Yearbook of the Association of Pacific Coast Geographers

Natural Area Inventory and Assessment: Blacklock Point, Oregon Robert E. Frenkel" Of many motives for landscape protection, formal establishment of scientific preserves is a relatively recent phenomenon.1 Scientific preserves or natural areas are tracts of land or water that have substantially retained their natural character, or if altered in character are important as habitat for plant, animal, or marine life.2 These areas are established as outdoor laboratories for research and education , as baselines against which alterations of natural landscape may be compared, as sources of natural diversity, and as genetic reservoirs . My frame of reference in this paper is the cooperative natural area program in Oregon, although recognizing that similar programs exist in at least 25 other states.3 At a time when competition for land and resources is intense, any program seeking protection of landscapes must be thoroughly * Di-. Frenkel is Associate Professor of Geography at Oregon State University , Corvallis 97331, and serves as Chairman of the Oregon Natural Area Preserves Advisory Committee. Acknowledgment is made to Robert C. Martin, who helped in documenting the ecological values of Blacklock Point. 1 M. Blackmore,- "The Nature Conservancy:- Its History and Role," in Conservation in Practice, edited by A. Warren and F. B. Goldsmith (New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1974), pp. 423-436. - Although similar definitions for scientific preserves exist, this definition was adapted from the Oregon natural areas legislation, ORS 273.562; see Robert E. Frenkel, "A Natural Area Preserves System for Oregon," Proceedings, Oregon Academy of Science, Vol. 11 (1976), pp. 53-58. 3 For a review of state natural area programs, see Preserving our Natural Heritage, Vol. II, State Activities, prepared for the U.S. Department of Interior , National Park Service, by The Nature Conservancy (Washington, D.C: Government Printing Office, 1977). 119 120ASSOCIATION OF PACIFIC COAST GEOGRAPHERS justified and responsibly conducted. The procedure I will describe has been developed somewhat independently by the federal, state, and private sectors; however, the components of natural area protection programs are similar regardless of sector. Scientific nature preserves are established based on several criteria . The area (1) must retain its natural character, (2) must be défendable in being able to retain that character in the face of external threats, (3) must have the ability to perpetuate itself or its natural sequence of development, and (4) should protect ecological elements representative of their class, elements of scarce distribution, or both representative and scarce elements. Application of these criteria implies a strategy for natural area protection. To carry out the objective of developing an organized system of scientifically selected preserves which retains maximum scientific, educational, and ecological utility now and in the future, a threefold strategy is called for. Inventory, selection, and protection are the indispensable components of this strategy. Inventory refers to the identification of potential natural areas regardless of ultimate protection. Underpinning inventory is a comprehensive classification of ecological types. Based on this classification , the region is systematically searched for qualifying areas and inventory data are compiled. Selection follows an intense scientific assessment of natural area values involving a comparison of alternative sites providing the same ecological elements, and an evaluation of competing resource uses for the site being considered. Protection follows political or administrative action and may involve many approaches ranging from conservation easement to dedication . Once an area is formally established as a preserve, a program or management must be formulated and implemented. Inventory In 1973, a comprehensive classification of ecological types in Oregon and Washington was developed by a task force under the direction of the U.S. Forest Service Pacific Northwest Forest and YEARBOOK · VOLUME 42 · 1980121 Range Experiment Station. This classification, called the "yellow book," has become the blueprint for natural area establishment throughout the Pacific Northwest.4 More recently, The Nature Conservancy has elaborated on this system and developed a computerized data bank of ecological elements/' In classifications of natural area needs, an element might be a community such as the Sitka spruce/sword fern-oxalis plant community; a special plant or animal, often a rare or threatened or endangered species such as the federally endangered candidate, Lilium occidentale; or a special habitat, e.g., a hot spring. The "yellow book...