selecting this research team was a natural outgrowth of a history of positive and mutually beneficial collaborations. The research team has produced dozens of high quality products for NERI in a timely fashion, and with a high degree of collaboration. They have expertise in the fields of geology, central Appalachian botany, non-vascular flora, and assessment of human recreational use, and have extensive knowledge of the park&#146;s planning process, objectives, and goals.  In addition, these geologists, botanists, and social scientists have a working knowledge of park resources and have cooperated with park staff on other projects: Abandoned Mine Inventory (1988), Bat Inventory (2003), Allegheny woodrat study (2001), Hemlock Ecosystem Monitoring (2008), Mass-Movement in NERI (1999), Rimrock Pine Communities NERI (2007), and input to a River Use Plan (1985).  The extensive knowledge of WVU cooperator&#146;s familiar with park resources will reduce or eliminate learning curve delays at the onset of the project.  Integration of personnel from several disciplines, all based at the same University and accustomed to collaborating with each other on projects, will result in considerable synergistic cost savings.  Not only will the interdisciplinary study design save on travel expenses, having the various disciplines working together on many aspects of the project will save time because there will be less confusion about who is doing what, where, and to achieve what project purpose.  Such enhancement of communication will lead to insights resulting in more refined and sensitive data collection, analysis, and interpretation, thus contributing to more valuable final products.
Description: The New River Gorge National River (NERI), contains over 50 miles of vertical rock walls&#151;the most extensive in West Virginia and possibly within the entire Appalachian range. These cliffs and gorges have been identified as critical to NERI&#146;s national significance, and contain specialized and potentially rare plant communities. The Park&#146;s mandate is to protect these cliffs, as well as provide for opportunities to enjoy these resources. However, there is a serious lack of data pertaining to both the extent of the cliffs, as well as impacts from usage. The cliff ecosystems of NERI are potentially under threat from heavy visitor use. This interdisciplinary project will collect information about the: 1) geology of the cliffs; 2) flora associated with the cliffs; 3) visitor use and impacts to the cliffs and associated resources related to hikers and climbers. Findings from this project will be synthesized and recommendations will be used to alleviate current impacts and provide guidance on the future management of these cliff areas. This project will receive funding for two years.
GrantorContactEmailDescription: Help Desk
GrantorContactText: Tonya Bradley &lt;br/&gt;Contract Specialist &lt;br/&gt;Phone 402-661-1656