Current Conditions of Camp Sacajawea

1. Current Conditions ofCamp Sacajawea Group 2 Matthew Dicks Daniel Kaminski Clarissa Spicer Antoinette Spitz

2. Introduction • Camp Sacajawea is owned and operated by the Moingona Girl Scout Council of Iowa • Located on over 400 acres of land bordering the Des Moines River to the west • Trails/facilities used by 20,000 people per year girlscouts-lonestar.org

3. Data on recreation, oak regeneration, and wildlife was collected from 56 plots across 148 acres of woodland • Each team collected sets of data from 8 plots • Interpretation of combined results give us an idea of possible management actions Camp Sacajawea TravelByGPS.com

4. Recreation castlegarrvpark.com birdphotography.com geocities.com glacierguides.com

5. Recreation Carrying Capacity • High use by Girl Scouts • Evaluated for four activities • General hiking • Primitive camping • Birdwatching and wildlife observation • Horseback riding • Determine optimum carrying capacity for each activity

6. Distribution of Recreation Values Across 56 Plots

7. Distribution of Recreation Values Across 56 Plots

8. Possible Management Actions • Current conditions indicate that Camp Sacajawea is most suitable for general hiking • Maintain and develop hiking trails to encourage use • Increase suitability for other activities by using value criteria as guidelines geocities.com

9. Oak and Other Desirable Tree Regeneration • 56 systematic 1/20th acre plots • 7 rows with 8 plots per row • 1st plot in each row was placed 2 chains north of southern forest boundary • Each plot was 5 chains north of the previous plot corbis.com

10. Adequacy of Regeneration • Adequacy of regeneration for both oak and other desirable species is poor • Average of 570 oak seedlings per acre • Average of 3300 other desirable species per acre • Need 5000 seedlings per acre for both corbis.com

12. Oak Stump Sprouting • A plot percent of 59 requires no stump sprouts for adequate regeneration • Camp Sacajawea’s plot percent is 8.3 & will require more than 250 stump sprouts per acre • Camp Sacajawea is very inadequate for oak regeneration corbis.com

13. Undesirable Management Methods • Clearcut – seedlings will not be competitive enough in their small numbers • Group selection – openings will not be large enough to reduce shade effects and will result in less oak regeneration than clearcuts corbis.com

14. Possible Management Actions • Shelterwood – most desirable • Maintain forest appearance for Girl Scout use • Remove understory with some soil disturbance • Good acorn producing year • Remove some large trees • May need nursery plantings corbis.com

15. Wildlife pictures.fws.gov pictures.fws.gov pictures.fws.gov

16. Wildlife Habitat Unit Values • Tells you how good the habitat is for a specific species • Range from 1.33-10 points • Many things taken into consideration • Tree size • Canopy closure • Food plant diversity • Cover • Water

17. Class Avg. & Std. Error of HUV

18. Possible Management Actions • Maintain a variety of cavity producing trees • Maintain several mast producing trees per acre • Build brush pile to create brood raising habitat for turkey • Keep water quality at healthy levels • Manage for dense cover types as well as opened areas for optimal deer habitat

19. Conclusion • Current management plan is to take no action • Camp Sacajawea needs hands-on management approach • Highest priority is maintaining appearance and suitability for visitors • Increasing suitability of recreation and wildlife habitat, and adequacy of oak regeneration, are possible long-term goals

20. Further Considerations • Our purpose in this presentation was to highlight the current conditions of Camp Sacajawea • We will present our recommendations for the camp on Thursday, December 11, 2003 • Our priority will be to combine feasible management actions that will optimize benefits for both human and ecological communities