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In March of 2019, Eco Logic LLC was contracted by the City of Bloomington Parks and Recreation to map the plant communities of this approximately 1220 acre park located on the north side of Bloomington, Indiana. This project was initiated to provide background information for construction of an improved hiking trail around the lake. The property lies on the border between the Brown County Hills and the Mitchell Karst Plain Natural regions of Indiana.
The study mapped 16 distinct plant communities in the park based on ecologic land types and stages of succession. Other variables were also mapped, including invasive plant pressure, the maturity of the plant community, and the natural area value. A table of plant community characteristics was developed including soil parent material, soil types, landforms, aspect, dominant overstory tree species, characteristic understory species, susceptibility to erosion, herptofaunal habitat, and other habitat characteristics of each community.
The study included a terrestrial vascular plant inventory that documented 574 total plant species. The frequency and plant communities for each species were also noted. The property had previously been inventoried several times, however this study documented 56 species not previously recorded in the park including twelve additional species in the genus Carex.
A floristic quality assessment of the entire property was performed yielding a very high FQI of 79.1 for all species and 87.9 for native species. The mean coefficient of conservatism was 3.3 for all species and 4 for the native species. Further, separate floristic quality assessments were conducted by breaking out the dry communities, the mesic communities, the wet forested communities, and wet open communities, and the cultural communities.
This project is a prime example of the mapping and floral inventory work that Eco Logic does.
